Shusha

About Shusha in brief

Shusha is a city and the centre of the Shusha District of Azerbaijan. It is situated at an altitude of 1,400–1,800 metres in the Karabakh mountains. Shusha literally means ‘glass’ and derives from Persian Shīsha. It was one of the two main Armenian cities of the Transcaucasus and the center of a self-governing Armenian principality from medieval times through the 1750s. It also had religious and strategic importance to the Armenians, housing the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral, the church of Kanach Zham, two other churches, a monastic convent, and serving as a land link to Armenia. After the capture of Shusha in 1992 by Armenian forces during First Nagorno-Karabakh War, its population diminished dramatically again and became exclusively Armenian. Between May 1992 and November 2020, Shusha was under the de facto control of the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh and administered as part of its Shushi Province. Azerbaijani forces retook the city on 8 November 2020 following a three-day long battle. The Gospel was created in Shusha by the calligrapher Ter-Manuel in 1428. There are rumors about the ‘cientcient fortress’ which was conquered by one man from the Muslim Jevanshir tribe. The same information about the fortress is confirmed by the Georgian king Erekle II, the king of Panin, in his letter of 1769 to the Russian diplomat Count P.

Panin. The town’s name comes from a nearby village Shushikent, which literally means ‘Shusha village’ in Azerbaibaijani language. The 15th century illuminated Armenian Gospel kept on display at Yerevan’s Matenadaran is the earliest known artifact from the town. The city’s previous name, Panahabad, was a tribute to Panah Ali Khan, the first ruler of the Karabsakh Khanate. It became a city after the Russian conquest of the Caucasus region in the first half of the 19th century over Qajar Iran. The Armenians under the command of Avan Yuzbashi returned to the guard of the Patriarch of Shushi in the 1720s and 1730s, during the Turkish invasion of the Southern Caucasus. In 1725 it was mentioned as a linchpin of one of East Armenian military districts, called ‘syghnakhs’, which played a key role in the Armenian campaign against Ottoman forces in the1720s. The nearest Armenian stronghold … was Shusha, four days’ distance from Shemakhi. After meeting with the leaders, including the Patriarch, they returned to Shushi via the Rocky mountains of Rocky mountains. The number of armed Armenians has not been determined, but it is believed to be a number of the armed men of the Der Der Der tribe, who are known to have defeated the Turks in skirmishes.