Lachin

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Lachin town August, 2006

Lachin (Azerbaijani: Laçın, Armenian: Berdzor, Kurdish: Laçîn) is a town in the rayon of Lachin, Azerbaijan. It is 320 km southwest of Baku and about 200 km southeast of Yerevan. Since May 1992, the town has been under the control of the Nagorno-Karabakh army after the Nagorno-Karabakh War.

1 Population
2 Lachin Kurds
3 Terrain
4 Nagorno-Karabakh war
5 Reconstruction
6 Religious
7 See also
8 External links
9 Notes
10 References

[edit] Population

An Armenian family in the Kashatagh region near Lachin (Berdzor) town.

Currently the population reaches about 2,200 for the town of Lachin and 9,800 for the Lachin (rayon) during a 2005 census. Many are Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan, but before the Nagorno-Karabakh war the population stood at well over 67,000. Armenian president Robert Kocharyan has said Armenian and Karabakh authorities do not want settlements outside a 20-30 km radius of Lachin.^[1]

[edit] Lachin Kurds

A tank that was destroyed during the Nagorno-Karabakh war which is 15km South of Lachin

The town was inhabited by nomadic Kurdish tribes in the 18th century. Eventually, this population became the majority in most parts of the region, particularly around Lachin. The town of Lachin on July 7, 1923, became the capital of Kurdistan Autonomous Oblast often known as Red Kurdistan. It was dissolved on April 8, 1929. According to what Bushkapin wrote, official statistics of 1931 showed that there were 3,322 Kurdish speakers in Lachin. These figures did not include those individuals who did not speak Kurdish but nonetheless defined themselves as Kurds.^[2] Most of the Kurdish population in Lachin were Shi'a muslims. Most of the Kurdish population of Lachin was deported by the Soviet authorities, in late 1930s. Many Kurds still were able to remain in the town and there was a Kurdish minority in the area before the Nagorno-Karabakh war started. In 1992, the Lachin Kurdish Republic was declared in Armenia by a group led by Wekîl Mustafayev, but this attempt failed. Mustafayev took refuge in Italy.

[edit] Terrain

The town is scenically built on the side of a mountain. The Ahavni River runs by the town.

[edit] Nagorno-Karabakh war

Armenian's celebrating the capture of Lachin.

Lachin town and the rayon surrounding the town was a scene of severe fighting during the 1990-1994 Nagorno-Karabakh war, this is why the town is still recovering from the distruction of a war. Lachin is the most important town under Nagorno-Karabakh control because of the Lachin corridor which attaches Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh. The OSCE Minsk group co-chairs have noted that “Lachin has been treated as a separate case in previous negotiations.” This is because Lachin is Nagorno Karabakh’s humanitarian and security corridor. Without it, Nagorno-Karabakh would remain an isolated enclave. It is because of Lachin’s political and geographic reality and security dimension, that it is viewed differently in the negotiation process.^[3] The Lachin corridor and the Kelbajar district have been at the center of Armenian demands during the Nagorno-Karabakh peace talks with Azerbijan.^[4]

[edit] Reconstruction

Land mines near the town.

Nagorno-Karabakh is trying to reconstruct the town because it has a strategic importance for the Nagorno-Karabakh government. The Armenian government has allocated a budget estimated at 2.2 billion drams to Lachin, but only 50 million drams have actually been spent.

HALO Trust member clearing land mine.

One of the reasons why the town is slow in recovering from the war is because it is heavly land mined area. A British de-mining charity considers Lachin to be the most mine-infested region in Karabakh and surrounding regions.^[5] HALO Trust which is an international mine clearance charity has been working in the Kashatagh region for over two years trying to clear the mines that were laid by both sides during the war. HALO Trust is based in Stepanakert, capital of the self-declared Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and employs 200 local staff and is headed by 1 expat Programme Manager. There are 5 Mine Clearance teams, 1 Mechanical Mine Clearance section, 4 Battle Area Clearance (BAC) teams, 2 General Survey teams and 1 Mine Risk Education Team.

[edit] Religious

In 1999, The Aghbradzor St. Grigor church was discovered in the forests, near the village of Haytagh. Also there is an Armenian monastery of Tsitsernavank near Lachin town. Furthermore, on the outskirts of Lachin, there is an Armenian church which was constructed recently. Partially legible carvings on a khatchkar at the church proclaim that Prince Grigor, son of princes, built the church in 1068-1069. A museum has opened in 1996 which contains a bronze club dated 3rd millennium B.C. and stone totems. The items were discovered six years ago during excavations carried out in the territory of Kaitskarsar.^[6]