Shahumian Province

Schahumjan ( Շահումյան Armenian, Russian Шаумян, also Shahoumyan, named after the Armenian revolutionary Stepan Schahumjan ) is a province of the internationally unrecognized Republic of Nagorno Karabakh. It is located west of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region and is occupied since 1993 by the Armenian army. The province here coincides with the western part of the Azerbaijani district Kəlbəcər, while its eastern, only in 1991 by the government of Azerbaijan assigned to this area forms part of the Nagorno-Karabakh province Martakert. In addition, part of the district Goranboy is claimed for the province Schahumjan, who was already in Soviet times, a separate Rayon Schahumjan and was inhabited until the beginning of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the majority of Armenians, but not part of the Autonomous Region of Nagorno-Karabakh. This is also the nominal capital Schahumjan, Azerbaijani Aşağı Ağcakənd. De facto is the administrative headquarters in Karwatschar ( Քարվաճառ, Kəlbəcər, Кельбаджар or Карвачар ).

The province has an area of ​​1 829.8 square kilometers and according to the census of Nagorno-Karabakh from 2005 2 560 inhabitants was 1.4 inhabitants per square kilometer. In the province there are 15 municipalities.

In the province there is the Tartar Canyon and in the vicinity of the monastery Dadiwank (also Chotawank / Khotavank called ), just outside the former boundaries of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region.