Yukhari Askipara is an abandoned village in an

exclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is s ...

of the

Qazakh District Qazax District (; ) is one of the 66 districts of Azerbaijan. Located in the northwest of the country, it belongs to the Gazakh-Tovuz Economic Region. The district borders the district of Aghstafa, and the Tavush Province of Armenia. Its capital ...

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 surrounded by

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 ...

Tavush Province Tavush (, ) is a administrative divisions of Armenia, province of Armenia located at the northeast of Armenia, bordered by Georgia (country), Georgia from the north and Azerbaijan from the east. Internally, Tavush borders the Gegharkunik Province ...

and has been occupied by Armenia since 1992, when it was captured and destroyed by Armenian troops in 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 ...

. Armenia agreed to return control over Yukhari Askipara and six other villages to Azerbaijan as part of the ceasefire agreement that ended the

Second 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 Armenian-occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, surrounding occupied territories. It was a major esca ...

, but this has yet to be done.

History

According to the 1915 publication of the '' Kavkazskiy kalendar'' (Caucasian calendar), Yukhari Askipara () had a predominantly Tatar (later known as Azerbaijani) population of 278 residents in 1914. Prior to the

(1988–1994), the village was home to 500 Azerbaijani residents from 100 families. It was captured and destroyed by Armenian soldiers in 1992, and its population was expelled to other parts of Azerbaijan's

. The village has since been administered as part of Armenia's

, which completely surrounds it. In 2004, three medieval bridges, a fortress, and the ruins of a church remained standing in the village. Yukhari Askipara was one of seven villages that Armenia promised to return to Azerbaijani control in the original terms of the trilateral ceasefire agreement which ended the

(2020). However, Russian officials omitted this detail in their later communications regarding the agreement. Nonetheless, in 2024, Armenian prime minister

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 ...

publicly reiterated Azerbaijan's sovereignty over the seven villages, saying that they were not part of Armenian territory in the present day nor in Soviet times.

Notable people

Firudin Musayev was a locally-born Soviet politician and soldier who rose from a peasant background to become a

brigadier Brigadier ( ) is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore (rank), commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several t ...

in the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

, then a state farm director before becoming a deputy of the 8th convocation of the

Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union The Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (SSUSSR) was the highest body of state authority of the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1936 to 1991. Based on the principle of unified power, it was the only branch of government in the So ...

Notes

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, Geography Enclaves and exclaves Populated places in Qazax District Former populated places in the Caucasus Extreme points of Azerbaijan