Kalbajar (Kerbakhiar)
Kalbajar (Kəlbəcər, Քարվաճառ) is a city and the capital of the Kalbajar District of Azerbaijan. Located on the Tartar river valley, it is 458 km away from the capital Baku.
The city had a population of 7,246 before its capture by Armenian forces on 2 April 1993, during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, which resulted in all of the city's population being expelled, after which the city was repopulated by ethnic Armenians.
The city, alongside the surrounding district, was returned to Azerbaijan on 25 November 2020 per the ceasefire agreement that ended the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.
There are several theories about the origin of the town's name. According to one of the versions, the city was originally called Kevlicher, meaning "fortress in the upper reaches of the rivers" (kevli – "the upper reaches of the river," cher/jar – "fortress") in Old Turkic. According to another version, the name of the town comes from the combination of the Persian word kevil ("cave") and the Turkic word jer ("rock, ravine") and means "ravine with caves". This etymology is explained by the fact that there are a number of artificial caves along the Tartar River valley, where the town is located. Another version proposes that the name comes from the Turkic words kevli ("river mouths") and jar ("gorge, ravine"), and that the settlement was originally called Keblajar, but over time the name purportedly morphed to Kalbajar.
According to Armenian sources, the name Kalbajar is a modified form of Karavachar/Karvachar (Քարավաճառ). The Armenian name is popularly interpreted as meaning "a place for selling rocks", as if consisting of the elements kar – "rock" and vachar – "sale, selling". Other possible etymologies consider kar to mean "fortress" in this case or to be prefix meaning settlement found in the names of some ancient Near Eastern cities.
The city had a population of 7,246 before its capture by Armenian forces on 2 April 1993, during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, which resulted in all of the city's population being expelled, after which the city was repopulated by ethnic Armenians.
The city, alongside the surrounding district, was returned to Azerbaijan on 25 November 2020 per the ceasefire agreement that ended the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.
There are several theories about the origin of the town's name. According to one of the versions, the city was originally called Kevlicher, meaning "fortress in the upper reaches of the rivers" (kevli – "the upper reaches of the river," cher/jar – "fortress") in Old Turkic. According to another version, the name of the town comes from the combination of the Persian word kevil ("cave") and the Turkic word jer ("rock, ravine") and means "ravine with caves". This etymology is explained by the fact that there are a number of artificial caves along the Tartar River valley, where the town is located. Another version proposes that the name comes from the Turkic words kevli ("river mouths") and jar ("gorge, ravine"), and that the settlement was originally called Keblajar, but over time the name purportedly morphed to Kalbajar.
According to Armenian sources, the name Kalbajar is a modified form of Karavachar/Karvachar (Քարավաճառ). The Armenian name is popularly interpreted as meaning "a place for selling rocks", as if consisting of the elements kar – "rock" and vachar – "sale, selling". Other possible etymologies consider kar to mean "fortress" in this case or to be prefix meaning settlement found in the names of some ancient Near Eastern cities.
Map - Kalbajar (Kerbakhiar)
Map
Country - Azerbaijan
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| Flag of Azerbaijan | |
The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed its independence from the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic in 1918 and became the first secular democratic Muslim-majority state. In 1920, the country was incorporated into the Soviet Union as the Azerbaijan SSR. The modern Republic of Azerbaijan proclaimed its independence on 30 August 1991, shortly before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the same year. In September 1991, the ethnic Armenian majority of the Nagorno-Karabakh region formed the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh. The region and seven surrounding districts are internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan pending a solution to the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh through negotiations facilitated by the OSCE, although became de facto independent with the end of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994. Following the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, the seven districts and parts of Nagorno-Karabakh were returned to Azerbaijani control.
Currency / Language
| ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
|---|---|---|---|
| AZN | Azerbaijani manat | ₼ | 2 |
| ISO | Language |
|---|---|
| HY | Armenian language |
| AZ | Azerbaijani language |
| RU | Russian language |