Shahumyan Province (, also spelled ''Shaumyan'' and ''Shahumian'') was a

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of the breakaway

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 ...

, ''de jure'' part of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The capital of the province was Karvachar. Shahumyan Province had 17 communities of which one is considered urban and 16 are rural. Its bordered Martakert Province to the east,

Kashatagh Province Kashatagh Province () was a Administrative divisions of the Republic of Artsakh, province of the Republic of Artsakh. It was the largest province by area (3,376.60 km2). The population as of 2013 was 9,656. Its capital was Lachin, Berdzor. ...

to the south, Gegharkunik and Vayots Dzor provinces of

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

to the west and Dashkasan, Goygol and Goranboy districts of

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 ...

to the north. The western part of the province, corresponding to the Kalbajar District of Azerbaijan, was controlled by Artsakh from 1993 to 2020, while the northern part, originally the Shahumyan District of the Azerbaijani SSR (now part of the Goranboy District), remained under Azerbaijani control from 1992 but was claimed by Artsakh. The Shahumyan District was located outside of 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 ...

, but prior to 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 ...

, its population was mostly Armenian and was expelled during

Operation Ring Operation Ring (; , ), known in Azerbaijan as Operation Chaykand () was the codename for the May 1991 military operation conducted by the Soviet Army, Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Soviet Union), Ministry of Internal Af ...

in 1991. While the Shahumyan region was not part of the

, representatives from Shahumyan declared independence along with the oblast, and the proclamation of Artsakh includes the Shahumyan region within its borders.

History

In antiquity the territory was a part of the province of Artsakh (historic province), Artsakh of Greater Armenia. In the Middle Ages it was part of the principality of Khachen; in the 17th and 18th centuries, the territory formed part of the Melik-Abovian dynasty's melikdom of Gulistan, with its capital in the fortress of that name. During Soviet times the area was a part of the Azerbaijan SSR and was renamed Shahumyan (''Shaumyanovksy raion'' in Russian) after the Armenian

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

Stepan Shahumyan, its administrative centre (Shahumyan or Shaumyanovsk) taking the same name. The population of the Shahumyan District was mostly ethnic Armenian, although the area was not included within the boundaries of the

. In the spring/summer of 1991, Soviet general secretary

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

ordered

in which the Soviet Red Army and Azerbaijani OMON surrounded some of the area's Armenian villages (as well as Getashen and Martunashen in the neighboring Khanlar District of the Azerbaijan SSR) and deported their inhabitants to Armenia. Approximately 17,000 Armenians living in Shahumyan's 23 villages were deported from the region. The operation involved ground troops, military, armored vehicles and artillery. The deportations of Armenian civilians were carried out with gross human rights violations documented by international human rights organizations.Human Rights Watch. Bloodshed in the Caucucasus. Escalation of the armed conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. 1992 p. 9 Armenian forces recaptured most of Shahumyan in fall 1991, and the region was included in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic when it declared its independence in December 1991. However, Armenian forces lost control of Shahumyan in summer 1992 after an Azerbaijani offensive. The town of Shahumyan was subsequently renamed to Aşağı Ağcakənd by Azerbaijan in 1992 and partially repopulated by Azerbaijanis, mostly representing internally displaced persons deported from Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts. Armenian forces captured the Kalbajar District of Azerbaijan in 1993 and administered it as a part of Shahumyan Province. As part of an agreement that ended 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 ...

, the town of Kalbajar (Karvachar) and its surrounding district were returned to Azerbaijani control. The initial deadline of 15 November 2020, but this was extended to 25 November 2020. It was the second region to be returned to Azerbaijan per the ceasefire agreement, after Aghdam.

Towns in Soviet Shahumyan and Getashen

Armenians constituted 73.2% of the population of the Shahumyan District of the Azerbaijan SSR in 1979, and the majority of the villages within the Shahumyan district and the Getashen village had an Armenian majority prior to 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

, with the exception for some Azerbaijani-majority villages (as well as some smaller localities), which are mentioned as such in the following list. The Shahumyan district and Getashen subdistrict are claimed by the Republic of Artsakh as part of the Shahumyan Province.

Shahumyan district

Getashen subdistrict

External links

Armeniapedia - Rediscovering Armenia - Nagorno-Karabakh

References

{{Authority control Subdivisions of the Republic of Artsakh Shahumyan Province States and territories disestablished in 2020 2020 disestablishments in Azerbaijan