Bağanıs Ayrım is an abandoned village in the

Qazakh District Qazax District (; ) is one of the 66 districts of Azerbaijan. Located in the northwest of the country, it belongs to the Gazakh-Tovuz Economic Region. The district borders the district of Aghstafa, and the Tavush Province of Armenia. Its capital ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

. The village was controlled by

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

from the

First Nagorno-Karabakh War The First Nagorno-Karabakh War was an ethnic conflict, ethnic and territorial conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nag ...

in the early 1990s until 2024, when Armenia agreed to return the village to Azerbaijan.

History

On 22 March 1990, Azerbaijani farmers shot at passing trucks and cars with Armenian license plates, wounding several people in a Volga sedan. In retaliation, four days later, several cars full of Armenians armed with shotguns and assault rifles attacked Bağanıs Ayrım before dawn, setting fire to about 20 houses and killing 8 Azerbaijani civilians. The bodies of one family, including an infant, were reportedly found burnt in the embers of their house. According to

Kommersant (, , ''The Businessman'' or Commerce Man, often shortened to Ъ) is a nationally distributed daily newspaper published in Russia mostly devoted to politics and business. The TNS Media and NRS Russia certified July 2013 circulation of the daily ...

, eleven inhabitants of the village died during the attack. On 16 August 1990, a police checkpoint in the village was fired at by two Armenian militiamen driving a Zhiguli car. One of the men, a native of

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , ; ; sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia, as well as one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerev ...

, was detained and imprisoned in

Ganja ''Ganja'' (, ; ) is one of the oldest and most commonly used synonyms for cannabis flower, specifically marijuana or hashish. Its usage in English dates to before 1689. Etymology ''Ganja'' is borrowed from Hindi (, IPA: �aːɲd͡ʒa� ...

. In a phone call between the heads of the

and the Noyemberyan District, the latter reportedly threatened that

fedayeen Fedayeen ( ''fidāʻiyyūn'' "self-sacrificers") is an Arabic language, Arabic term used to refer to various military groups willing to sacrifice themselves for a larger campaign. Etymology "Fidayun" is the plural of "fidayi" ( ''fidāʻiyy'' ...

would destroy Azeri villages if the prisoner was not released. On 19 August 1990, the village was reportedly shelled with a variety of heavy weapons by Armenian militants, who took control of it after several hours of fighting, allegedly with the help of reinforcements who had been flown in on helicopters from Yerevan. Azeri control over the village was restored the next day with the assistance of Soviet internal troops under General . On 19 April 2024, Armenia agreed to return Bağanıs Ayrım to Azerbaijan, which happened on 24 May.

References

External links

* Ghost towns in Azerbaijan Populated places in Qazax District {{Qazakh-geo-stub