Area rank Ranked 3rd Area 1,830 km² Capital Kalbajar | Website Shahumian Province Population 3,521 (2013) | |
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Part 1 mnashen erkej buzlukh shahumyan region nagorno karabakh republic
The Shahumyan Region (Armenian: Շահումյան) is a disputed region, formerly a district of Azerbaijan SSR outside Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. Before the Nagorno-Karabakh War of the 1990s, the district had a substantial Armenian population. The eastern part of the territory remains under the control of Azerbaijan and is incorporated into Goranboy District, but the area is claimed by the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
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Part 2 mnashen erkej buzlukh shahumyan region nagorno karabakh republic
Territorial entities
Shahumian Region has 16 communities of which 1 is considered urban and 16 are rural.
History
In antiquity the territory was a part of Artsakh; in the Middle Ages it was part of the principality of Khachen; in the 17-18th centuries the territory formed part of Melik-Abovian dynasty's melikdom of Gulistan, with its capital in the fortress of that name. During Soviet times in the area was renamed after the Armenian Bolshevik Stepan Shahumyan, its administrative center taking the same name.
By the 1990s the population of Shahumian district was almost exclusively Armenian by language and ethnicity, though the area was not included within the boundaries of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast by the Soviet Union.
In the spring-summer of 1991, Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev ordered Operation Ring in which the Soviet Red Army and Azerbaijani OMON surrounded some of the area's Armenian villages (notably Getashen and Martunashen) and violently deported their inhabitants to Armenia.
Approximately 17,000 Armenians living in Shahumian's twenty-three villages were deported out of the region.
In December 1991 with the Soviet Union imploding, Shahumian was claimed by the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and became the focus for considerable fighting. This reached a climax in summer 1992 when most of the area was retaken by the Azerbaijan army. Damage was severe and the Armenian population fled.
The historical name of the town of Shahumian was abolished and renamed to Aşağı Ağcakənd in 1992 and it has been partly re-populated by ethnic Azerbaijanis, some of which are refugees.
During Operation Ring, Soviet forces acting in conjunction with the local Azerbaijani OMON forcibly deported Armenians living in the villages of the region of Shahumyan. The operation involved the use of ground troops, military, armored vehicles and artillery. The deportations of the Armenian civilians were carried out with gross human rights violations documented by international human rights organizations.