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Place in Azerbaijan
Lachin Laçın
Country Azerbaijan
Population
 • Total58,229
Time zoneUTC+4 (AZT)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+5 (AZT)

Lachin (Template:Lang-az, Template:Lang-hy, Template:Lang-ku) is a town in Azerbaijan and the regional center of the rayon of Lachin. Since 1992 the area has been under the control of the de facto independent unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which has renamed the town Berdzor (Template:Lang-hy). The town and its surrounding region serve as the strategic Lachin corridor connecting the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic with Armenia.

History

Before 1923, Lachin was called Abdalyar.

On 15 May, 1992, during the Nagorno-Karabakh War, Lachin was captured by Nagorno Karabakh forces, opening the first land-corridor to Armenia. Previously, Turkey had threatened Armenia in May 13, 1992, "that it would intervene militarily if Shusha and Lachin were not restored to Azerbaijan". Russia responded by signing a military agreement with Armenia pledging military aid if its security were threatened. On the May 20, 1992, Turkey reassured Russia, that it would not intervene militarily . Thus, after a 3-year blockade, a land bridge linking the Republic of Armenia with the territory of Nagorno Karabakh was reestablished. In the fall of 1992, Azeribajian forces tried to regain control over Lachin, but were definitively repulsed. Most of Lachin's Azeri and Kurdish Muslim population fled as a result of the fall of the region to Nagorno KArabakh forces.

Lachin Kurds

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The town was settled by the first Kurdish tribes coming from Iranian Kurdistan in the early 19th century. Eventually, this population became the majority in most parts of the region, particularly around Lachin. In early 1920's, Vladimir Lenin's letter to Narimanov "had implied that Lachin was to be included in Azerbaijan, but the authorities in Baku and Yerevan were given promises that were inevitably contradictory". The town of Lachin on July 7, 1923, became the capital of Kurdistan Uyezd often known as Red Kurdistan. It was dissolved on April 8, 1929: Kurdish schools and newspapers were closed. According to what Bushkapin wrote, official statistics of 1931 showed that there were 3,322 Kurdish speakers in Lachin. These figures did not include those individuals who did not speak Kurdish but nonetheless defined themselves as Kurds. Most of the Kurdish population in Lachin were Shi'a Muslims and were deported by the Soviet authorities, in late 1930s. However, many Kurds still were able to remain in the town and there was a Kurdish minority in the area before the Nagorno-Karabakh war started.

Terrain

The town is scenically built on the side of a mountain on the left bank of Akera river.

Nagorno-Karabakh war

Lachin town and the surrounding rayon were the location of severe fighting during the 1990-1994 Nagorno-Karabakh war, and the town has not recovered from the destruct of that war. Lachin is the most important town under Armenian control because of the Lachin corridor which attaches Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh. The OSCE Minsk group co-chairs noted that "Lachin has been treated as a separate case in previous negotiations". This is because Lachin is Nagorno Karabakh's humanitarian and security corridor. Without it, Nagorno-Karabakh would remain an isolated enclave. It is because of Lachin's political and geographic reality and security dimension, that it is viewed differently in the negotiation process. The Lachin corridor and the Kelbajar district have been at the center of Armenian demands during the Nagorno-Karabakh peace talks with Azerbaijan. According to Emmanuel Karagiannis, the Lachin corridor is "too strategic position for Karabakh Armenians to let Azerbaijan place its military forces there, driving, a vedge between the enclave and Armenia" .

Adminstartive divisions

Before the Nagorno-Karabakh war there were 125 villages, one city-type settlement, Minkend, and the capital city in the Lachin district.

Religious

In this region is located the Armenian Tsitsernavank monastery (5th century).

See also

External links

Notes

  1. Holding, Nicholas (2006). Armenia with Nagorno Karabagh, 2nd: The Bradt Travel Guide. Guilford, Connecticut: Globe Pequot Press, p. 208. ISBN 1-8416-2163-3.
  2. ANS How Lachin was occupied? (in Azerbaijani)
  3. Karapetian, Samvel. Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabagh. Yerevan: Gitutiun Publishing House, 2001, p. 169.
  4. Map of Armenia and Adjacent Countries by H. F. B. Lynch and F. Oswald, London, 1901.
  5. The Russian Army in a Time of Troubles, by Pavel K. Baev, International Peace Research Institute, 1996, 224 pages, ISBN:0761951873, p. 124
  6. A Study of Crisis, by Michael Brecher, Jonathan Wilkenfeld, 1997, 1064 p., p. 565
  7. A Study of Crisis, by Michael Brecher, Jonathan Wilkenfeld, 1997, 1064 p., p. 565
  8. p. 210
  9. Muslims of the Soviet Empire, by Alexandre Bennigsen, S.Enders Wimbush, 1986, C. Hurst & Co Publishers, 286 p., ISBN:1850650098, p. 202
  10. Soviet Kurds Face Loss of Their Identity, by Catherine Cosman, Director, Helsinki Watch Washington, New York Times, May 13, 1991 June 2, 1991
  11. http://www.kurdmedia.com/articles.asp?id=7856
  12. Great Soviet Encyclopedia
  13. http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:0Sxzs0-JPsIJ:www.armeniaemb.org/ArmeniaUS/NKPeaceProcess/NKRPeaceStatement170305.htm+Lachin+Nagorno-Karabakh&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=8&gl=us
  14. CountryWatch - Interesting Facts Of The World
  15. Energy and Security in the Caucasus, by Emmanuel Karagiannis, 2002, Routledge, 233 p., ISBN:0700714812, p. 50

39°38′N 46°33′E / 39.633°N 46.550°E / 39.633; 46.550

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