When I reached Yenokavan, I said that I would like to speak to the elders of the village about their local history and current situation.  Immediately, a group of young people gathered around me, who then started to take me from house to house in a very official manner.

Almost every visit was preceded by the following ceremony - we would knock on the door, the landlord would open it, listen carefully to who I was and why I was there, close the door and then open it again five to ten minutes later, having changed from house clothes to more official attire and, smiling brightly, would let us in the house.

Nobody would permit themselves to appear in front of the guests in patched trousers or, say, a dirty shirt.

Soon, yet another characteristic of the residents of Yenokavan became obvious - their special hospitality.  This is an Armenian characteristic in general, but in Yenokavan, one does not see that noisy and sometimes even oppressive hospitality, but rather a modest, often unnoticed hospitality that demanded no gratitude.

The residents of Yenokavan were very proud of their village and said that it was a real treasure for archeologists.

"There are some very ancient churches in the villages a well as the ruins of four fortresses," said geography and history teacher Hrayr Jaghayan, "Many people have come from Yerevan and conducted excavations here.  They've found Bronze Age thrones and other items as well as human bones."

Of the fortresses, the villagers especially emphasized the Astghi Blur, or Star Hill, located ten kilometers from the village.  This fortress was located such that it afforded a view of all the other fortresses in the village.  The villagers spoke about the excavations conducted by the historian Yesayan in 1965-66, which found items that belonged, according to the scientist, to the 10-8th centuries B.C.

The village is also very interesting for a historical point of view, according to the villagers.  "The bad thing," said Jaghayan, "is that the chronology of the village has not been recorded anywhere.  It is not clear who constructed the fortresses, and the history of the village has only been passed on from generation to generation by word of mouth."

Yenokavan has not always been the name of the village.  In the past, it used to be called Krdevan.  There are a number of stories behind that name.

One version said that the area around the village had been populated by Kurds up until the twelfth century.  That was why it was called Krdevan, an avan - or area - of Kurds.  In the years of the coronation of Queen Tamar, the village was passed on to Georgian rule and the Kurds, who were not Christians, left the area and settled beneath Mount Aragats.

Village head Alibek Babayan once heard another story from the village elders, according to which the Mongol-Tatars once came to the village and their general challenged the local strongman to a test of strength against their strongman.  The Armenian strongman, whose name was Kurd, won the fight and the general was so impressed by his strength and skill that he spared the village and the thankful villagers named the village after their brave resident.

Hrayr Jaghayan, who has been teaching geography and history in the village school for the past fifty years, said that Krdevan in reality meant kare divan or "stone cushion", because the village looks like a cushion on a rocky hill.  Onik Ordinyan, a seventy-two year old resident of the village, said that kare divan actually meant "stone court".  According to legend, the dishonest and sinners were thrown into the rocky abyss here.

It is not clear which of these versions is true, but the village as it currently stands was founded in the fifteenth century by the noble tribes of Jaghayan, Chibukhchyan, Pashinyan, and Ordinyan, who had moved from Karabakh to the village of Sevkar and then gone up the mountains (Yenokavan is located 1,000-1,300 meters above sea level).

The cemetery of the ruined St. Sargis Church has been preserved in the village, and the first burial there was done in 1840.

Yenokavan was renamed in 1930, in the honor of locally born revolutionary Yenok Mkrtumyan, who fought against the Dashnaks.  In 1920, during the May rebellion, the Dashnaks succeeded in capturing and imprisoning him.  He was condemned to 101 years imprisonment, but was then killed the same year and buried in Dilijan.

After Soviet authority was established in Armenia, Yenok's father found his son's grave and moved his remains to their ancestral village.  The social council of the village collective decided to rename the village in the honor of Yenok Mkrtumyan in 1930.

Hrayr Jaghayan said that the village once hosted a house-museum dedicated to Yenok Mkrtumyan, but other people lived in that house now and the museum no longer existed.

Jaghayan was principal of the village school for fifteen years.  In those years, the school set up a small museum, housing some items found from excavations as well as some things belonging to Yenok.  "However, even that museum is not in good condition and does not arouse much interest in the schoolchildren," he said, "They don't feel anything for their own history."

"In general, schoolchildren are not what they used to be," he said, grabbing the chance to discuss the issue concerning him most, "I'm thinking of leaving the school in the coming year, I'm tired.  I was principal for fifteen years and we used to have four or five outstanding students in each class in the past.  Now, you can't find that many in the whole school.  Television has ruined the children.  They all watch soap operas."

The school started providing ten-year education three years ago - until then, it had only eight grades.  The village is remote and many "good teachers" avoid going there, forcing local teachers to take on subjects which are not within their area of expertise.  The school has nobody to teach music, art, or physical education.

But the students do not have any complaints on that front. "Why study, anyway? There are no jobs."  This was said with a sort of happy indifference.

Another of the characteristics of Yenokavan was an interesting combination of liveliness and inertia.