Artsvashen ( Armenian : Արծվաշեն , lit. 'Eagle village') or Bashkend ( Azerbaijani : Başkənd ; Armenian : Բաշքենդ ) is a de jure Armenian village in the Chambarak Municipality of the Gegharkunik Province of Armenia . It is a 40 square kilometres exclave of Armenia , [1] and it is surrounded by the territory of Azerbaijan , which has de facto controlled it since the First Nagorno-Karabakh War .
The present village was founded in 1854 or 1859 [2] as Bashkend by Armenians from Choratan in Shamshadin , although an earlier Armenian presence on the site is attested by an inscription dated to 1607 on the Surb Hovhannes church in the town. It was later changed to Hin Bashkend ( Armenian : Հին Բաշքենդ ), meaning Old Bashkend to differentiate it from New or Nor Bashkend , founded by migrants from the original settlement. The villagers' ancestors were originally from the province of Artsakh who migrated to
In 1923–1929, the territorial dispute over Artsvashen was settled by a commission of the "Transcaucasian central executive committee" in favour of Armenia, however, in January 1927, 12,000 hectares (120 square kilometres; 46 square miles) of land surrounding Artsvashen were "gifted" to Azerbaijan. As "compensation", in February 1929 Armenia was transferred a narrow strip of land to serve as a land connection to the village, however, this decision was reversed in the 1930s and Artsvashen became an enclave ag