Aşağı Ağcakənd

Coordinates: 40°25′20″N 46°33′36″E / 40.42222°N 46.56000°E

Aşağı Ağcakənd
Municipality
Aşağı Ağcakənd
Coordinates: 40°25′20″N 46°33′36″E / 40.42222°N 46.56000°E
Country	Azerbaijan
Rayon	Goranboy
Population
• Total	207
Time zone	AZT (UTC+4)
• Summer (DST)	AZT (UTC+5)

Aşağı Ağcakənd (also, Ashagi Agchakand, Ashagy Agdzhakend, Nerkishen, Nizhniy Agdzhakend, Novo Agdzhakend, Shahoumian, Shahumyan, Shaumyan, and Shaumyanovsk) is a village in the Goranboy Rayon of Azerbaijan. The municipality consists of the villages of Aşağı Ağcakənd, Yuxarı Ağcakənd and Meşəli.^[1]

In antiquity the territory was a part of Artsakh; in the Middle Ages it was part of the principality of Khachen; in the 17-18th centuries the territory formed part of Melik-Abovian dynasty's melikdom of Gulistan, with its capital in the fortress of that name. During Soviet times in the area was renamed after the Armenian Bolshevik Stepan Shahumyan, its administrative center taking the same name. By the 1990s the population of Shahumian district was almost exclusively Armenian by language and ethnicity, though the area was not included within the boundaries of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast by the Soviet Union. In the spring-summer of 1991, Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev ordered Operation Ring in which the Soviet Red Army surrounded some of the area's Armenian villages (notably Getashen and Martunashen) and violently deported their inhabitants to Armenia. Approximately 17,000 Armenians living in Shahumian's twenty-three villages were deported out of the region. In December 1991 with the Soviet Union imploding, Shahumian was claimed by the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and became the focus for considerable fighting. This reached a climax in summer 1992 when most of the area was taken by the Azerbaijan army. Damage was severe and the Armenian population fled.The historical name of the town of Shahumian was abolished and renamed to Aşağı Ağcakənd in 1992 and it has been partly re-populated by ethnic Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons.

During Soviet times Aşağı Ağcakənd was officially named Shaumian after the Bolshevik leader Stepan Shahumyan.

Today Aşağı Ağcakənd town remains noticeably war-damaged but has been partly re-populated by ethnic-Azerbaijani refugees^[2] and internally displaced persons.

References

1. "Belediyye Informasiya Sistemi" (in Azerbaijani). Archived from the original on September 24, 2008.
2. Trailblazer "Azerbaijan with Excursions to Georgia", Hindhead, UK, 2004; p245

• Aşağı Ağcakənd at GEOnet Names Server