It remained one of the prominent monasteries of Turkish (Western) Armenia until the Armenian genocide of 1915, when it was attacked and subsequently abandoned.

[6] Official Turkish sources refer to it as Arak Manastırı,[1] a Turkified version of its Armenian name.

[7] Turkish sources and travel guides generally omit the fact that it was an Armenian monastery.

[7] According to "a late medieval tradition",[3] the monastery was founded in the early 4th century (in 312 AD according to one author)[5] by Gregory the Illuminator to house various relics of apostles he transferred from Rome.

Barrel vaults top each of the four arms of the interior, as well as the corner chapels, which are two-storied at both east and west.

Interior decoration included wall painting, and in the apse one can still discern human figures, most likely representing apostles.

[8] To the west there was a three-storey bell tower with eight columned rotunda built by Ter Ohannes vardapet in 1791.

[8] The wooden door of the Arakelots Church is considered a masterpiece[13] and one of the finest pieces of medieval Armenian art.

[14] During World War I, German archaeologists reportedly transferred it to Bitlis in hope to later move it to Berlin.

[15] However, in 1916 when Russian troops took control of the region, historian and archaeologist Smbat Ter-Avetisian found the door in Bitlis, in a booty abandoned by the retreating Turks, and with a group of migrants, brought the door to the Museum of the Armenian Ethnographic Association in Tbilisi.

[16] In the winter of 1921–22 Ashkharbek Kalantar moved it to Yerevan's newly founded History Museum of Armenia.

In 1202 it was robbed by a non-Armenian judge who sold it to the Arakelots Monastery in 1204 for four thousand silver coins collected by locals.

[18] Historian Movses Khorenatsi[19] and philosopher David the Invincible[20] are believed to have been buried in the monastery courtyard.