By the end of the XV century, the Kazakh Sultanate was established as a sovereign geopolitical entity in the region. Though it was part of the Karabakh principality during the Safavid Empire, Sultan Shamsaddin of Gazakh was given the rank of Khan by the decree of Abbas the Great in 1605.
After the Russo-Persian War (1804–1813), the Russian Empire gained control of the area by virtue of the Treaty of Gulistan. Under Russian rule, it was part of Tiflis Governorate before forming the northeastern part of the Kazakh Uyezd of the Elisabethpol Governorate in 1868. A contemporary military historian noted the following ethnographic detail: "Abbas Mirza's route lay through the country of the great tribe of the Casaks, which is extremely strong and thickly wooded." He further notes that: "These have no connection with the RussianCossacks. They are descended from men of the Kirgis Casaks, left by Genghis Khan. They are frequently called Karapapakh, from wearing black sheep-skin caps."[3]
When the South Caucasus came under British occupation, Sir John Oliver Wardrop, British Chief Commissioner in the South Caucasus, decided that assigning the Erivan Governorate and the Kars OblasttoDemocratic Republic of Armenia (DRA) and the Elisabethpol and Baku Governorates to the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) would solve the region's outstanding disputes. However, this proposal was rejected by both Armenians (who did not wish to give up their claims to Gazakh, Zangezur (today Syunik), and Nagorno-Karabakh) and Azerbaijanis (who did not wish to give up their claims to Nakhchivan). As conflict broke out between the two groups, the British left the region in mid-1919.
During the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, Armenian troops took control of several villages of the Gazakh District. Several Azerbaijani inhabitants were killed during the war although some of them were able to flee.[4]
In April 2024, Armenia and Azerbaijan reached an agreement whereby Armenia handed over four abandoned villages within Qazax District to Azerbaijan: Bağanis Ayrum, Aşağı Əskipara, Xeyrimli, and Qızılhacılı.[6]
There are 112 protected monuments in the region of Gazakh, of which 54 are archaeological, 46 are architectural, 7 are historical, and 5 are of artistic significance. Historic and tourist sites in this region include:
The House of the Poet Samad Vurgun in Yukhari Salahli village, since 1976.
The Museum of History and Ethnography, since 1984.
The Gazakh State Picture Gallery by the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan, since 1986.
The House of Teachers Seminary of Gazakh, built in 1910, functioned between 1918 and 1959.
The Bath House of Israfil Agha, built in the first decade of the 20th century by Israfil Agha Kerbelayev from the village of Kasaman.
The Damjili Caves, in the village of Dash Salahli, south-east of the mount Avey, cover an area of 360 km2 and refer to Middle and Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic eras.
Sining Korpu (The Broken Bridge) (Azerbaijani: Sınıq körpü), a 12th-century bridge built over the Ehram (Khram) river in the village Ikinji Shikhli.
Didevan Castle (Azerbaijani: Didəvan qalası), a 6th-7th century monument in the village of Khanliglar.
Mount Goyazan (Azerbaijani: Göyəzən dağı), a rare archaeological monument in the village of Abbasbeyli, rises 857.9 metres above sea level.
^Lt-Gen. William Monteith, Kars and Erzeroum: With the Campaigns of Prince Paskiewitch, in 1828 and 1829; and an Account of the conquests of Russia beyond the Caucasus, from the time of Peter the Great to the Treaty of Turcoman Chie and Adrianople, London: Longman, 1856, p. 60
^Harutyunyan, Sargis; Danielyan, Emil. "Armenia-Azerbaijan Border 'Calm' After Deadly Clashes". azatutyun.am. RFE/RL. Archived from the original on 5 August 2020. Retrieved 5 August 2020. ...the border between Armenia's northern Tavush province and the Tovuz district in Azerbaijan, the scene of the clashes.
Azerbaijan
