Jabrayil

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"Jebrail" redirects here. For the village in Iran, see Jebrail, Iran.

Coordinates: 39°24′00″N 47°01′34″E / 39.40000°N 47.02611°E / 39.40000; 47.02611

Jabrayil

Cəbrayıl
City and municipality
Ruins of the city after the First Nagorno-Karabakh War
Ruins of the city after the First Nagorno-Karabakh War
Jabrayil is located in Azerbaijan
Jabrayil
Jabrayil
Coordinates: 39°24′00″N 47°01′34″E / 39.40000°N 47.02611°E / 39.40000; 47.02611
Country Azerbaijan
DistrictJabrayil
Established1980
Elevation
569 m (1,867 ft)
Population
 (1989)
 • TotalCurrently uninhabited
Pre-war population was 6,070[1]
Time zoneUTC+4 (AZT)

Jabrayil (Azerbaijani: Cəbrayıl, [d͡ʒæ̞bɾɑ̝jɘl] (About this soundlisten)) is a ghost city in Azerbaijan, nominally the administrative capital of Azerbaijan's Jabrayil District.

Formerly an Azerbaijani village, later with an Armenian plurality, and eventually with an exclusively Azerbaijani population, it is abandoned since the city's occupation and destruction by local Armenian forces during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.[2][3]

History[]

Russian Empire[]

Jabrayil was made part of Dzhebrail Uyezd of the Russian Empire in 1868.

According to Caucasus Calendar, population of Jabrayil in 1855 consisted of Shia Tatars (Azerbaijanis), who spoke the Tatar (Azerbaijani) language.[4]

According to the census held in 1897, the population of the Uyezd was 66,360, of which 49,189 (74%) were Turko-Tatars (i.e. Azerbaijanis), 15,746 (24%) were Armenians, 893 (1.3%) were Russians, 398 (0.6%) were Kurds and other minorities.[5]

The village of Jabrayil itself, with a population of 520, had an Armenian plurality: 228 Armenians; 186 Turko-Tatars (Azerbaijanis); 76 Russians.[2]

Soviet Union[]

According to a Soviet census, the population of Jabrayil District in 1926 was 10,653. No ethnic breakdown is listed for the village itself. Of those in the district 97.2% were Turks (i.e. Azerbaijanis), 105 (1%) were Russians, 57 (0.5%) were Armenians and 24 (0.2%) were Persians.[3] Soviet census of 1979 registered 4825 inhabitants, almost all (99,5 %) ethnic Azerbaijanis.[6] As the administrative center of the eponymous district, Jabrayil developed considerably during the Soviet era and by the beginning of the 1950s, there were two seven-year schools, a secondary school, a cultural centre, summer and winter cinemas, two libraries and a club.[7] The main economic products were butter, cheeses and carpets.[8]

Armenian Occupation[]

The city was occupied on 23 August 1993 by the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh. It was subsequently looted and destroyed by ethnic Armenian forces and has since remained a ghost town.[9] It was renamed Jrakan (Ջրական), and also called Mekhakavan (Մեխակավան) and was part of the Hadrut Province during its existence.[10][11]

Recapture by Azerbaijan[]

After 27 years, on 9 October 2020, Azerbaijan regained control of the city during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.[12]

In the context of the war, on 4 October 2020, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced that the Azerbaijani Armed Forces had taken control of the city following a day-long battle;[13] however, Shushan Stepanyan, the Press Secretary of the Minister of Defence of Armenia denied this.[14] On 5 October, the Artsakhian President, Arayik Harutyunyan, claimed that he had visited the city.[15] However, on 9 October 2020, footage released by Azerbaijan Ministry of Defence showed Azerbaijani soldiers raising the flag of Azerbaijan in the centre of the ruined city.[16] Reporters from Euronews visited the city on 17 October, confirming Azerbaijani control.[17]

The governmental press accompanying President Ilham Aliyev on a visit to recently recaptured Jabrayil on November 2020 reported that except for a newly built military unit, no building was left intact since the capture of the city in 1993.[18] Several ambassadors who visited the ruined city in February 2021 expressed their shock at the state of the city[19] and added that a number of graves had been defaced or dug up.[20] A BBC report noted that the homes and graves of Azerbaijanis had been completely destroyed during the Armenian occupation[9]

Zoravor Surp Astvatsatsin church[]

In 2017, the "Zoravor Holy Mother of God" (St. Mary) [21] Armenian church was opened at the Armenian military base in Jabrayil.[22][23] Construction of the church drew condemnation from Azerbaijan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[24] In March 2021, the BBC journalist Jonah Fisher visited the site of the church using geolocation and observed no trace of it remained. When he asked the police escort what happened to the church, the latter initially said that the church was "destroyed during the war" but then when confronted with the fact that videos clearly showed the church was still intact when the area had come under Azerbaijani control, he said that "they [Armenians] destroyed it themselves". When Fisher showed the images to Head of Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmet Hajiyev saying "the church has been destroyed", Hajiyev replied "because it's a proper geolocation I don't know, I need to check", changing the subject to the "destruction of Azerbaijani cities by Armenians".[9]

Notable people[]

Gallery[]

  • Memorial cross installed by Armenians after the First Nagorno-Karabakh war

  • Aerial view of the ruined city, showing destroyed homes

  • Jabrayil city, Aerial 3.jpg

References[]

  1. ^ "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 г. Численность городского населения союзных республик, их территориальных единиц, городских поселений и городских районов по полу". Demoscope.ru (in Russian). 1989. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Первая всеобщая перепись населения Российской Империи, 1897 г. т.63 Елисаветопольская губерния. Н.А.Тройницкий, С.-Петербург, 1904. стр. 138
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b "ДЖЕБРАИЛЬСКИЙ УЕЗД (1926 г.)" [Jabrayil Uyezd (1926)]. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  4. ^ Кавказский календарь на 1856 год. Тифлис: Канцелярия Кавказского Наместника. 1855. p. 412. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
  5. ^ "Первая всеобщая перепись населения Российской Империи 1897 г. Распределение населения по родному языку и уездам Российской Империи кроме губерний Европейской России" [First All Russian Imperial Census of 1897. Population split according to languages spoken; uyezds of Russian empire except for governorates in European part of empire]. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  6. ^ Джебраильский район (1979).
  7. ^ «Джебраил». Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 1950.
  8. ^ Soviet Encyclopaedia
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Who Won the Karabakh War?". bbc.co.uk. BBC. 26 March 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  10. ^ "'This Is A Different War': Nagorno-Karabakh Refugee Shudders At Video Showing Neighbors' Execution". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. 30 October 2020. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  11. ^ "Armenian company: Employee dies, others wounded after blast near storage room in Karabakh's Martuni". news.am. 26 October 2020. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  12. ^ "Cəbrayıl şəhərində Azərbaycan Bayrağı dalğalanır - VİDEO" (in Azerbaijani). Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan. 9 October 2020. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  13. ^ "President Ilham Aliyev: "Azerbaijani Army liberates Jabrayil city and several villages of the region"". APA.az. 4 October 2020. Retrieved 4 October 2020. "Today, the Azerbaijani army liberated the city of Jabrayil and several villages in the region. Love to the Azerbaijani army! Karabakh is Azerbaijan!", President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev wrote this on his Twitter page today, APA reports.
  14. ^ "Քիչ անց կներկայացնենք փախուստ Մատաղիսից վավերագրությունը․ Շուշան Ստեփանյան". hy.armradio.com (in Armenian). Armenian Public Radio. 4 October 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  15. ^ "Fighting spirit of the boys and the confidence in victory are just contagious. Artsakh President". 1lurer.am. 5 October 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  16. ^ "Флаг Азербайджана развевается на освобожденных территориях Джебраила" (in Russian). 9 October 2020.
  17. ^ "Съемочная группа Euronews побывала в городе Джебраиле". youtube.com (in Russian). Euronews по-русски. 17 October 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  18. ^ Mushvig Mehdiyev (19 November 2020). "Azerbaijani President Visits Liberated Districts, Vows to Rebuild Damaged Villages and Cities". caspiannews.com. Caspian News. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  19. ^ "It's really painful to see such scenes in Jabrayil - Croatian ambassador". azernews.az. AzerNews. 6 February 2021. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  20. ^ "Afghanistan's ambassador: The sight we saw in Jabrayil was terrible". apa.az. APA. 6 February 2021. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  21. ^ https://asbarez.com/201365/azerbaijan-destroys-another-armenian-church-after-war/
  22. ^ "Մեխակավան (Ջեբրայիլ) բնակավայրում օծվել է Զորավոր Սուրբ Աստվածածին եկեղեցին (լուսանկարներ)" [Holy Mother of God Church has been consecrated in the settlement of Mekhakavan (Jabrayil)]. 168.am. 3 October 2017. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  23. ^ Kucera, Joshua (26 March 2021). "What happened to the church?". Eurasianet. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
  24. ^ "Azerbaijan says Armenia's actions contradict basic principles of Christianity". 5 October 2017. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  25. ^ "Ахмедов Джамил Мамед оглы". Heroes of the country.
  26. ^ "Кулиев Теймур Имам Кули оглы". Справочник по истории Коммунистической партии и Советского Союза 1898 - 1991.

External links[]

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