| Jolfa جلفا |
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|---|---|
| — city — | |
| Central Square of Jolfa | |
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Jolfa
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | Iran |
| Province | East Azerbaijan |
| County | Jolfa |
| Bakhsh | Central |
| Population (2006) | |
| • Total | 4,983 |
| Time zone | IRST (UTC+3:30) |
| • Summer (DST) | IRDT (UTC+4:30) |
Jolfa (Persian: جلفا; also Romanized as Jolfā, Julfa, and Dzhulfi)[1] is a city in and capital of Jolfa County, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 4,983, in 1,365 families.[2]
Jolfa is located to the north of Tabriz, separated by the Araks River from its northern neighbor and namesake, the town of Julfa in the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Some 18,000 students study in the regional schools and 450 students attend the universities from all over the country. The employed population of the city work in service, administrative, transport, customs, banks and insurance as well as in other trade and urban activities. The majority of the rural population are farmers. With the increasing level of education and the popularity of mechanical agriculture, there are increasing numbers of young, qualified people entering the work force.
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Jolfa is one of the most important border towns for the Islamic Republic of Iran. Customs facilities in the city and the Caucasus-Jolfa railway have been designed to accommodate custom duties, warehousing, cargo releasing and transportation of three million tons of commodities per year. Prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, all imports and exports of Iran with the USSR, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia were primarily carried out through Jolfa.
During the year 1990 and 1991 the volume of cargo exchanges through the Jolfa border amounted to 2.69 and 2.37 million tons respectively, forming over 10 percent of the country's imports. After the closing of the Caucasus-Jolfa railway due to the dispute over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia and Azarbaijan, cargo exchanges through this border dropped sharply. However, in recent years, an annual average of 150,000 tons of cargo have been cleared from Jolfa border to Turkey, Azarbaijan republic, and Nakhichevan, Armenia and vice versa through the main roads of Jolfa. Upon the cessation of hostilities and continuation of settlement talks, as well as with the opening of the Iran Caucasus railway, it is expected that the border town of Jolfa will revive its past significance to be not only one of the most important cargo exchange borders among Iran, the Caucasus and Russia, but will also become one of the greatest cargo transit routes from Persian Gulf and Central Asia to Caucasus, Russia and vice versa.