Khojaly

Khojaly-Kadabay culture

Near Khojaly there are monuments of Khojaly-Kedabek culture dating back to the 13th - 7th centuries. BC e. ^{[5] [6]} . The name was given to the first finds of monuments near the villages of Khojaly, as well as Kedabek . The culture was studied by burials - soil graves, stone boxes and burial mounds ^[5] . The funeral inventory is characterized by bronze items: long swords (the oldest in the USSR) ^[6] , as well as a variety of glass, carnelian and bone beads , stone vessels and many clay, various shapes, black-glazed with carved ornaments ^[5] . In one of the mounds near Khojaly, an agate bead ^[7] was found with the name of the Assyrian king Adadnirri II ^[8] . Tribes of the Khojaly-Kedabek culture were engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding (including horse breeding ) ^[6] . High metallurgy reached them ^[6] . There is reason to believe that the tribes were remote ancestors of the modern peoples of Transcaucasia ^[5] .

Soviet time

In Soviet times, the Stepanakert airport was built near Khojaly - the only airport in Nagorno-Karabakh capable of receiving large aircraft ^{[9] [10]} .

According to the Azerbaijani author R. Rzaly, the Khojaly village consisted of three parts: the old part was located at the intersection of the Khojaly and Ilis rivers, the second Khojaly was located on the right bank of the Khojaly river and was founded at the beginning of the 20th century by settlers from other places, the third Khojaly was located at the intersection of the Khojaly and Karkarchay rivers on the territory of the old postal station and was founded by refugees as a result of the Armenian-Azerbaijani war of 1918-1920. ^{[11] The} Caucasian calendar for 1912 indicates the presence of two settlements in the Shusha district with the name Khojalu, in one of which 172 Azerbaijanis lived, in the other - 52 Armenians ^[12] .

In 1987, the number of Azerbaijanis reached 2025, in 1989 - 2135, and already in 1991 - 6300 people. Thus, in just 5 years, between 1987 and 1991, the number of Azerbaijanis in the village increased by more than 3 times, most of which arrived Azerbaijanis were from Stepanakert . In 1990, about 300 Meskhetian Turks who fled from Uzbekistan were also stationed in the village ^[13] .

In 1988, the population of Khojaly was 2135 people. Since 1988, the Azerbaijani authorities carried out intensive construction in Khojaly, the population of Khojaly was growing rapidly, including due to Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia, as well as Meskhetian Turks. The Armenian side considered this a deliberate action to change the demographic situation in the region ^[13] .

In April 1990, the Supreme Council of the Azerbaijan SSR assigned Khojaly the status of a city ^[14] . By 1991, the population of Khojaly reached 6300 people ^[13] .

Here is what V.V. Krivopuskov writes in his memoirs about Khojaly’s visit, who held the post of chief of staff of the Investigation and Operational Group (SOG) of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs in NKAO in October - December 1990:

What he saw was impressive. New brick houses grew like mushrooms after rain. And the closer to the airport zone, the houses were built larger and taller, as if to take off planes from their roofs with their hands ... The scale of the facilities being built, the mountains of bricks, lumber, bags of cement, the abundance of other building materials seemed all the more amazing that all this was completely absent not only in the Armenian villages, but also in the capital of the NKAR, the city of Stepanakert ... The Azerbaijani authorities, as if implementing the programs of socio-economic development of the NKAR, purposefully used in a unilateral A number of union and republican funds for preferential non-repayable financing of individual construction in this village, relocating into it not only refugees from Armenia, but also everyone from other regions of Azerbaijan. In addition to benefits for housing construction, such new settlers were given cash benefits, and their children were given the opportunity to enter universities of the republic without passing entrance exams. The obvious aim was pursued. To increase the Azerbaijani population in Karabakh. This task, according to available information, was carried out not only in Khojaly, but also in other Azerbaijani settlements of the NKAR. But another idea was even more sophisticated: to develop the territory adjacent to the airport with gross violations of town-planning norms. The calculation was that the proximity of housing to the airport would make takeoffs and landings of aircraft dangerous. The closure of the airport became inevitable ^[15] .

In November 1990, the airport was closed ^[16] . The then President of Azerbaijan A.N. Mutalibov ordered the destruction of the runway and airport equipment of the airport, but it was not completed ^[17] .

On February 26, 1992, during the Karabakh war, Khojaly came under the control of the Armenian forces. During and after the assault, many residents of the city died, the Khojaly massacre occurred ^[18] .

By the authorities of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the settlement was always considered a village and was renamed Ivanyan in honor of Christopher Ivanyan ^[19] .

According to an estimate for 2012, 1273 people lived in Khojaly - all Armenians ^[20] .

In February 2010, Azerbaijani media claimed that the Czech city ​​of Lidice became the twin city of Khojaly, and one of the streets of Lidice was named Khojaly ^{[21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26]} . However, in March 2012, the mayor of Liditsa, Veronika Kellerova, denied these reports, stating that Khojaly and Lidice were never twin cities, and that there was no street in Lidice with the name Khojaly ^[27] .