The Rayons between Armenia and Qarabağ


This post aims to provide very brief overview of the situation of the four Rayons between Armenia proper and Qarabağ proper.

According to the Soviet Union census of 1989 the population of the Azerbaijani provinces sandwiched between Armenia and Qarabağ were as follows:

- Kalbajar (43,713)
- Lachin (47,339)
- Qubadli (28,110)
- Zangilan (32,698)

These four rayons had a combined population of 151,860. The population was pretty much exclusively Azerbaijani.

The total Armenian population in these four provinces was just 144 according to 1979 census (I'm only on my mobile phone - I cant seem to locate the ethnic composition data in the 1989 census).

The Azerbaijani inhabitants were violently expelled from their homes after Armenian forces inside Qarabağ got the upper hand in the fighting and decided to take the fight outside Qarabağ to grab strategic territories within Azerbaijan.

According to the current occupation regime that Armenians call "Artsakh" the Rayons of Lachin, Qubadli and Zangilan are now called the "Kashatagh Province". It's population according to the 'census' of 2015 carried out by the so-called 'government' was 10,613.

The Kalbajar Rayon is now called by the so-called 'government', the "Shahumyan Province" - named after an Armenian Bolshevik, its population in the 2015 'census' was 3,004.

The population of these 4 provinces in 2015 was ~8.9% of what it was back in 1989 (13,617 vs 151,860). There are many ghost towns and villages spread right across the four Rayons.

The Tufenkian Foundation (founded by an Armenian-American and funded by the wealthy Armenian diaspora) has admitted that it has been illegally constructing houses, some unauthorised infrastructure (including a 'village') as well as being "actively involved" in aiding illegal Armenian settlers from Lebanon and Syria in colonizing occupied Azerbaijan.


References

- https://nk.gov.az/- The Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan for the map

- The 1979 census of the Soviet Union

- The 1989 census of the Soviet Union

- Karabakh Truths - for the newspaper clipping

- 2015 'census' information from the so-called "ministry of foreign affairs" of the occupation "government" - nkr .am

- Tufenkian Foundation