This monastery is not mentioned in any known historical source . However historian-orientalist J. M. Thierry considers that both the design of the church and historical events indicate that the church was probably built just after the conquest of this district , called Kardchkan in Armenian , by Gagik Artsruni , the king of Vaspurakan , in 905 AD . The head of the monastery was , by tradition , the bishop of Kardchkan - which suggests that the monastery was once the most important in the district . After the Armenian king John-Senekerim II ceded his Kingdom of Vaspurakan to the Byzantine empire in 1022 , the empire produced a list of the region ’s bishopric seats ; one such seat was at a monastery of Saint George - this could perhaps have been Goms . The monks possessed a relic that they claimed to be the head of Saint George , and for this reason the monastery was an important pilgrimage site . Due to increasing Kurdish violence , in 1830 the monks had to abandon the monastery and move to a more secure location in the village of Goms . There was an unsuccessful attempt to return to the monastery at the end of the 19th century . The isolated location of the monastery has helped to maintain its preservation and it was functioning until the Armenian Genocide in 1915 . In 1923 this abandoned monastery was plundered and ruined by Turks and Kurds . But considerable damage has occurred since the early 1970s . In addition , the rising waters of lake Van during the 1990s have eroded the coastline within the bay and now threatens the base of the monastery 's fortified wall .
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
Monastery of Surp Gevork of Goms