EGHENGNAMOR

Eghegnamor,( Եղեգնամոր վանք) also known as the Chengilli Church and the Church of the Holy Mother of God, is an Armenian monastery that dates back to the 10th and 11th centuries and is located in the center of the village of Chengilli in the Kars province of Turkey. Other names for the monastery include Eghegnamor and the Church of the Holy Mother of God. There is a possibility that they were members of the Georgian Orthodox Church.

At the end of the 19th century, several medieval khachkars with Armenian inscriptions were noted, including one with the year 989 and the other with the year 1024. It is safe to assume that there were Armenians living in the settlement at the time. The words “Christ, have mercy on Malakosia, who built this church” are written in Georgian on another inscription that can be found beneath the southern cornice of the church.

By the time the 19th century came to a close, the majority of the people living in the village belonged to the Armenian ethnic group. They were not members of the Georgian Church; rather, they belonged to the Armenian Church, and they gave the church the name Saint Astvatsatsin, which translates to “Holy Mother of God.” When this region was annexed by Turkey after Armenian Genocide 1915 , the local Armenian population was forcibly relocated to their home country in 1920. Kurds, most likely recent immigrants from Karin which turks renamed to Erzrum , make up the population of the village as it exists today, as is the case in the majority of the other villages in the region. They have made the church into a barn for their use.