Lalatapa (, ) is a high hill in the

Jabrayil Rayon Jabrayil District () is one of the 66 districts of Azerbaijan. It is located in the south-west of the country and belongs to the East Zangezur Economic Region. The district borders the districts of Khojavend, Fuzuli, Qubadli, Zangilan, and th ...

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 ...

, north-west of Çocuq Mərcanlı. In 2019, an archaeological expedition led by Khagani Almammadov of the

National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) (, located in Baku, is the main state research organization and the primary body that conducts research and coordinates activities in the fields of science and social sciences in Azerbaijan. It was ...

announced the discovery of a Neolithic settlement near Lalatapa. The settlement reportedly dates back to the first half of the sixth millennium BC and covers a total area of 0.9 hectares. Subsequent archaeological excavations in 2020 revealed a conical ziggurat and the remains of three structures: one round, one oval and one rectangular, with a small fragment of a fence. The multi-tiered round structure, with a diameter of 3.3 m and a height of 1.5–2 m, is said to have served as a living area. In it were discovered two jugs, tools made of stone and bone and remnants of a hearth. A child's skeleton was discovered under the third tier. Additionally, a nearby burial site yielded 14 graves containing not only skeletons but also necklaces made of glass, stone and malachite, along with bone jewelry and a knob. Having a strategic military importance, the hill was one of the battle sites 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 ...

on February 11–12, 1994, following which it was seized by Armenian troops. Lalatapa was retaken by Azerbaijani forces during the

2016 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict The 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, also known as the Four-Day War, April War, or April clashes, began along the former Nagorno-Karabakh line of contact on 1 April 2016 with the Artsakh Defence Army, backed by the Armenian Armed Forces, on on ...

, which was independently confirmed by an AFP journalist. 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 ...

, in April 2021, the hill again entered public discourse in Armenia when opponents of the Prime Minister of Armenia

Nikol Pashinyan Nikol Vovayi Pashinyan (born 1 June 1975) is an Armenian politician who is serving as the 16th and current Prime Minister of Armenia, prime minister of Armenia since 8 May 2018. A journalist by profession, Pashinyan founded his own newspaper in ...

accused him of ordering a failed operation to capture Lalatapa in early October 2020, resulting in severe casualties for the Armenian side and the collapse of the Armenian defense on the southeastern part of the front. Pashinyan rejected this accusation, saying that the operation was proposed and planned by generals and that he merely moderated the discussion between them. Lieutenant General

Samvel Babayan Samvel Andraniki Babayan (; born 5 March 1965) is an Armenians, Armenian military officer and politician. He was one of the founders and main commanders of the Artsakh Defence Army during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and became a war hero amon ...

, who was Secretary of the Security Council of Artsakh during the 2020 war, stated in an interview in April 2021 that he proposed the failed operation, but that it occurred some 10 kilometers away from Lalatapa and resulted in only 2 casualties for the Armenian side.

References

{{Jabrayil Rayon Jabrayil District Landforms of Azerbaijan Hills of Asia