Country Azerbaijan Local time Sunday 4:48 PM Rayon Goranboy District | Time zone AZT (UTC+4) Municipality Manashid | |
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Weather 9°C, Wind SE at 3 km/h, 71% Humidity | ||
Erkeç (also, Erk’ej, Erkech, Erkedge, Erketch, and Ertech) is a village in the Goranboy Rayon of Azerbaijan. The village forms part of the municipality of Mənəşli.
Map of Erkech, Azerbaijan
Founded in 1828, the village's name comes from a Daghestani term for a horned mountain goat. Though originally the home of Russian settlers, by 1908 the village's then population of 780 was recorded as being majority ethnic Armenian. In June–July 1991, during the Karabakh conflict, the hamlet was depopulated as part of Operation Ring and occupied by the Soviet 23rd Division and the Azerbaijani OMON. Footage of the days before the population's eviction was filmed by Bulgarian-born naturalised Armenian journalist Tsvetana Paskaleva. In September 1991, Armenians recaptured the dilapidated village but lost it again to Azerbaijan in summer 1992.
The village was later resettled by Azerbaijanis and renamed Vugarli, though the name Erkeç remains in common usage.