Lachin - Misplaced Pages

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**Lachin**
Map of Azerbaijan showing Lachin rayon
Population:	58.229
Area (sq. km.):	1.883
Majority people
Majority speaking
Religion
Capital:	Lachin
Number of villages	125
Number of towns	2

Lachin (Template:Lang-az, Template:Lang-hy, Template:Lang-ku) is a town in Azerbaijan and the regional center of the rayon of Lachin. Before 1923, Lachin was called Abdallar. 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). Its Azerbaijani and Kurdish Muslim population fled as a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh War. The town and its surrounding region serve as the strategic Lachin corridor connecting the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic with Armenia.

Lachin Kurds

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The town was inhabited by nomadic Kurdish tribes in the 18th century. Eventually, this population became the majority in most parts of the region, particularly around Lachin. 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. 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. In 1992, the Lachin Kurdish Republic was declared in Armenia by a group led by Wekîl Mustafayev, but this attempt failed. Mustafayev took refuge in Italy.

Terrain

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

Nagorno-Karabakh war

During the occupation of Lachin, May 18, 1992, 333 citizen of Lachin were killed, and 225 people injured. 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 destruction 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.

Administrative divisions

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

Culture and Infrastructure

Before the Nagorno-Karabakh war, in Lachin there were 101 High Schools, 142 Hospitals, and more than 200 historical monuments belong to IX-XV centuries.