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Qazax District

Qazax District (Gazakh District; Azerbaijani: Qazax rayonu) is one of the 66 districts of Azerbaijan. Located in the northwest of the country, it belongs to the Gazakh-Tovuz Economic Region. The district borders the district of Aghstafa, and the Tavush Province of Armenia. Its capital and largest city is Gazakh. As of 2020, the district had a population of 98,400.[2]

It has two exclaves inside Armenia, which include the villages of Yukhari Askipara, Barkhudarly, Sofulu. Both of the exclaves and parts of mainland Qazax District (the villages of Baghanis Ayrum, Ashaghi Eskipara, Gyzylhajily, and Kheyrimli) were captured by Armenian forces during the First Nagorno-Karabakh war.

History

Situation in western Gazakh following the First Nagorno-Karabakh war

The region was conquered by a succession of neighboring powers or invaders, including Armenians, Sassanid Persians, the Byzantine Empire, the Arabs, the Seljuq Turks, the Georgians, the Mongols, the Timurids, the Qara Qoyunlu and Aq Qoyunlu Turkoman tribes, and finally Safavid Iran. It was also ruled by Ottoman Empire between 1578 and 1607 and again 1722 and 1735.

By the end of the XV century, the Kazakh Sultanate was established as a sovereign geopolitical entity in the region. Though it was part of the Karabakh principality during the Safavid Empire, Sultan Shamsaddin of Gazakh was given the rank of Khan by the decree of Abbas the Great in 1605.

After the Russo-Persian War (1804–1813), the Russian Empire gained control of the area by virtue of the Treaty of Gulistan. Under Russian rule, it was part of Tiflis Governorate before forming the northeastern part of the Kazakh Uyezd of the Elisabethpol Governorate in 1868. A contemporary military historian noted the following ethnographic detail: "Abbas Mirza's route lay through the country of the great tribe of the Casaks, which is extremely strong and thickly wooded." He further notes that: "These have no connection with the Russian Cossacks. They are descended from men of the Kirgis Casaks, left by Genghis Khan. They are frequently called Karapapakh, from wearing black sheep-skin caps."[3]

When the South Caucasus came under British occupation, Sir John Oliver Wardrop, British Chief Commissioner in the South Caucasus, decided that assigning the Erivan Governorate and the Kars Oblast to Democratic Republic of Armenia (DRA) and the Elisabethpol and Baku Governorates to the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) would solve the region's outstanding disputes. However, this proposal was rejected by both Armenians (who did not wish to give up their claims to Gazakh, Zangezur (today Syunik), and Nagorno-Karabakh) and Azerbaijanis (who did not wish to give up their claims to Nakhchivan). As conflict broke out between the two groups, the British left the region in mid-1919.

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

During the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, Armenian troops took control of several villages of the Gazakh District. Several Azerbaijani inhabitants were killed during the war although some of them were able to flee.[4]

In July 2020, Gazakh became a site for clashes with Armenia.[5]

In April 2024, Armenia and Azerbaijan reached an agreement whereby Armenia handed over four abandoned villages within Qazax District to Azerbaijan: Bağanis Ayrum, Aşağı Əskipara, Xeyrimli, and Qızılhacılı.[6]

Population

List of historic and tourist sites

There are 112 protected monuments in the region of Gazakh, of which 54 are archaeological, 46 are architectural, 7 are historical, and 5 are of artistic significance. Historic and tourist sites in this region include:

Prominent people from Gazakh

References

  1. ^ "İnzibati-ərazi vahidləri" (PDF). preslib.az. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Population of Azerbaijan". stat.gov.az. State Statistics Committee. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
  3. ^ Lt-Gen. William Monteith, Kars and Erzeroum: With the Campaigns of Prince Paskiewitch, in 1828 and 1829; and an Account of the conquests of Russia beyond the Caucasus, from the time of Peter the Great to the Treaty of Turcoman Chie and Adrianople, London: Longman, 1856, p. 60
  4. ^ "Ermənistan-Azərbaycan, Dağlıq Qarabağ münaqişəsi nəticəsində Qazax rayonunda hərbi təcavüzün nəticələri barədə MƏLUMAT". www.qazax-ih.gov.az. KAZAKH DISTRICT EXECUTIVE AUTHORITY OF THE REPUBLIC OF AZERBAIJAN. 3 December 2020. Retrieved 3 December 2020. Xocalı soyqırımında olduğu kimi Qazax rayonunun Bağanıs Ayrım kəndində Dədəş Əsliyevin 4 nəfərdən ibarət ailə üzvü və 3 nəfər kənd sakini ermənilər tərəfindən diri-diri yandırılmışdır.
  5. ^ Harutyunyan, Sargis; Danielyan, Emil. "Armenia-Azerbaijan Border 'Calm' After Deadly Clashes". azatutyun.am. RFE/RL. Archived from the original on 5 August 2020. Retrieved 5 August 2020. ...the border between Armenia's northern Tavush province and the Tovuz district in Azerbaijan, the scene of the clashes.
  6. ^ Hayden, Jones (2024-04-20). "Armenia agrees to return 4 villages to Azerbaijan". Politico Europe. Axel Springer SE. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  7. ^ Samadov (www.anarsamadov.net), Anar. "Population". The State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

External links


41°05′36″N 45°21′58″E / 41.0933°N 45.3661°E / 41.0933; 45.3661