Etiuni

Ethnographer Armen Petrosyan suggested that this name could be a Urartian cuneiform rendering of Hatio (sometimes transliterated as Hattiyo or Hatiyo), which Diakonov had offered as a reconstructed initial form of the modern Armenian endonym, Hay (հայ).

Petrosyan, citing 19th-century linguists Friedrich Spiegel and Heinrich Kiepert, proposed that "Hatio" might ultimately derive from Proto-Indo-European *poti, meaning "lord, master, husband.

Etiuni was composed of a number of small kingdoms and tribes, included Iga (also known as Igani, Iya, and Aia), on the south shore of Lake Cildir, Abiliani and Apuni, probably corresponding to the Armenian Abełean and Havnunik, in Kars region, and the Luša, Katarza, Uiṭeruḫi (Witeruḫi), and Gulutaḫi, of the Ararat plain.

This may have referred to a separate, but perhaps culturally and linguistically connected, confederation from Etiuni, comprising the lands Lueḫi, Kemani, Urteḫini, and Arquqini, stretching along the southern shore of Lake Sevan.

During the co-regency of Ishpuini and his son, Menua, Urartu began expanding northward into Etiunian territories, battling the Katarza and Luša tribes, bragging about conquering Liquini and "the mighty land of" Erkuaḫi, and putting Etiuni under tribute as a result.

[10] Menua's son, Argishti, ventured further into Etiunian territory than his predecessors, building the fortress of Erebuni (located in Yerevan) on newly conquered land, and bringing to it 6600 warriors from Hatti and Shupria.

[10] However, the Etiunians seem to have revolted and invaded Urartu during Argishti's reign, stealing the aštiuzi (perhaps an idol of a god; compare this word to Armenian astuats 'god') of the Urartian religious center, Musasir.

[4] More recently, Armen Petrosyan, linguist Hrach Martirosyan, and other scholars have suggested Armenian etymologies for a number of Etiunian personal, place, tribal, and religious names.

Petrosyan etymologized Diaṣuni as being an otherwise unattested Armenian name meaning "born of god" (տիւ + ծնուն), comparing it to Greek Diogenes (Διογένης), Thracian Diazenus, Celtic Divogenos, and Sanskrit Devaja (देवजा).