Shusha District () is one of the 66

districts A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

. It is located in the west of the country and belongs to the

Karabakh Economic Region The Karabakh Economic Region () is one of the 14 economic regions of Azerbaijan. It borders Iran to the south, as well as the economic regions of East Zangezur, Ganja-Dashkasan, Central Aran, and Mil-Mughan. The region consists of the distric ...

. The district borders the districts of Khojaly,

Lachin Lachin (, , ; ) is a town in Azerbaijan and the administrative centre of the Lachin District. It was located within the strategic Lachin corridor, which used to link the Nagorno-Karabakh region with Armenia. The town was under control of Armen ...

, and Khojavend. Its capital and largest city is

Shusha Shusha (, ) or Shushi () is a city in Azerbaijan, in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Situated at an altitude of 1,400–1,800 metres (4,600–5,900 ft) in the Karabakh mountains, the city was a mountain resort in the Soviet Union, Soviet ...

. As of 2020, the district had a nominal population of 34,700. Finally villages of Malıbəyli, Aşağı Quşçular and Yuxarı Quşçular were transferred to

Khojaly District Khojaly District () is one of the 66 districts of Azerbaijan. It is located in the west of the country in the Karabakh Economic Region. The district borders the districts of Kalbajar, Lachin, Shusha, Agdam and Khojavend. Its capital and larg ...

according to passing law in 5 December 2023.

History

The district was formerly part of the Shusha District of the

Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) was an Autonomous oblasts of the Soviet Union, autonomous oblast within the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic that was created on July 7, 1923. Its capital was the city of Stepanakert. The majori ...

(NKAO) of

Azerbaijan SSR The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, also referred to as the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, Azerbaijan SSR, Azerbaijani SSR, AzSSR, Soviet Azerbaijan or simply Azerbaijan, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union be ...

during the Soviet times. It was the only district of NKAO to have an Azerbaijani majority with a significant Armenian minority. The district came under the control of the Armenian forces during the

First Nagorno-Karabakh War The First Nagorno-Karabakh War was an ethnic conflict, ethnic and territorial conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nag ...

and was made part of the Shushi Province of the self-proclaimed

Republic of Artsakh Artsakh ( ), officially the Republic of Artsakh or the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh ( ), was a breakaway state in the South Caucasus whose territory was internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan. Between 1991 and 2023, Artsakh cont ...

. However, in 2020, parts of the district, including its capital, Shusha, were recaptured by Azerbaijan in November 2020 following a 44-day battle during the

2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict in 2020 that took place in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding occupied territories. It was a major escalation of an unresolved conflict over the region, involvi ...

. Remaining part of it was put under Russian peacekeeping control. After the

2023 Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh Between 19 and 20 September 2023, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military offensive against the political status of Nagorno-Karabakh, self-declared breakaway state of Republic of Artsakh, Artsakh, a move seen as a violation of the 2020 Nago ...

, the entire district fell under the control of Azerbaijan after the capitulation of the Artsakh Defence Army in the area.

Notable residents

Mir Mohsun Navvab Mir-Mohsun Navvab () (1833–1918 in Shusha, present day Azerbaijan) occupies a prominent place in the history of Culture of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani culture as the last representative of the old traditional school of science, arts and literature. ...

, artist and poet * Khurshidbanu Natavan, poet * Sadigjan, musician, inventor of the Azeri variety of

tar Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. "a dark brown or black b ...

* Gasim bey Zakir, poet * Khudadat bey Malik-Aslanov, scientist and politician * Najaf bey Vazirov, playwright and journalist *

Bulbul The bulbuls are members of a family, Pycnonotidae, of medium-sized passerine songbirds, which also includes greenbuls, brownbuls, leafloves, and bristlebills. The family is distributed across most of Africa and into the Middle East, tropic ...

, folk and opera singer *

Bulbuljan Bulbuljan (), born as Abdulbagi Ali oglu Zulalov (1841–1927), was an Azerbaijani singer of folk music and mugam (an original improvisational genre of classical folk music in Azerbaijan). He was also famous for his performance of Azeri mugams ...

, folk singer *

Muratsan Grigor Ter-Hovhannisian (; 1 December 1854 – 12 September 1908), better known as Muratsan (), was a prolific Armenian writer, known best for writing '' Gevorg Marzpetuni'' (1896), a historical novel set during the time of King Ashot II in Armen ...

(1854–1908), Armenian writer and novelist. * Leo (1860–1932), Armenian historian. * Stepan Aghajanian (1863–1940), Armenian painter. *

Hambardzum Arakelian Hambardzum Arakelian ( ''Shahriar'' (), 1865, Shusha, Russian Empire – 1918, Tbilisi) was an Armenian journalist, writer and public activist, the founder of The Relief Committee for Armenian migrants (1915) and Armenian Populist Party. Biograph ...

(1865–1918), Armenian journalist and public activist. * Alexander Atabekian (1868–1933), prominent Armenian anarchist. * Vartan Sarkisov (1875–1955), Soviet-Armenian architect. * Freidun Aghalyan (1876–1944), Armenian architect. * Tuman Tumanian (1879–1906), Armenian liberation movement leader. * Abdurrahim Hagverdiyev, dramatist * Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli (12 September 1887 to 3 January 1943 in the GULAG, near Gorky, Russia), core author of the novel '' Ali and Nino'', published under the pseudonym Kurban Said * Karim bey Mehmandarov, doctor and social activist *

Khan Shushinski Khan Shushinski (), born Isfandiyar Aslan oglu Javanshir (20 August 1901, Shusha – 18 March 1979, Baku), was an Azerbaijani khananda folk singer. Life Despite Shushinski's relation to the khans of Karabakh, his stage name derives from an episod ...

, folk singer * Shamsi Badalbeyli, theatre director and actor * Suleyman Sani Akhundov, Azerbaijani playwright, journalist, children's author, and teacher (3 October 1875,

– 29 March 1939,

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

) * Ahmad Agdamski, Azerbaijani opera singer, mugam singer and actor (5 January 1884,

– 1 April 1954 Agdash) * Soltan Hajibeyov, Azerbaijani composer and People's Artist of the USSR (5 May 1919

– 19 September 1974

) *

Uzeyir Hajibeyov Uzeyir bey Abdulhuseyn bey oghlu Hajibeyov (18 September 188523 November 1948) was an Azerbaijanis, Azerbaijani composer, musicologist and teacher. He is recognized as the father of Azerbaijani classical music. He composed the music of the Az� ...

(1885–1948), founder of Azerbaijani composed music *

Jabbar Garyagdioglu Jabbar Garyagdioglu or Garyaghdyoglu ( pronounced ) (31 March 1861 – 20 April 1944) was an Azerbaijani folk singer (khananda). He is known as the first khananda to perform mughamats in the Azeri language. He mostly sang in Azerbaijani language ...

, Azerbaijani folk singer (khananda) (31 March 1861

– 20 April 1944

) *

Seyid Shushinski Seyid Shushinski (), born Mir Mohsun Seyid Ibrahim oglu Shushinski (12 April 1889, the village of Horadiz – 1 November 1965, Baku), was an Azerbaijani khananda folk singer. Early career He was born in the village of Horadiz, in the present-day ...

, Azerbaijani folk singer (khananda) (12 April 1889, Horadiz – 1 November 1965, Baku) * Arsen Terteryan (1882–1953), Soviet-Armenian scientist. *

Artashes Babalian Artashes Babalian (; November 17, 1886 – August 1, 1959) was an Armenian doctor, politician and public figure who served as the minister of social protection in the government of the First Republic of Armenia. Babalian was born in 1886 in Shu ...

(1886–1959), a politician of the

First Republic of Armenia The First Republic of Armenia, officially known at the time of its existence as the Republic of Armenia, was an independent History of Armenia, Armenian state that existed from May (28th ''de jure'', 30th ''de facto'') 1918 to 2 December 1920 in ...

. * Sahak Ter-Gabrielyan (1886–1937), Soviet-Armenian statesman. * Hayk Gyulikekhvyan (1886–1951), Armenian literary critic. * Ashot Hovhannisyan (1887–1972), Soviet-Armenian statesman and historian. * Mikael Arutchian (1897–1961), Soviet-Armenian painter. * Ivan Knunyants (1906–1990), Soviet-Armenian chemist. *

Gevork Kotiantz Gevork Vartanovich Kotiantz (; ; 12 November 1909 – 28 August 1996) was a Soviet Armenian painter, who lived and worked in Leningrad, regarded as one of representatives of the Leningrad school of painting. Biography He was born on 12 Nove ...

(1909–1996), Soviet-Armenian painter. * Shamsi Badalbeyli (1911–1987), Soviet-Azerbaijani actor and theatre director. * Nelson Stepanyan (1913–1944), Soviet-Armenian pilot and Lieutenant–Colonel of the Red Army. * Gurgen Boryan (1915–1971), Soviet-Armenian poet and playwright. *

Seyran Ohanyan Seyran Musheghi Ohanyan (; born 1 July 1962) is an Armenian military officer and politician currently serving as a deputy in the National Assembly of Armenia. He served as Defence Minister of Armenia from 14 April 2008 until 3 October 2016. A na ...

(born 1962), Armenian politician and military commander. * Aram Manukian (1879–1919), Armenian revolutionary leader * Feyzullah Mirza Qajar (1872–1920), prince of Iran's

Qajar dynasty The Qajar family (; 1789–1925) was an Iranian royal family founded by Mohammad Khan (), a member of the Qoyunlu clan of the Turkoman-descended Qajar tribe. The dynasty's effective rule in Iran ended in 1925 when Iran's '' Majlis'', conven ...

. Major general in the Russian Empire and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, later military figure and politician in Iran. *

Latif Karimov Latif Husein oglu Karimov (; 17 November 1906 in Shusha – 8 September 1991 in Baku) was an Azerbaijani carpet designer known for his contributions to a variety of artistic fields, as well as for a number of books classifying and describing vari ...

, Azerbaijani carpet designer known for his contributions to a variety of artistic fields.(17 November 1906, Shusha – 1991, Baku) *

Avan Yuzbashi Avan Yuzbashi (; ca. 1670–1735), also known in Armenian historiography as Prince Hovhannes (''Hovhannes Ishkhan'') or Avan Mirza was an 18th-century Armenian military leader in Karabagh, and an important figure of the Armenian liberation strugg ...

, (1670s–1735), Armenian military and political leader during Davit Bek uprising (1720s) *

Molla Panah Vagif Molla Panah (), better known by his pen-name Vagif (), was an 18th-century Azerbaijanis, Azerbaijani poet, statesman and diplomat. He is regarded as the founder of the realism genre and the modern school in Azerbaijani literature, Azerbaijani poe ...

, Poet the minister of foreign affairs in the

Karabakh Khanate The Karabakh Khanate (also spelled Qarabagh; ; ) was a Khanates of the Caucasus, khanate under History of Iran, Iranian and later Russian Empire, Russian suzerainty, which controlled the historical region of Karabakh, now divided between modern ...

Ibrahim Khalil Khan Ibrahim Khalil Khan Javanshir (, 1732–1806) was the second khan of the Karabakh Khanate from the Javanshir family. He was the son and successor of Panah-Ali khan Javanshir. Early life He was born in c. 1732 in Karabakh. He was among depo ...

(1732–1806), Azerbaijani khan of the

. * Mehdigulu Khan Vefa, lyrical poet of Azerbaijan, lieutenant colonel in the Russian Army, son of a famous Karabakh poet Khurshidbanu Natavan (1855

– 1900 1900

Tiflis Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

) * Mir Hasan Vazirov, Azerbaijani revolutionary and one of the

26 Baku Commissars The 26 Baku Commissars were Bolshevik and Left SR, Left Socialist Revolutionary (SR) members of the Baku Commune. The commune was established in the city of Baku, which was then the capital of the briefly independent Azerbaijan Democratic Repub ...

References

{{Authority control Districts of Azerbaijan