According to an Armenian legend, Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur invaded Armenia and destroyed one village after another. Having devastated many villages in Zangezur, he began to count the number of destroyed settlements. After counting to a thousand, Timur said out loud "Min kend" (a thousand villages). Since then, the village has been called "Minkend".[7]
The village was mentioned as Hak in the records of the medieval Armenian Orbelian Dynasty, It was first mentioned by Stepanos Orbelian in the 13th century, and there is an inscription on the walls of the village's St. Minas Church that reads "this newly baptized holy church was built by the people of Hak in 1675".[5][3][4]
The village was badly damaged during the Armenian–Tatar massacres of 1905–1907. The first attack on the village took place in March 1905, while the second happened from June 5 to 6, during which 50 Armenians were killed. The attacks continued in August when a detachment of Cossacks was sent to protect the Armenians of Minkend, but the bailiff of Zangezur, Melik-Aslanov, convinced them that there was no danger for the Armenians. The Cossacks left Minkend to defend another village. When the Cossacks left, the Tatars killed 140 Armenians and wounded another 40 in front of the bailiff, who did not try to stop the killings.[11] However, according to the August 1905 issue of the Syn otechestva newspaper, over 300 people were killed, and the bailiff did not even report the incident to his superiors.[12][13]
According to the 1912 "Caucasian Calendar", the village of Minkend in 1911 was home to 731 people, the majority of whom were Kurds.[14] However, in the 1915 edition of the "Caucasian Calendar", it was indicated that Minkend in 1914 was predominantly Armenian, with a population of 1,532 people.[15]
Minkend was part of the village council of the same name in the Lachin District of the Azerbaijan SSR during the early Soviet period in 1933. The village had 280 farms and a total population of 1,355 people. The population of the village council was 58.1 percent Kurdish.[16] The village had 2,306 residents in 1981. Its residents' main occupation was animal husbandry. There was a middle school, a club, a library, and a hospital in the village.[17]
Historical heritage sites in and around the village include a 13th-century khachkar, a cemetery from the 14th to the 20th centuries, St. Minas Church (Armenian: Սուրբ Մինաս եկեղեցի, romanized: Surb Minas Yekeghetsi) consecrated in 1698,[1] two temples from the 15th century, and two arch bridges from the 19th century.[19]
^Кавказский календарь на 1856 год [Caucasian calendar for 1856] (in Russian) (11th ed.). Tiflis: Tipografiya kantselyarii Ye.I.V. na Kavkaze, kazenny dom. 1856. p. 365. Archived from the original on 9 December 2021.
^ abСвод статистических данных о населении Закавказскаго края, извлеченных из посемейных списков 1886 г. [A summary of statistical data on the population of the Transcaucasian Territory, extracted from the family lists of 1886]. Tiflis: Transcaucasian Statistical Committee. 1893. p. 250.
^Населенные места Российской империи в 500 и более жителей с указанием всего наличного в них населения и числа жителей преобладающих вероисповеданий, по данным первой всеобщей переписи населения 1897 г. [Populated areas of the Russian Empire with 500 or more inhabitants, indicating the total population in them and the number of inhabitants of the predominant religions, according to the first general population census of 1897.]. Saint Petersburg: Tipografiya "Obshchestvennaya pol'za" parovaya tipo-litografiya N. L. Nyrkina. 1905. p. 31.
^Villari, Luigi (1906). Fire and Sword in the Caucasus. London. pp. 218–219. ISBN978-1-294-94544-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ abКавказский календарь на 1912 год [Caucasian calendar for 1912] (in Russian) (67th ed.). Tiflis: Tipografiya kantselyarii Ye.I.V. na Kavkaze, kazenny dom. 1912. p. 183. Archived from the original on 11 December 2021.
^ abКавказский календарь на 1915 год [Caucasian calendar for 1915] (in Russian) (70th ed.). Tiflis: Tipografiya kantselyarii Ye.I.V. na Kavkaze, kazenny dom. 1915. p. 158. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021.
^ abАдминистративное деление АССР [Administrative divisions of the ASSR] (in Russian). AzUNKHU. 1933. p. 5.