control of the Kara Koyunlu Shia Oghuz Turkic tribe. According to the Armenian historian Thomas of Metsoph, although the Kara Koyunlu levied heavy taxes against the Armenians, the early years of their rule were relatively peaceful. In 1501, most of the Eastern Armenian territories including Yerevan and Shirak were conquered by the emerging Safavid dynasty of Iran. Under the Iranian rule, the area around modern-day Maralik was occupied by a village known as Molla Gökche within the Erivan Khanate. In June 1804, the Russian Empire took control of the region of Shirak at the beginning of the Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813. The area became officially part of the Russian Empire at the Treaty of Gulistan signed on 1 January 1813. 59 Western Armenian families (371 individuals) from Basean, Mush and Karin who were resettled in the area, founded an Armenian village upon their arrival in 1828, near the settlement of Molla Gökche. In 1840, the village became part of the newly formed Alexandropol Uyezd, which -in its turn- became part of the Erivan Governorate later in 1849. In 1903, the Holy Mother of God Church was consecrated, built on the foundations of a 5th-century church. After World War I, the settlement was included within the borders of the newly founded Republic of Armenia, who enjoyed a sort-lived independence from May 1918 until December 1920, when it fell to the invading Soviet Red Army. Under the Soviet rule, the village was renamed Kaputan in October 1927. In 1931, it became the centre of the newly formed Ani raion (known as Aghin raion until 1961). On 26 July 1935, the village of Kaputan was eventually renamed Maralik. In 1962, Maralik was given the status of a town. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Maralik became an urban community within the newly formed Shirak Province as per the administrative reforms of 1995 of independent Armenia. Geography Maralik is situated at the northwestern foot of Mount Aragats within the Shirak Plain, at a height of 1,720 meters above sea level, at a 24 km road distance south of the provincial centre Gyumri. The capital Yerevan is at a road distance of 98 km southeast of Maralik. Surrounded with dry steppes, Maralik has a humid continental climate, characterized with mild and cool summers and extremely cold and snowy winters. The average annual precipitation is 450 mm. The village of Dzorakap forms the