Country Azerbaijan Elevation 570 m (1,870 ft) Population 908 (2005) Rayon Khojaly District | Rayon
Province Khojali
Askeran Time zone UTC (UTC+4) Number of airports 1 | |
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Weather 9°C, Wind N at 6 km/h, 80% Humidity | ||
Khojali (Azerbaijani: Xocalı) or (also Armenian: Իվանյան), also, Ay-Khodzhaly, Khodgalou, Khodzhalv, Khodzhaly, Khojalu, and Khozhali, is a village in the located some 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) northeast of its capital Khankandi. Internationally, it is still considered a de jure part of Azerbaijan, and Azerbaijan counts it as the capital of its Khojaly District.
Contents
Map of Xocal%C4%B1
Demographics
According to the Caucasian Calendar for 1912 (Кавказский календарь на 1912 год) Khojaly consisted of Tatar and Russian parts with 172 and 52 people, respectively. Despite this officials of unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and some Armenian publicists claim that Khojaly was initially Armenian village with predominant Armenian population.
History
During the Soviet period, Khojali was a village in the Askeran rayon of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. As the Karabakh conflict started, the Azerbaijani government began to implement a plan to create a new district center. From 1988 to 1990 the population of Khojali increased from 2135 to 6000 residents, mostly consisting of immigrants from Soviet Central Asia (including more than 2000 Meskhetian Turks) and Armenia (about 2000). In April 1990 Azerbaijan abolished the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast and its internal divisions. Khojali was given city status and became the regional center for the newly created Khojali Rayon composed of the former Askeran rayon and part of Martuni.
Khojaly was captured by ethnic Armenian forces on 26 February 1992 during the Nagorno-Karabakh War. The name became internationally notable after the Khojaly Massacre of February 1992.
In 2001 the settlement was renamed Ivanyan, after the late general of the Karabakh Defense Army, Kristapor Ivanyan.
Sister cities (refuted)
In February 2010, media reported a claim by the Azeri-Czech Society that representatives of the Azeri administration of Khojaly in exile and the Czech town of Lidice were to sign an agreement making Khojaly and Lidice sister cities and that a street in Lidice was to be named "Khojali". In March 2012, reports quoted the Mayor of Lidice, Veronika Kellerova, as officially stating that Lidice and Khojali had never been sister cities. She further repudiated reports that there exists a street named 'Khojaly' in Lidice.