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90-714: Fath-Ali Khan belonged to the Arashlu subgroup of the Afshar tribe . He was from the branch of Afshars that had populated the city of Urmia since the Safavid era. According to the modern historian P. Oberling, Fath-Ali Khan was "the most famous of the Afshar governors of Urmia." The Urmia Afshars played a big role in the violent wars that followed after the death of the shah (king) of Iran , Nader Shah ( r.  1736–1747 ) in 1747. Through extensive local support, Fath-Ali Khan

180-800: A firman (decree) recognizing Panah Ali as the Khan of Karabakh. Less than a year after Shusha was founded, the Karabakh Khanate was attacked by Mohammad Hassan Khan Qajar , one of the major claimants to the Iranian throne. During the Safavid Empire Karabakh was for almost two centuries ruled by Ziyad-oglu family of the clan of Qajars (of Turkic origin), and therefore, Muhammed Hassan Khan considered Karabakh his hereditary estate. Muhammed Hassan Khan besieged Shusha (Panahabad at that time) but soon had to retreat because of

270-422: A combined force of Zand, Dashtestani and Khesht musketeers. This resulted in the defeat and flight of the Afshar forces. The survivors fled to Shiraz, which Azad Khan was forced to abandon ten days later. On 29 November 1754, Karim Khan arrived to Shiraz. During the next spring, Fath-Ali Khan was defeated by Mohammad Khan, who had reunited with Karim Khan. Azad Khan soon clashed with Mohammad Hasan Khan Qajar, who

360-590: A distinct group, for they are subsumed under label of Turkoman . Furthermore, it seems that the different Turkoman elements were subject to diverse re-grouping processes, insofar that when new "tribes" came into existence, only some were able to maintain traditional Oghuz tribal names, such as "Afshar". Georg Stöber explains that in the political environment of the time the ranking of the different groups supported by (constructed) genealogies became increasingly important. Rashid al-Din Hamadani (died 1318) believed that

450-524: A fortress called Shikakar or Karaglukh, where the 9th-century Armenian prince Sahl Smbatean is said to have defeated an invading Arab army. According to several sources, a settlement called Shosh served as an ancient fortress in the Armenian principality of Varanda, and had traditionally belonged to the Melik-Shahnazarian princely dynasty. According to some sources, Shushi existed and had

540-703: A functioning scriptorium in 1428. The fortress was described as a strategic stronghold in one of the Eastern Armenian military districts, called sghnakhs , playing a key role in the Armenian commander Avan Yuzbashi 's campaign against Ottoman forces during their incursion into of the South Caucasus in the 1720s and 1730s. Armenian historian and Shusha native Ashot Hovhannisian wrote that the fortress walls must have been built by Avan Yuzbashi in 1724, if not earlier. Kehva Chelebi, an early Armenian national activist who maintained correspondence between

630-557: A largely nomadic group. They are variously grouped as a branch of the Azerbaijanis and Turkmens or Turkomans (a common general term used for people of Oghuz Turkic origin). The earliest mention of the Afshar tribe can be found in the Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk by Mahmud Kashgari , who flourished in c.  1075 . Kashgari mentioned the Afshar tribe sixth in his list of 22 Oghuz Turkic sub-tribes, and pointed out that

720-729: A settled lifestyle. A resistance against Ottomans under spiritual leadership of the bard Dadaloğlu and local Afshar lord Kozanoğlu was proven futile. In 1570-71, within the Bozulus , three branches of Diyarbakir Afshars under Mehmed Kethüdâ numbered around 804, 367 and 109. Apart from these, there were many more Afshar branches under the administration of other kethüdas . In the 17th century, some of Bozulus Afshars migrated to Central Anatolia and settled mostly in Karaman Eyalet . Other ones, especially members of Damascus Turkmens remained in their old settlements. This branch, which

810-708: A town and district school and a girls' seminary. The population of the town primarily dealt with trade, horse-breeding, carpet-weaving and wine and vodka production. Shusha was also the biggest centre of silk production in the Caucasus. Most of the Muslim population of the town and of Karabakh, in general, was engaged in sheep and horse-breeding and therefore, had a semi-nomadic lifestyle, spending wintertime in lowland Karabakh in wintering pastures and spring and summer in summering pastures in Shusha and other mountainous parts. In

900-697: Is a city in Azerbaijan , in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh . Situated at an altitude of 1,400–1,800 metres (4,600–5,900 ft) in the Karabakh mountains, the city was a mountain resort in the Soviet era . Most sources date Shusha's establishment to the 1750s by Panah Ali Khan , founder of the Karabakh Khanate , coinciding with the foundation of the fortress of Shusha . Some attribute this to an alliance between Panah Ali Khan and Melik Shahnazar ,

990-587: Is a tribe of Oghuz Turkic origin, that split into several groups in Iran , Turkey and Afghanistan . Afshar means "obedient". According to Rashid-al-Din Hamadani , Afshar, the eponymous founder of the tribe, was a son of Yildiz Khan, the third son of Oghuz Khan . During the Seljuk conquests of the 11th century, they moved from Central Asia into the Middle East . They are noted in history for being one of

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1080-674: Is called boz ulus mândesi ('Bozulus remnant') on Ottoman documents, were later settled in Rakka Eyalet , however many of the tribesmen belonging to this community migrated to Western Anatolia. In 1716, the Köpeklü branch of Bozulus Afshars were seen in Mihaliç kaza . On the other hand, some other Afshars of Bozulus migrated to Iran during the reign of Shah Abbas . Several folk dances in Afshar-inhabited areas are known after

1170-500: Is frequently attributed to Joseph Stalin , who was Commissar of Nationalities at the time, purportedly with the purpose of ensuring Moscow's position as power broker between the Armenian and Azerbaijani SSRs. Stalin participated in the Kavbiuro's meetings on the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh but did not vote. The town remained half-ruined until the 1960s when the town began to gradually revive due to its recreational potential. In 1977

1260-600: Is often considered the cradle of Azerbaijan's music and poetry, and one of the leading centres of the Azerbaijani culture . Shusha also contains a number of Armenian Apostolic churches, including Ghazanchetsots Cathedral and Kanach Zham , and serves as a land link between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia , via the Lachin corridor to the west. Throughout modern history, the city fostered a mixed Armenian–Azerbaijani population. The first available demographic information about

1350-682: Is supported by the second edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam , and the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary . According to Mirza Jamal Javanshir, the author of the Persian-language text History of Karabakh , one of the most significant chronicles on the history of Karabakh in 18th-19th centuries, the Karabakh nobility assembled to discuss the danger of invasion from Iran and told Panah Ali Khan, "We must build among

1440-901: Is to remain within AzSSR, receiving wide regional autonomy with the administrative centre in Shusha, which is to be included in the autonomous region." As a result, the Mountainous Karabakh Autonomous Region was established within the Azerbaijan SSR in 1923. A few years later, Stepanakert , named after the Armenian communist leader Stepan Shaumyan , became the new regional capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast and soon became its largest town. The decision make Nagorno-Karabakh an autonomous region within Azerbaijan

1530-718: The Caucasus , and on August 5, 1905, first conflict between the Armenian and Azerbaijani inhabitants of Shusha took place. As a result of the mutual pogroms and killings, hundreds of people died and more than 200 houses were burned. After World War I and subsequent collapse of the Russian Empire , Karabakh was claimed by Azerbaijan to be part of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic , a decision hotly disputed by neighbouring Armenia and by Karabakh's Armenian population, which claimed Karabakh as part of

1620-588: The First Republic of Armenia . With the capture of Baku, a small force of Turkish troops entered Shusha on 7 October 1918, also occupying the road to Aghdam . Whilst the Armenians of Shusha did not resist the Turks to avoid violence, the Turks with their limited troops were unable to seize the countryside of Karabakh which was held by an armed milita of local Armenians. After the defeat of Ottoman Empire in

1710-491: The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict . After the capture of Shusha in 1992 by Armenian forces during First Nagorno-Karabakh War , the city's Azerbaijani population fled, and most of the city was destroyed. Between May 1992 and November 2020, Shusha was under the de facto control of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh and administered as the centre of its Shushi Province . On 8 November 2020, Azerbaijani forces retook

1800-549: The New Persian Shīsha ("glass, vessel, bottle, flask"). According to the Oxford Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names , when Iranian ruler Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar approached the town with his army, he reportedly told the ruler of Karabakh Ibrahim Khalil Khan : God is pouring stones on thy head. Sit ye not then in thy fortress of glass. Panahabad ("City of Panah"), Shusha's previous name,

1890-772: The Qizilbash tribes that helped establish the Safavid dynasty of Iran, and for being the source of descent of Iran's Afsharid dynasty . Nader Shah , who became the monarch of Iran in 1736, was from the Qereklu clan ( Persian : قرخلو ) of Afshars. The founders of the Germiyanids , and the Khalkhal Khanate were also of Afshar descent. The founder of the Karamanids may have also been of Afshar descent. Today, Afshars mainly inhabit Iran, where they remain

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1980-613: The Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813 . Amidst the war, in 1805, an agreement was made between the Karabakh Khanate and the Russian Empire on the transfer of the Karabakh Khanate to Russia during the war, but was not fully realized, as both parties were still at war and the Russians were unable to consolidate any effective control over Karabakh. The Russian Empire consolidated its power in the Karabakh Khanate following

2070-493: The Treaty of Gulistan in 1813, when Iran was forced to recognize the Karabakh Khanate, along most of the other khanates they possessed in the Caucasus , as belonging to Russia , comprising present-day Dagestan and most of the modern-day Republic of Azerbaijan , while officially ceding Georgia as well, thus irrevocably losing the greater part of its Caucasian territories. Absolute consolidation of Russian power over Karabakh and

2160-534: The World War I , Armenian forces under Andranik Ozanian defeated Azerbaijani forces under Khosrov bey Sultanov in Abdallyar ( Lachin ), and began heading down the Lachin corridor towards Shusha. Shortly before Andranik could arrive, British troops under General W. M. Thomson encouraged him to retreat, out of concerns that Armenian military activity could have an adverse effect on the region's status, which

2250-543: The meliks of Karabakh and the Russian authorities, in a 1725 report describes Shusha as a town and a fort: … The nearest Armenian stronghold … was Shushi. Shushi is four days' distance from Shemakhi. Armed Armenians under the command of Avan Yuzbashi guard it. After meeting with the Armenian leaders, including the Patriarch, they returned to Derbent via Shemakhi. Rocky mountains surround the town of Shushi. The number of

2340-404: The meliks of Jraberd and Talish (Gulistan), however, Melik Shahnazar of Varanda continued to support Panah Ali Khan. The Siege of Shusha lasted for six months and Fath-Ali Khan eventually had to retreat. When Karim Khan Zand took control of much of Iran, he forced Panah Ali Khan to come to Shiraz (capital of Zand-ruled Iran), where he died as a hostage. Panah Ali Khan's son Ibrahim Khalil Khan

2430-622: The Çukurova , who were known to migrate between Syria in the winter and Anatolia in the summer, were forcibly settled by the Ottoman Darwish Pasha in the area of Göksun and Kayseri ; in the mid-twentieth century, villagers of Afshar descent could still be found in the vicinity of the latter two areas. The eastward movement of the Afshars from Anatolia is connected to the foundation of Iran's Safavid dynasty. The Afshars served Shah Ismail I ( r.  1501–1524 ), as part of

2520-489: The 19th century, Shusha was one of the great cities of the Caucasus, larger and more prosperous than either Baku or Yerevan . Standing in the middle of a net of caravan routes, it had ten caravanserais . It was well known for its silk trade, its paved roads, brightly coloured carpets, big stone houses, and fine-bred horses. In 1824, George Keppel, the Earl of Albemarle, passed through the city. He found two thousand houses in

2610-434: The 20th century marked the first Armenian-Tartar clashes throughout Azerbaijan . This new phenomenon had two causes. Firstly, it was the result of increased tensions between the local Muslim population and Armenians, whose numbers increased throughout the 19th century as a result of Russian resettlement policies. Secondly, by the beginning of the 20th-century, the peoples of the Caucasus, similar to other non-Russian peoples in

2700-459: The Armenian half of the city, 1,675 of 1,700 homes, were destroyed. A report from Dashnak archives states that 8,000 Armenians escaped from the city, whilst 5,000–6,000 remained behind. According to the description of an Azerbaijani communist Ojahkuli Musaev: … the ruthless destruction of defenceless women, children, old women, old men, etc has begun. Armenians were exposed to mass slaughter. … beautiful Armenian girls were raped, then shot. … By

2790-628: The Armenian part of the town was built up with plain buildings typical of the Khrushchev era. With the start of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1988 Shusha became the most important Azerbaijani stronghold in Karabakh, from where Azerbaijani forces constantly shelled the capital Stepanakert for half a year, leading to hundreds of Armenian civilian casualties and causing mass destruction in Stepanakert. On May 9, 1992,

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2880-416: The Armenians of the city of Shusha, not sparing women, children, etc. Nadezhda Mandelstam wrote about Shusha in the 1930s, "in this town, which formerly of course was healthy and with every amenity, the picture of catastrophe and massacres was terribly visual. ... They say after the massacres all the wells were full of dead bodies. ... We didn't see anyone in the streets on the mountain. Only in downtown—in

2970-542: The Karabakh Khanate and its fortified capital Shusha were the first and major obstacle to achieve these ends. Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar besieged Shusha with the centre part of a 70,000-strong army, after having crossed the Aras River . The right and left wings were sent to resubjugate Shirvan - Dagestan and Erivan respectively. Agha Mohammad Khan himself led the centre part of the main army, besieging Shusha between 8 July and 9 August 1795. Ibrahim Khalil khan mobilized

3060-582: The Karabakh province (1822–1840), and then of the Shusha Uyezd of the Elisabethpol Governorate (1840–1923). Shusha grew and developed, with successive waves of migrants moving to the city, particularly Armenians, who formed a demographic majority in the surrounding highlands. Beginning from the 1830s the town was divided into two parts: Turkic-speaking Muslims lived in the eastern lower quarters, while Armenian Christians settled in

3150-624: The Middle East, visited "Shushee, in the province of Carabagh, in Armenia Major". Some sources, including Mirza Jamal Javanshir , Mirza Adigozal bey , Abbasgulu Bakikhanov and Mirza Yusuf Nersesov , attest to the foundation of the town in 1750–1752 (according to other sources, 1756–1757) by Panah Ali Khan ( r.  1748–1763 ), the founder and the first ruler of the Karabakh Khanate (1748–1822), which comprised both Lowland and Highland Karabakh . The mid-18th century foundation

3240-546: The Paris Peace Conference. Despite signing the agreement, the Azerbaijani government continuously violated the terms of the treaty, and Sultanov employed severe measures against them, such as terror, blockade and famine. Sultanov gathered troops in the region and on 19 February 1920 issued an ultimatum to the Armenians, demanding they accept unconditional unification with Azerbaijan, and then massacred

3330-505: The Qajars. In the spring of 1760, Karim Khan launched an aggressive campaign into Azerbaijan. He briefly occupied Maragheh , but his soldiers were too lightly-equipped to capture Tabriz, which was well protected by Fath-Ali Khan. Karim Khan thus went back to Tehran before the season changed. In the summer of 1760, Azad Khan attempted to reassert his authority in Azerbaijan, but he was defeated by his former allies, including Fath-Ali Khan. In

3420-943: The Qizilbash tribes that were likely blends of each other and also transcended Turkomans. Stöber therefore explains that the 16th-century Afshars cannot wholly descend from the tribe attested in the 11th century. List of Afshar tribes are: Alplū, Arašlū, Bekešlū, Gündüzlü, Imirlü, Köse Aḥmedlū, Köselü, Pāpāglū, Qāsemlū, Qereḵlū, Karalu, Karamanlu, Salmanlu, Sindelli, Tur Ali Hacılu, Receplü, Balabanlu, Karabudaklı and Qirqlū. Afshars in Turkey mostly live in Sarız , Tomarza and Pınarbaşı districts of Kayseri province, as well as in several villages in Adana, Kahramanmaraş and Gaziantep provinces. While Afshars had remained nomadic and retained their Oghuz lifestyle, forced settlements caused them to adopt

3510-516: The Shusha State Historical and Architectural Reserve was established and the town became one of the major resort-towns in the former USSR. The Armenian quarter continued to lie in ruins until the beginning of the 1960s. In 1961, Baku's communist leadership finally passed a decision to clear away much of the ruins, even though many old buildings still could have been renovated. Three Armenian and one Russian church were demolished and

3600-701: The Turkic migrations, given the paucity of evidence. During the reign of Nader Shah, a group of Afshars assimilated with a couple of modern Turkmen tribes that currently live in the territory of present-day Turkmenistan , such as Gekleng, Murcheli, Esgi, and Ersary . It is known that they formed a backbone of the Murcheli tribe. The Afshars also played a major role in the formation of the Turkmen tribe of Alili. Shusha Shusha ( Azerbaijani : Şuşa , (listen) ) or Shushi ( Armenian : Շուշի )

3690-624: The ancestor of the tribe was a person named "Afshar", who in turn was genealogically linked to the hero Oghuz. The Afshar tribe were also said to be part of the right wing ( bozuq ) of the Oghuz army. In the 12th century, two governors (father and son) from the Afshar tribe held Khuzistan (southwestern Iran) for 40 years. The Karamanid dynasty , who held sway in the Middle Taurus (modern-day Turkey), may have been of Afshar descent. Afshar tribesmen are said to have belonged to nomadic groups in

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3780-500: The ancestors of the inhabitants came from Central Asia, the researchers found that 57% of the villagers had haplogroup L , 13% had haplogroup Q and 3% had haplogroup N. The high rate of haplogroup L observed in this study, which is most common in South Asia , was difficult for researchers to explain and could not be traced back to any specific geographic location, and authors said it would be difficult to associate this haplogroup with

3870-541: The ancient fortress is confirmed by the Russian field marshal Alexander Suvorov in a letter to Prince Grigory Potemkin . Suvorov writes that the Armenian prince Melik Shahnazar of Varanda surrendered his fortress Shushikala to "certain Panah ", whom he called a chief of nomadic Muslims living near the Karabakh borders. When discussing Karabakh and Shusha in the 18th century, the Russian diplomat and historian S. M. Bronevsky writes in his Historical Notes that Shusha fortress

3960-592: The armed Armenians has not been determined. There are rumors that the Armenians have defeated the Turks in a number of skirmishes in Karabagh … A 1769 letter by Georgian king Heraclius II to Russian diplomat Count P. Panin states that there was "an ancient fortress in the realm of the Khamsa [melikdoms]" which was "conquered, through deceit" by "one Muslim man from the Jevanshir tribe." The same information about

4050-494: The attack on his territory by his major opponent, Karim Khan Zand . His retreat was so hasty that he even left his cannons under the walls of Shusha fortress. Panah Ali Khan counterattacked the retreating troops of Mohammad Hassan khan and even briefly took Ardabil across the Aras River . In 1756 (or 1759), Shusha and the Karabakh Khanate underwent a new attack from Fath-Ali Khan Afshar , ruler of Urmia . With his 30,000 strong army, Fath-Ali Khan also managed to gain support from

4140-489: The city during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War following a three-day long battle . The Armenian population of the city fled, and multiple reports emerged that the Armenian cultural heritage of the city was being destroyed. The Azerbaijani government opened the city to tourists from Azerbaijan in 2022 and plans to start resettling the city in 2023. Several historians believe Shusha derives from

4230-559: The city in 1823 suggests the city had an Azerbaijani majority. The Armenian inhabitants of the city steadily grew over time to constitute a majority of the city's population until the Shusha massacre in 1920, in which the Armenian half of the city was destroyed by Azerbaijani forces, resulting in the death or expulsion of the Armenian population, up to 20,000 people. The city has suffered significant destruction and depopulation during

4320-525: The downfall of Fath-Ali Khan's confederation. Karim Khan now controlled all of Iran, with the exception of Afsharid -ruled Khorasan . Karim Khan later had Fath-Ali Khan executed, in July 1764 near Isfahan. This may have been done due to Fath-Ali Khan's history of oppression and betrayal. Afshar tribe Afshar ( Azerbaijani : Əfşar افشار; Turkish : Avşar , Afşar ; Turkmen : Owşar اوْوشار; Persian : افشار , romanized :  Afshār )

4410-436: The enemy from returning. A British journalist witnessed Armenian soldiers using minarets of a mosque in Shusha as shooting targets. As of 2002, ten years later after the city's capture by the Armenian forces, some 80% of the town was in ruins. Armenians also dismantled and sold off historic dark bronze busts of three Azerbaijani musicians and poets from Shusha. Another British journalist who visited Shusha in 1997 reported that

4500-474: The escape of the prisoners captured by Azad at Pari. In 1754, Azad Khan sent a re-equipped force under Fath-Ali Khan to attack the newly raised Zand army, which had heavily disintegrated due to the harsh winter. The core unit of the Zands put a fierce resistance to give the women and baggage time to escape. It was during this event that Mohammad Khan split from others, and made a series of accomplishments, including

4590-401: The fortress there were no buildings there and it was used as cropland and pasture by the people of the nearby village of Shoshi. Panah khan resettled to Shusha the population of Shahbulag and some nearby villages and built strong fortifications . Another account is presented by Raffi (1835–1888), an Armenian novelist and historian, in his work The Princedoms of Khamsa , which asserts that

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4680-730: The four contenders for supremacy in Iran. In the summer of 1753, Azad Khan routed an army of Karim Khan. Azad Khan capitalized on his success by marching towards the Zand fortress of Pari , where Karim Khan's cousin Shaykh Ali Khan Zand (died 1779) had fled to. There he tricked the Shaykh Ali Khan and Mohammad Khan Zand to go out, which led to their capture along with fifteen other relatives. In October, Azad Khan captured Isfahan and its surroundings. Meanwhile, Fath-Ali Khan had

4770-409: The genitive form of shosh / shush , as -a or -ay is a common declensional ending for placenames in pre-modern and dialectal Armenian. Besides the common Armenian name Shushi, the town has historically been referred to in Armenian by various names, including Shoshi/Shushva Berd , Shoshi Sghnakh , Shoshvaghala , which all mean "Shosh/Shushi Fortress". Some Armenian sources identify Shusha with

4860-497: The gravestones in the Azerbaijani cemetery on the edge of town were "methodically smashed and vandalised". After the end of the war, the town was repopulated by Armenians, mostly refugees from Azerbaijan and other parts of Karabakh, as well as members of the Armenian diaspora. The population of the town was significantly less than the pre-war number, and the demographic of the town had changed from mostly Azerbaijani to completely Armenian. The Goris - Stepanakert Highway passes through

4950-421: The impassable mountains such an inviolable and inaccessible fort, so that no strong enemy could take it." Melik Shahnazar of Varanda, who was the first of the Armenian meliks (dukes) to accept the suzerainty of Panah Ali Khan and who would remain his loyal supporter, suggested a location for the new fortress. Thus, Panahabad-Shusha was founded. According to Mirza Jamal Javanshir, before Panah Ali Khan constructed

5040-426: The issue of the disputed territories, including Karabakh, in favour of Armenia. However, on July 5, 1921, the Kavbiuro of the Communist Party adopted the following decision regarding the future status of Karabakh: "Proceeding from the necessity of national peace among Muslims and Armenians and of the economic ties between upper (mountainous) and lower Karabakh, of its permanent ties with Azerbaijan, mountainous Karabakh

5130-399: The local Armenian prince ( melik ) of Varanda . In these accounts, the name of the town originated from a nearby Armenian village called Shosh or Shushikent (see § Etymology for alternative explanations). Conversely, some sources describe Shusha as an important center within the self-governing Armenian melikdoms of Karabakh in the 1720s, and others say the plateau was already

5220-432: The market-square, there were a lot of people, but there wasn't any Armenian among them; all were Muslims". In 1920, the Bolshevik 11th Red Army invaded Azerbaijan and then Armenia and put an end to the national de facto governments that existed in those two countries. Thereafter, the conflict for the control of Karabakh entered the diplomatic sphere. To attract Armenian public support, the Bolsheviks promised to resolve

5310-409: The murder of Bakhtiyari chieftain Ali Mardan Khan Bakhtiari . With the help of Haydar Khan Zanganeh , he eliminated Azad Khan's influence in Persian Iraq . Meanwhile, Azad Khan had entered Shiraz in August 1754, and the following month, Karim Khan's small force at Kazerun was repelled by Fath-Ali Khan. However, Fath-Ali Khan and his Afshar troops were soon ambushed at the narrow Kamarej pass by

5400-437: The name of the tribe. Afshar kaba ( Turkish : Avşar kabası ) is danced around the Barak Plain in Gaziantep . Afshar halay or ağırlama ( Avşar halayı or Avşar ağırlaması ) is known around Kırşehir , Yozgat , Keskin , as well as Kayseri , while Afshar zeybek ( Avşar zeybeği ) is found around Burdur , Antalya , Denizli , and Muğla . In an Afshar village near Ankara where, according to oral tradition,

5490-428: The order of … Khosrov-bek Sultanov; the pogroms proceeded for more than six days. Houses in the Armenian part have been partially demolished, plundered and reduced all to ashes, everyone led away women to submit to the wishes of executioner musavatists. During these historically artful forms of punishment, Khosrov-bek Sultanov, spoke about holy war (jihad) in his speeches to the Moslems, and called on them to finally finish

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5580-425: The periphery of the Russian Empire, began to seek cultural and territorial autonomy. Political instability within Russia, particularly the 1905 Revolution and 1917 Revolutions , caused these social movements to acquire the character of national liberation movements. The initial clashes between ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis took place in Baku in February 1905. Soon, the conflict spilled over to other parts of

5670-439: The place where Shushi was built was desolate and uninhabited before Panah Ali Khan's arrival. He states, "[Panah-Ali Khan and Melik-Shahnazar of Varanda] soon completed the construction (1762) [of the fortress] and moved the Armenian population of the nearby village of Shosh, called also Shoshi, or Shushi into the fortress.″ Although Panah Ali Khan had been in conflict with Nader Shah , the new ruler of Persia, Adil Shah , issued

5760-425: The population for a long-term defense. The number of militia in Shusha reached 15,000. Women fought together with men. The Armenian population of Karabakh also actively participated in this struggle against the Iranians and fought side by side with the Muslim population, jointly organizing ambushes in the mountains and forests. The siege lasted for 33 days. Not being able to capture Shusha, Agha Mohammad Khan ceased

5850-411: The population of several Armenian villages, including Khankendi ( Stepanakert ). A minority of Karabagh National Council representatives gathered in Shusha to accept Sultanov's demands, while the rest met in nearby Shushikend to reject the ultimatum. The strife culminated in an Armenian uprising, which was suppressed by the Azerbaijani army. In late March 1920, the Armenian half of the police forces

5940-423: The previous 1795 attack and also suffered from a serious drought which lasted for three years. The artillery of the attackers also inflicted serious losses on the city defenders. Thus, in 1797 Agha Mohammad Shah succeeded in seizing Shusha and Ibrahim Khalil Khan had to flee to Dagestan . However, several days after the seizure of Shusha, Agha Mohammad Khan was killed in mysterious circumstances by his bodyguards in

6030-425: The recently conquered parts of the Caucasus from Iran were confirmed with the outcome of the Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828 and the ensuing Treaty of Turkmenchay of 1828. During the Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828, the citadel at Shusha held out for several months and never fell. After this Shusha ceased to be a capital of a khanate, which was dissolved in 1822, and instead became an administrative capital first of

6120-405: The region of Sivas , and the tribe was part of the Ak Koyunlu Turkoman tribal confederacy. In later years, many Afshars moved to the east, where, as part of the Qizilbash , they aided in establishing the Safavid dynasty of Iran. Other Afshars remained in Anatolia however, which at the time was Ottoman soil. There, on Ottoman soil, they formed separate groups. During the 19th century nomads in

6210-416: The relatively new western upper quarters of the town. The Muslim part of the town was divided into seventeen quarters. Each quarter had its own mosque , Turkish bath , water-spring and also a quarter representative, who would be elected from among the elders ( aksakals ) and would function similarly to the head of a modern-day municipality. The Armenian part of the town consisted of 12 quarters, five churches,

6300-414: The siege and advanced to Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi ), which despite desperate resistance was occupied and exposed to unprecedented destruction. Ibrahim Khalil Khan eventually surrendered to Mohammad Khan after negotiations, including the paying of regular tribute and to surrender hostages, although the Qajar forces were still denied entrance to Shusha. Since the main objective was Georgia, Mohammad Khan

6390-624: The site of an Armenian fortification. From the mid-18th century to 1822, Shusha was the capital of the Karabakh Khanate. The town became one of the cultural centers of the South Caucasus after the Russian conquest of the Caucasus region from Qajar Iran in the first half of the 19th century. Over the course of the 19th century, the town grew in size to become a city, and was home to many Armenian and Azerbaijani intellectuals, poets, writers and musicians (including Azerbaijani ashiks , mugham singers and kobuz players). The town has religious, cultural and strategic importance to both groups. Shusha

6480-484: The spring or summer of 1761, Fath-Ali Khan besieged Shusha in Karabakh . Its ruler, Panah Ali Khan made him lift the siege by giving his son Ibrahim Khalil Khan as hostage. In the summer of 1762, Karim Khan marched another expedition into Azerbaijan, where he repelled an attack led by Fath-Ali Khan, who fled to Urmia. A few weeks later, Karim Khan besieged Urmia, which eventually fell in February 1763. This marked

6570-476: The sub-tribal names are those of their ancestors "who gave birth to them in older times". In the 11th century, the first Afshar tribesmen entered Iran and Anatolia from Transoxania along with other Oghuz invaders. More members of the Afshar tribe may have arrived during the Mongol conquests during the second half of the 13th century. For a period afterwards, the Afshar tribe is untraceable in historic records as

6660-429: The town was captured by Armenian forces in an operation to lift the siege of Stepanakert and the Azerbaijani population fled. According to Armenian commander Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan , the city was looted and burnt by Armenian citizens from nearby Stepanakert , who had endured months of bombing and shelling from Azerbaijani forces. He also noted it was part of a Karabakh Armenian superstition of burning houses to prevent

6750-704: The town and is a transit and tourist destination for many. There were some hotels in the city, and cultural monuments such as the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral and the Yukhari Govhar Agha Mosque were restored by Armenian authorities. After the war, a T-72 tank commanded by the Karabakhi Armenian Gagik Avsharian was placed as a memorial. The tank had been hit during the town's capture, killing the driver and gun operator, but Avsharian jumped free from

6840-399: The town of Qumishah devastated. Soon afterwards, Karim Khan, along with some reinforcements, went to Qumishah, from which they made guerilla attacks against Azad Khan's raiders and communications. Fath-Ali Khan led an attack into the town, which resulted in the death of Karim Khan's half-brother Eskandar Khan Zand and the withdrawal of the Zand forces. However, Zand morale soon rose, following

6930-464: The town, with three-quarters of the inhabitants Azerbaijanis and one-quarter Armenian. He furthermore noted regarding the town; (...) The language is a dialect of the Turkish; but its inhabitants, with the exception of the Armenians, generally read and write Persian. The trade is carried on principally by the Armenians, between the towns of Sheki , Nakshevan , Khoi and Tabriz ." The beginning of

7020-411: The town. Ibrahim Khalil Khan returned to Shusha and ordered that the shah's body be honourably buried until further instructions from the nephew and heir of Agha Mohammad Shah, Baba Khan, who soon assumed the title of Fath-Ali Shah . Ibrahim Khan, in order to maintain peaceful relations with Tehran and retain his position as the Khan of Karabakh, gave his daughter Agha Begom, known as Aghabaji, as one of

7110-408: The village Shosh received its name from the fortress, which he considered the older settlement. According to Armenian sources, the name Shusha most likely derives from the dialectal Armenian word shosh / shush (Armenian: շոշ/շուշ), meaning tree sprout or, figuratively, a high place, first applied either to the adjacent village Shosh or to Shusha itself. The form Shusha can also be explained as

7200-488: The villages surrounding Shusha were massacred by Azerbaijani and Kurdish irregulars. Sultanov stated that the irregulars were not under his control. In August 1919, the Karabakh National Council was forced to enter into a provisional treaty agreement with the Azerbaijani government, recognizing the authority of the Azerbaijan government until the issue of the mountainous part of Karabakh was settled at

7290-437: The wives of the new shah. From the early 19th century, Russian ambitions in the Caucasus to increase its territories at the expense of neighbouring Qajar Iran and Ottoman Turkey began to rise. Following the annexation of Georgia in 1801, some of the khanates agreed to become Russian protectorates in the immediate years afterwards. In 1804, the Russian general Pavel Tsitsianov directly invaded Qajar Iran , initiating

7380-436: Was a possession of the Melik-Shahnazarian clan, which was given to Panah Ali Khan in return for aid against the other Armenian meliks of Karabakh. Russian historian P. G. Butkov (1775–1857) writes that "Shushi village" was given to Panah Ali Khan by the Melik-Shahnazarian prince after they entered into an alliance, and that Panah Ali Khan fortified the village. The missionary Joseph Wolff (1795–1862), during his mission in

7470-557: Was a tribute to Panah Ali Khan , the first ruler of the Karabakh Khanate . According to the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary , published in the final decades of the Russian Empire , the town's name comes from the nearby village Shushikent (called Shosh in Armenian), which literally means "Shusha village" in the Azerbaijani language . Conversely, the Armenian historian Leo (1860–1932) considered it more likely that

7560-590: Was able to control all of the Azerbaijan province by 1749. Fath-Ali Khan was a deputy and general of Azad Khan Afghan (died 1781), a Ghilzai Pashtun from Kabul who had risen to a somewhat powerful position in Azerbaijan, and had his base at Urmia. Fath-Ali Khan, Azad Khan Afghan, the Zand ruler Karim Khan Zand ( r.  1751–1779 ) and the Qajar chieftain Mohammad Hasan Khan Qajar were

7650-509: Was re-establishing his control over Mazandaran and Gilan . In August 1756, Azad Khan chased after a retreating Qajar force to the coast of the Caspian Sea . During the winter, he was defeated by a Qajar surprise, which led to his withdrawal to Azerbaijan. Tabriz soon fell to the Qajars, and Urmia surrendered in June 1757. Azad Khan fled to Baghdad, while Fath-Ali Khan was persuaded to join

7740-586: Was reported by a British journalist to have murdered the Azerbaijani half during the latter's traditional Novruz Bayram holiday celebrations. The Armenian surprise attack was organised and coordinated by the forces of the Armenian Republic. Azerbaijani outrage for this surprise attack ultimately led to the massacre and expulsion of the Armenian population in March 1920, in which 500 –8,000 to 20,000 Armenians were killed, others were forced to flee, and

7830-468: Was sent back to Karabakh as governor. Under him, the Karabakh Khanate became one of the strongest state formations and Shusha grew. According to travellers who visited Shusha at the end of 18th-early 19th centuries the town had about 2,000 houses and approximately 10,000 population. In summer 1795, Shusha was subjected to a major attack by Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar , son of Mohammad Hassan Khan who had attacked Shusha in 1752. Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar's goal

7920-424: Was to be decided at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference . Trusting Thomson, Andranik left, and British troops occupied Karabakh. The British command provisionally affirmed Sultanov (appointed by the Azerbaijani government) as the governor-general of Karabakh and Zangezur , pending the final decision by the Paris Peace Conference. Ethnic conflict began to erupt in the region. Оn 5 June 1919, 600 Armenian inhabitants of

8010-524: Was to end with the feudal fragmentation and to restore the old Safavid State in Iran. By early 1795, he had already secured mainland Iran and was directly afterwards poised to bring the entire Caucasus region back within the Iranian domains. For this purpose he also wanted to proclaim himself Shah of Iran. However, according to the Safavid tradition, the shah had to take control over the whole of South Caucasus and Dagestan before his coronation. Therefore,

8100-455: Was willing to have Karabakh secured by this agreement for now, for he and his army subsequently moved further. In 1797, Agha Mohammad Shah Qajar, having successfully resubjugated Georgia and the wider Caucasus and having declared himself shah, decided to carry out a second attack on Karabakh. Trying to avenge his previous humiliating defeat, Agha Mohammad Shah devastated the surrounding villages near Shusha. The population had not recovered from

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