Kalbajar
Kəlbəcər ( Azerbaijani, also Kälbäcär ) or Karwatschar (Armenian Քարվաճառ, also Karvachar; Kelbajar Kurdish, Russian Кельбаджар ) is a city in Azerbaijan, near the Armenian border, currently administered by the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh. It is nominally capital of the Azerbaijani rayons rayons Kəlbəcər and de facto administrative headquarters of the Nagorno-Karabakh province Schahumjan. Kəlbəcər is located in a canyon in the so-called Laçin corridor that lies between the Republic of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. The city is 1589 meters above sea level, 320 km west of the Azerbaijani capital Baku.
According to the census of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2005, the city had 491 inhabitants.
From 1923 to 1929 Kəlbəcər was part of the autonomous province of Red Kurdistan and the time was populated mainly by Kurds. After the dissolution of the red Kurdistan many Kurds were deported during the Stalinist purges to Central Asia from 1937.
In 1970, the urban-type settlement about 5000, in 1991 about 7,500 inhabitants. Livestock farming was the main industry.
In the course of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the city on May 18, 1992 by Armenia was occupied. Most Muslim inhabitants ( Azeris, Kurds ) then fled from the city, mostly to the heartland of Azerbaijan. In the time after that Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan were settled in the city by the Armenian government. With about 500 inhabitants in 2010, the population has shrunk to one-fifteenth of the year 1991.