Khojaly (, ; ) is a town in the

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 ...

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 ...

, in the region of

Nagorno-Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh (, ; ) is a region in Azerbaijan, covering the southeastern stretch of the Lesser Caucasus mountain range. Part of the greater region of Karabakh, it spans the area between Lower Karabakh and Syunik Province, Syunik. Its ter ...

. The town was the second largest Azerbaijani town in the former

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 ...

until the mass killing and exodus of its Azerbaijani population 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 ...

Stepanakert Airport Stepanakert Airport () or Khojaly Airport () is an airport in the town of Khojaly, 10 kilometers north-east of Stepanakert, Azerbaijan. The airport, in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, had been under the control of the self-proclaimed Republic of ...

is located to the immediate south of the town.

Toponymy

The Azerbaijani name of the town, Khojaly, derives from ''khoja'' (''xoca''), which is the Azerbaijani spelling of the

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

word ''

khawaja Khawaja () is an honorific title used across the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Central Asia, particularly towards Sufi teachers. It is also used by Kashmiri Muslims and Mizrahi Jews—particularly Kurdish Jews. The name or title ...

'', meaning master. In 2001 the settlement was renamed ''Ivanyan'' (Իվանյան) by Artsakh, after the late general of the

Artsakh Defence Army The Artsakh Defence Army () was the defence force of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh. Established in 1992, it united previously disorganized defence units which were formed in the early 1990s. It was disbanded on 20 September 2023 under t ...

, Kristapor Ivanyan.

History

According to the 1910 publication of the ''Caucasian Calendar'', Khojaly had 184 Tatar (i.e. Azerbaijani) inhabitants in 1908. In the 1912 publication, Khojaly had 172 Tatar and 52

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

inhabitants. During the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

period, Khojaly was a village in the Askeran District of the

First Nagorno-Karabakh War

As the

started, the Azerbaijani government began to implement a plan to create a new district center. From 1988 to 1990 the population of Khojaly increased from 2,135 to 6,000 residents, mostly consisting of immigrants from Soviet Central Asia (including more than 2,000

Meskhetian Turks Meskhetian Turks, also referred to as Turkish Meskhetians, Ahiska Turks, and Turkish Ahiskans, (; ka, მესხეთის თურქები ''Meskhetis turk'ebi'') are a subgroup of ethnic Turkish people formerly inhabiting the Mes ...

) and immigrants from Armenia (about 2,000). In April 1990 the Azerbaijani government abolished the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast and its internal divisions. Khojaly was given city status and became the regional center for the newly created

composed of the former Askeran District and part of the Martuni District. The town had 6,300 Azerbaijani inhabitants in 1991. Most of the inhabitants fled during the town's capture by Armenian forces on 26 February 1992 during the

and hundreds were killed in the

Khojaly massacre The Khojaly massacre (, ) was the mass killing of Azerbaijani civilians by Armenian forces and the 366th CIS regiment in the town of Khojaly on 26 February 1992. The event became the largest single massacre throughout the entire Nagorno-Ka ...

. The Khojaly massacre was the mass killing of

Azerbaijanis Azerbaijanis (; , ), Azeris (, ), or Azerbaijani Turks (, ) are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group living mainly in the Azerbaijan (Iran), Azerbaijan region of northwestern Iran and the Azerbaijan, Republic of Azerbaijan. They are predomin ...

— mostly civilians, but also armed troops — by local irregular Armenian forces and the 366th

Commonwealth of Independent States The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional organization, regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an ar ...

Guards Motor Rifle Regiment.''Bloodshed in the Caucasus: escalation of the armed conflict in Nagorno Karabakh'', vol. 1245 of Human rights documents, Human Rights Watch, 1992, p. 24 It was one of the four events that defined the war, along with the Karabakh Armenian seizure of Shusha and the capture of Lachin and the Lachin corridor between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia as well as the June 1992 Azerbaijani offensive against the Mardakert Province in

. The death toll claimed by the Azerbaijani authorities is 613 civilians, including 106 women and 63 children. According to

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...

, it resulted in death of at least 200 Azerbaijanis, though it is possible that as many as 500–1,000 may have died.

Republic of Artsakh

After the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, the town became part of the

Askeran Province Askeran Province () was a province of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh, ''de jure'' part of the Khojaly District of the Republic of Azerbaijan. It was in the center of Artsakh, surrounding the capital, Stepanakert. It was notable for containin ...

of the

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 ...

and the town was settled by Armenians. The town had an

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

-majority population of 908 inhabitants in 2005, and 1,397 inhabitants in 2015. After 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 ...

, five Armenian families displaced from Vazgenashen (Gulably) settled in the town, as well as in Shosh (Shushikend). Artsakh launched the construction of two new residential districts in the town in 2021, consisting of more than 400 apartments for displaced people from the village of Mets Tagher (Boyuk Taghlar) in the

Hadrut Province Hadrut Province () was a province of the Republic of Artsakh. The provincial capital was Hadrut city. The last governor was Valery Gevorkian. The province was captured by the armed forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan during the 2020 Nagorno-Ka ...

Republic of Azerbaijan

Khojaly came under Azerbaijani control on 24 September 2023, 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 ...

. On 15 October 2023,

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan The president of the Republic of Azerbaijan is the head of state of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Constitution states that the president is the embodiment of executive power, commander-in-chief, "representative of Azerbaijan in home and for ...

Ilham Aliyev Ilham Heydar Oghlu Aliyev (born 24 December 1961) is an Azerbaijani politician who has been the fourth president of Azerbaijan since 2003. He is also the leader of the New Azerbaijan Party since 2005. The son and second child of former Aze ...

raised the Azerbaijani national flag in Khojaly. On 28 May 2024, Aliyev presented apartment keys to the returning residents of Khojaly.

Historical heritage sites

Historical heritage sites in and around the town include burial mounds and fields from the 2nd–1st millennia BCE and a 14th-century tomb. Tombstones from the

Late Middle Ages The late Middle Ages or late medieval period was the Periodization, period of History of Europe, European history lasting from 1300 to 1500 AD. The late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period ( ...

and the 18th century, and a 19th-century Turkic mausoleum are located a few hundred meters to the west of the town.

Economy and culture

The population is mainly engaged in

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

and

animal husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, animal fiber, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, management, production, nutrition, selective breeding, and the raising ...

. As of 2015, the town has a municipal building, a house of culture, a secondary school, eleven shops, and a medical centre.

International relations

In February 2010, the Azeri-Czech Society reported that representatives of the Azeri administration of Khojaly in exile and the

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

town of

Lidice Lidice (; ) is a municipality and village in Kladno District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 600 inhabitants. Lidice is built near the site of the previous village, which was completely destroyed on 10 June 19 ...

signed an agreement, making Khojaly and Lidice

sister cities A sister city or a twin town relationship is International relations, a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. While there ar ...

, and that a street in Lidice was named "Khojaly". In March 2012, reports quoted the mayor of Lidice, Veronika Kellerova, as officially stating that Lidice and Khojaly had never been sister cities. She further repudiated reports that there exists a street named Khojaly in Lidice.

Gallery

Համայնապատկեր,_Իվանյան.jpg, Panorama Խաղահրապարակ,_Իվանյանում.jpg, Playground Իվանյանի_մանկապարտեզ.jpg, Kindergarten Իվանյանի դպրոցը.jpg, School in the town Մզկիթ,_Իվանյան.jpg, Mausoleum Իվանյանի_համայնապատկեր.jpg, Panorama Հուշարձան,_Իվանյան.jpg, Monument Տեսարան,_Իվանյան.jpg, Scenery Գինու_գործարան,_Իվանյան.jpg, Wine factory Իվանյան գյուղի մուտքը.jpg, Sign in Armenian at the entrance of the town

References

External links

*
Population statistics (2005)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Khojaly Populated places in Khojaly District