Agstafa ( az, Ağstafa) is a town, municipality (assigned in 1941) and the capital of the

Aghstafa District Aghstafa District ( az, Ağstafa rayonu) is one of the 66 districts of Azerbaijan. It is located in the north-west of the country and belongs to the Gazakh-Tovuz Economic Region. The district borders the districts of Qazakh, Tovuz, as well as th ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

. Agstafa district was established in 1939, abolished in 1959 and merged with Gazakh district, became an independent district again in 1990

History

Historical reference books of Agstafa indicate that the city appeared in the second half of the nineteenth century, essentially built as a new town around the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi railway. The town was known initially as Elisavetinka, for the Russian royal, though the station did take its name from a pre-existing small village of Agstafa, which grew more important from 1914 as the junction stop for a new branch line to Yerevan. In 1920, with the region still rocked by the fallout of the 1920 Ganja Revolt, the

Treaty of Agstafa The Treaty of Agstafa, also known somewhat misleadingly as the 1920 Georgia-Azerbaijan Trade Agreement, was a peace agreement between the newly formed Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan and the pre-soviet Democratic Republic of Georgia. Pr ...

was negotiated here between the newly Sovietised

Republic of Azerbaijan A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th ...

and the then still-independent

Democratic Republic of Georgia The Democratic Republic of Georgia (DRG; ka, საქართველოს დემოკრატიული რესპუბლიკა ') was the first modern establishment of a republic of Georgia, which existed from May 1918 to ...

. Agstafa received city status in 1941.

Geographical position

There is one city (Aghstafa), 9 settlements (Vurgun, Poylu, Shekarli, Jeyranchol, Saloglu, Soyugbulag, Soyugbulag, Hazi Aslanov, Garayazy) and 29 villages in the region. These settlements are managed by 29 administrative territorial representations and 29 municipalities.

Population

The population of Agstafa region is 88,458 people as of 01.01.2020. 21,817 people of the region's population live in the city, 66,562 live in the village. 43,562 men and 44,817 women make up the population of the region.

Transport

Agstafa has a large urban transport system, mostly managed by the

Ministry of Transportation A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government ag ...

Rail

The city sits on one of the Azerbaijani primary rail lines running east–west connecting the capital,

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

, with the rest of the country. The Kars–Tbilisi–Baku railway will run along the line through the city. The railway provides both human transportation and transport of goods and commodities such as oil and gravel. Agstafa's Central Railway Station is the terminus for national and international rail links to the city. The Kars–Tbilisi–Baku railway, which will directly connect

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, Georgia and

, began to be constructed in 2007 and is scheduled for completion in 2015. The completed branch will connect the city with

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...

in Georgia, and from there trains will continue to

Akhalkalaki Akhalkalaki ( ka, ახალქალაქი, tr; hy, Ախալքալաք / Նոր-Քաղաք, translit=Axalk’alak’ / Nor-K’aġak’) is a town in Georgia's southern region of Samtskhe–Javakheti and the administrative centre of the Ak ...

, and

Kars Kars (; ku, Qers; ) is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of Kars Province. Its population is 73,836 in 2011. Kars was in the ancient region known as ''Chorzene'', (in Greek Χορζηνή) in classical historiography ( Strabo), part of ...

in Turkey.

Railway Gazette International ''Railway Gazette International'' is a monthly business magazine and news website covering the railway, metro, light rail and tram industries worldwide. Available by annual subscription, the magazine is read in over 140 countries by transport p ...

February 2009 p54 with map

References

External links

*
World Gazetteer: Azerbaijan
– World-Gazetteer.com Populated places in Aghstafa District {{Agstafa-geo-stub