The population of Hamshen maintained its existence as a semi-independent Armenian power for 700 years and was overthrown by the Turks in 1489. The last prince of Hamshen was Davit who, defeated by the Turks, left the Hamshen region and took refuge in the Sper region.

According to the Ottoman archives, the overwhelming majority of the population of the Hamshen region was Christian until the 1620s. At that time, Christians paid heavy taxes to Constantinople. Only the Hamshen region was taxed 7090 kg of honey and 2660 kg of beeswax in 1609-1610. In 1626-1627 the taxes increased by fifty percent. One of the most likely reasons for the conversion of the Hamshans to Islam was the heavy taxes imposed on Christians.

This process of Islamization is also related to the weakening of the Armenian Church presbytery. A manuscript written in Hamshen in 1630 reports the absence of a bishop in the monastery of Khachikar (Khachekar / Khachik hor) of Yeghnovit. Then, until 1812, no manuscripts copied in Hamshen are known, which is also a proof of the weakening of the church.

However, despite its weak condition, Khachikar survived until 1915. In the lists of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1913, it is registered as a church, thanks to which the Armenians lived in the nearby village of Yeghnovit/Elevit until the Great Genocide. And today, in this village (now Yaylaköy), located 35 km from the center of Çamlıhemshin towards the mountains, you will not meet an Armenian, nor will you find any ruins of Khachikar.