Jabrayil (, ) is a city in Azerbaijan, nominally the administrative capital of Azerbaijan's Jabrayil District.
A town with Azerbaijani majority and Armenians plurality at various times during the Russian Empire era, and Azerbaijani majority since the Soviet Union times, it was abandoned since its destruction by local Armenian forces during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.
History
According to Armenian historian Samvel Karapetyan, archaeological evidence found in the village suggests that it was once populated by Armenians who probably abandoned it in the beginning of the 17th century. Armenian folk tales about the old village spring of Jabrayil, published in the 1870s by the
Mshak newspaper, state that it was built by Armenians in the days of Lusavorich as evidenced by the crosses engraved on the pavement of the well. The area of Jabrayil was part of the
Karabakh Khanate until 1813 when it was annexed into the
Russian empire following the Treaty of Gulistan. The 19th-century Armenian author Raffi mentions a historical Jabrayil bridge
(Jabrayili Kamurj) in the vicinity of the village.
Russian Empire
In tsarist times, Jabrayil was a village first in the
Shusha uezd and then in the
Jebrail uezd (created in 1868) as its administrative centre, within the Elisabethpol Governorate of the
Russian Empire. According to the annual reference book
Caucasian Calendar, the population of Jabrayil in 1855 consisted of
Shia Islam Tatars (later known as
Azerbaijanis). However in the 1897 Russian census, the population of the village of Jabrayil was 520, with an Armenian plurality: 228 Armenians; 186 Turko-Tatars; 76 Russians.
[Первая всеобщая перепись населения Российской Империи, 1897 г. т.63 Елисаветопольская губерния. Н.А.Тройницкий, С.-Петербург, 1904. стр. 138] During the Russian Empire, Jabrayil was the location of a customs office for the Russian-
Qajar Iran border, as well as, a royal school staffed by the Armenians, including its principal Alexander Ter-Abrahamian (since 1879).
Soviet Union
According to the 1926 Soviet census, the population of Jabrayil District was 10,653. No ethnic breakdown is listed for the village itself. Of those in the district 97.2% were Turks (i.e. Azerbaijanis), 105 (1%) were Russians, 57 (0.5%) were Armenians and 24 (0.2%) were
Persians.
The 1979 Soviet census registered 4,825 inhabitants, almost all (99,5 %) ethnic Azerbaijanis.
[ Джебраильский район (1979).] As the administrative center of the eponymous district, Jabrayil developed considerably during the Soviet era and by the beginning of the 1950s, there were two seven-year schools, a secondary school, a cultural centre, summer and winter cinemas, two libraries and a club.
[«Джебраил». Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 1950.] The town's main economic products were butter, cheeses and carpets.
Armenian control
On 23 August 1993, during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, the city was occupied by the forces of Armenia and the breakaway Republic of Artsakh, causing the displacement of its population. Like most other cities in the seven districts of Azerbaijan captured by Armenian forces, Jabrayil was looted and destroyed and remained a
ghost town following its capture.
Within Artsakh, it was renamed
Jrakan (Ջրական), and also called
Mekhakavan (Մեխակավան) and was administered as a part of the
Hadrut Province.
Restoration of Azerbaijani control
After 27 years, on 9 October 2020, Azerbaijan regained control of the city during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.
On 4 October 2020, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced that the Azerbaijani Armed Forces had taken control of the city following a day-long battle;
In November 2020 Azerbaijani media visited the recently recaptured city and reported that except for a newly built military base, no building was left intact since the capture of the city in 1993.
In 2017, the Zoravor Surb Astvatsatsin (St. Mary's)
In early February 2021, foreign ambassadors accredited to Azerbaijan, military attachés and heads of international organizations visited Jabrayil. They, in particular, visited the destroyed House of Culture and the cemetery.
Notable people
-
Jamil Ahmadov – Hero of the Soviet Union.
-
Teymur Guliyev – Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (1937–1953) and the Council of Ministers of Azerbaijan SSR (1953–1954).
-
Farda Amin – Azerbaijani actor, comedian and a screenwriter.
-
Suren Shadunts – First Secretary of the Communist Party of Tajikistan between 1934 and 1937 and de facto leader of the Tajik SSR.
Gallery
File:Ruins of Cəbrayıl (Jabrayil).jpg|Ruins of the city after the First Nagorno-Karabakh War
File:Djrakan (Djebrail), Memorial Cross, 2014.05.09 - panoramio.jpg|Memorial cross installed by Armenians after the First Nagorno-Karabakh war
File:Jabrayil city, Aerial 2.jpg|Aerial view of the ruined city, showing destroyed houses
File:Школа им. Мехди Мехдизаде Джебраил 3 октября 2024.jpg|New secondary school built after the Second Karabakh War, in 2021-2024
Bibliography
External links
