Manashid or Mənəşli (; hy, Մենաշեն, Menashen) is a village and municipality in the

Goranboy District Goranboy District ( az, Goranboy rayonu) is one of the 66 districts of Azerbaijan. It is located in the west of the country and belongs to the Ganja-Dashkasan Economic Region. The district borders the districts of Kalbajar, Tartar, Yevlakh, Samu ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

. It lies south of Todan village. Today the village has a population of 298, and the municipality consists of two villages: Mənəşli and Erkeç. The village had an Armenian majority prior to the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and

Operation Ring Operation Ring (russian: link=no, Операция «Кольцо», translit=Operatsia Kol'tso; hy, «Օղակ» գործողություն, ), known in Azerbaijan as Operation Chaykand ( az, Çaykənd əməliyyatı) was the codename for th ...

History

The village was founded as Manashid (or Monashid) by Swiss-German settlers and was once renowned for its cheese. As part of the Shahumyan district of

Soviet Azerbaijan Azerbaijan ( az, Азәрбајҹан, Azərbaycan, italics=no), officially the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (Azerbaijan SSR; az, Азәрбајҹан Совет Сосиалист Республикасы, Azərbaycan Sovet Sosialist R ...

, it was 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 across the ...

-majority village. During the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, the area around Manashid was at the heart of the fighting during

in the spring of 1991. In September 1991 the ''Chicago Tribune'' reported that the residents had lived "without electricity, gas and supplies for months" and that school had been cancelled as "residents fear putting all the children in one place that could be shelled".Storer H. Rowley's report for Chicago Tribune, 21/9/1991
/ref> During Operation Ring, Manashid was emptied of its ethnic Armenian population, and the village was essentially destroyed including the Armenian church of Surb Hovhannes. Some years later it was renamed Mənəşli (Menashli) and settled by

Azerbaijanis Azerbaijanis (; az, Azərbaycanlılar, ), Azeris ( az, Azərilər, ), or Azerbaijani Turks ( az, Azərbaycan Türkləri, ) are a Turkic peoples, Turkic people living mainly in Azerbaijan (Iran), northwestern Iran and the Azerbaijan, Republi ...

References

External links

* Populated places in Goranboy District {{Goranboy-geo-stub