Qazakh | |
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Rayon | |
Map of Azerbaijan showing Qazakh Rayon |
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Coordinates: 41°05′36″N 45°21′58″E / 41.09333°N 45.36611°ECoordinates: 41°05′36″N 45°21′58″E / 41.09333°N 45.36611°E | |
Country | Azerbaijan |
Villages | 34 |
Capital | Qazax |
Government | |
• Executive power | Rajab Babashov |
Area | |
• Total | 701 km2 (271 sq mi) |
Population | |
• Total | 102,031 |
• Density | 150/km2 (380/sq mi) |
Time zone | AZT (UTC+4) |
Postal code | 3500 |
Telephone code | (+994) 2229 |
Website | www |
Gazakh (Azerbaijani: Qazax; also known as Kazakh or Qazakh) is a rayon of Azerbaijan. It has two exclaves inside Armenia, Yukhari Askipara and Barkhudarli, both of which came under Armenian control during the Nagorno-Karabakh War.
In antiquity, this rayon was part of the province of Utik. The region was conquered by a succession of neighbouring powers or invaders, including Sassanid Persians, the Byzantine Empire, the Arabs, the Seljuq Turks, the Georgians, the Mongols, the Timurids, the Kara Koyunlu and Ak Koyunlu Turkoman tribes, and finally Safavid Iran. It was also ruled by Ottoman Empire between 1578 and 1607 and again 1722 and 1735.
After the Russo-Persian War (1804-1813), the Russian Empire gained control of the area by virtue of the Treaty of Gulistan. Under Russian rule, it was part of Tiflis Governorate before forming the northeastern part of the Kazakh uyezd of the Elisabethpol Governorate in 1868. A contemporary military historian noted the following ethnographic detail: "Abbas Mirza's route lay through the country of the great tribe of the Casaks, which is extremely strong and thickly wooded." He further notes that: "These have no connection with the Russian Cossacks. They are descended from men of the Kirgis Casaks, left by Genghis Khan. They are frequently called Kara Papaks, from wearing black sheep-skin caps."