Sardari Berd
Encyclopedia
Sardari Berd sits on the right before the cemetery in the village of Hoktember
Hoktember
Hoktember is a town in the Armavir province of Armenia.By the city is the site of the important Persian fortress of Sardari Berd. This was built around 1810 with British technical assistance by Sardar Hosein Qoli Khan Qajar, last and best of the Persian Qajar governors of the Erivan Khanate,...

 in the Armavir Province  of Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

. It is actually historically associated with the city of Armavir
Armavir, Armenia
Armavir is a city located in western Armenia. The 1989 census reported that the city had a total population of 46,900, but this has declined considerably: the 2001 census counted 32,034; estimate for 2008 is 26,387. It is the capital of the Armavir province . The city of Armavir in Russia, founded...

 which was then known prior to 1932 as Sardarabad or Sardarapat.

History

The fortress was built sometime between the years of 1807-1828, during the rule and with the assistance of Sardar Hosein Qoli Khan
Sardari Iravani
Sardār-e Īravānī was the title of Hossein Khan Sardar Qajar and his brother Hasan Khan Qajar, the last and best governor of Eravan 1807-28, the son of Mohammad Khan Qajar uncle of Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar the founder of Qajar Dynasty in Persia and also the ancestor of family Sardari Iravani, an...

 Qajar (Sardari Iravani
Sardari Iravani
Sardār-e Īravānī was the title of Hossein Khan Sardar Qajar and his brother Hasan Khan Qajar, the last and best governor of Eravan 1807-28, the son of Mohammad Khan Qajar uncle of Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar the founder of Qajar Dynasty in Persia and also the ancestor of family Sardari Iravani, an...

), the last and best of the Persian
Persian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...

 Qajar governors of the Yerevan Khanate. It was constructed using stones taken from the ruins of the ancient city of Armavir, some of which still bear traces of Urartian cuneiform
Cuneiform
Cuneiform can refer to:*Cuneiform script, an ancient writing system originating in Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium BC*Cuneiform , three bones in the human foot*Cuneiform Records, a music record label...

 inscriptions. The fortress was used as an administrative center for the Sardarapat district and also as the summer residence of the Khan of Yerevan (Erevan).

Sardari Berd was captured in 1828 by the Russians under General Ivan Paskevich
Ivan Paskevich
Ivan Fyodorovich Paskevich was a Ukrainian-born military leader. For his victories, he was made Count of Erivan in 1828 and Namestnik of the Kingdom of Poland in 1831...

 during the Russo-Persian War (1826-1828), despite strong defense by Hasan Khan Sardari Iravani, brother to Sardar Hosein Qoli Khan. Speaking of Paskevich in a British War Office summary, the following passage reads:



The region formally passed from Persian sovereignty to a Russian one after the Treaty of Turkmenchay
Treaty of Turkmenchay
The Treaty of Turkmenchay was a treaty negotiated in Turkmenchay by which the Qajar Empire recognized Russian suzerainty over the Erivan khanate, the Nakhchivan khanate, and the remainder of the Talysh khanate, establishing the Aras River as the common boundary between the empires, after its...

 in 1828. Armavir became the Serdarabad uyezd
Uyezd
Uyezd or uezd was an administrative subdivision of Rus', Muscovy, Russian Empire, and the early Russian SFSR which was in use from the 13th century. Uyezds for most of the history in Russia were a secondary-level of administrative division...

 of the Armenian Oblast
Armenian Oblast
The Armenian Oblast or Armenian Province ) was an oblast of the Russian Empire that existed from 1828 to 1840. It roughly corresponded to most of present-day central Armenia, the Iğdır Province of present-day Turkey, and present-day Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan exclave...

, which itself became the Erivan guberniya
Guberniya
A guberniya was a major administrative subdivision of the Russian Empire usually translated as government, governorate, or province. Such administrative division was preserved for sometime upon the collapse of the empire in 1917. A guberniya was ruled by a governor , a word borrowed from Latin ,...

 in 1840. This situation lasted until the February Revolution
February Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...

 in 1917. Of the fortress almost nothing remains. Most of it was dismantled to build Soviet Armenia.

See also

  • Armavir, Armenia
    Armavir, Armenia
    Armavir is a city located in western Armenia. The 1989 census reported that the city had a total population of 46,900, but this has declined considerably: the 2001 census counted 32,034; estimate for 2008 is 26,387. It is the capital of the Armavir province . The city of Armavir in Russia, founded...

  • Hoktember
    Hoktember
    Hoktember is a town in the Armavir province of Armenia.By the city is the site of the important Persian fortress of Sardari Berd. This was built around 1810 with British technical assistance by Sardar Hosein Qoli Khan Qajar, last and best of the Persian Qajar governors of the Erivan Khanate,...

    , Armenia
  • Sardarapat Memorial
    Sardarapat Memorial
    Sardarapat Memorial is a memorial complex to the Battle of Sardarapat located in the village of Araks, in the Armavir Province of Armenia, 11 kilometers southwest of Armavir town...

    , commemorating the Battle of May 22–26, 1918.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK