The Greek village of Yaghdan is located in Armenia’s northern Lori province. According to the regional administration website, it currently consists of roughly 100 residents, most of whom are Armenians. As part of the community enlargement program implemented in Armenia in recent years, Yaghdan has joined the Lori Berd community along with other villages.
According to the 1989 census, Yaghdan had 800 residents.
The Greek population left the village initially after the 1988 earthquake, and then in the early 1990s after the Soviet collapse.
In 1989, for six months, Greece hosted 300 children from Lori’s Greek villages affected by the earthquake. After returning to Armenia, most relocated permanently to Greece with their families.
The next phase of the Greek exodus from the villages in Armenia occurred during the economic and energy crisis of the early 1990s. Most of them emigrated to Greece with the support of the Greek government.
Few Greeks remain in Yaghdan now. Locals say that those who left occasionally return to the village to celebrate and enjoy themselves, satisfy their homesickness, and then leave again. Many of those who departed send money to their relatives and friends to support their life in the village.
Livelihood resources in the village are scarce. People mainly engage in animal husbandry, vegetable growing, and cultivation of grain, potatoes, and fodder crops.
There are numerous abandoned houses in Yaghdan village. From the balconies of many of them, a magnificent view opens toward the Dzoraget Gorge.
Greeks came to Lori from the Ottoman Empire starting at the end of the 18th century. They mainly came to work in the mines of Akhtala and Shamlugh. The Greeks named this settlement Yaghdan in 1821. Before that, the village was called Yeghitank. Yaghdan means “oil container” in Turkish.
The other Greek village in Lori province, Madan, founded in 1752, has also been emptied. The Greeks of Armenia speak the Pontic dialect of Greek.
