Vayk

Coordinates: 39°41′30″N 45°27′55″E / 39.69167°N 45.46528°E / 39.69167; 45.46528

Vayk (Armenian: Վայք), is a town in the Vayots Dzor Province of Armenia, located on the Yerevan-Goris highway, 140 km south of the capital Yerevan and 20 km southeast of the regional capital Yeghegnadzor. With an elevation of 1300 meters above sea level, Vayk is situated on the left bank of Arpa River surrounded with the Yeghegis mountains from the northwest and Vayots Dzor mountain range from the south.

As of the 2011 census, the population of the town is 5,877.

History

Historically, the area of Vayk belongs to the Vayots Dzor canton of Syunik province; the 9th province of Armenia Major, ruled by the Siunia dynasty. Literally meaning "sorrows", its named is derived from the Vayots Dzor canton.

As a result of the Treaty of Turkmenchay signed between the Russian Empire and Persia in 1828, many Armenian families from the Iranian towns of Salmas and Khoy were resettled in Eastern Armenia, particularly in the Erivan Governorate of the Russian Empire. The first wave of Armenian settlers arrived in the Vayots Dzor region in 1828 and 1829, forming the small rural community of Soylan in the area of modern-day Vayk. In 1850, it became part of the Sharur-Daralagyoz uyezd of the Erivan Governorate. After the short-lived independence of Armenia between 1918 and 1920, the region became one of the main centres of the resistance against the Soviet rule, becoming part of the unrecognized Republic of Mountainous Armenia under the leadership of Garegin Nzhdeh. However, after falling to the Bolsheviks in July 1921, Soylan became part of the Armenian SSR within the Azizbekov rayon which was formed in 1930. In 1956, Soylan was given the status of an urban-type settlement and renamed Azizbekov in honor of the Bolshevik revolutionary Meshadi Azizbekov.