Researchers document Azerbaijani heritage in the village of Khalaj

A study published as part of the Sites of Memory of Western Azerbaijan project documented the history of Khalaj, a village in present-day Armenia that was deserted after Azerbaijani residents were driven out in the late 1980s.

The research describes how the village was inhabited by ancestors of Azerbaijanis for centuries. The study notes that during the Tsarist period, the village was part of the Zangezur Uyezd of the Elisavetpol Governorate.

The study claims that Armenian armed detachments and the forces of the First Republic of Armenia carried out ethnic cleansing against the Turkic population in the region between 1918 and 1920. In December 1918, armed groups opened fire on the residents of Khalaj, killing 80 people and forcing others to flee. Following the Soviet proclamation of Armenia in 1920, the leadership of Soviet Azerbaijan decided to cede Zangezur to Soviet Armenia.

The village was later incorporated into the Armenian SSR in 1921. During the Soviet period, Azerbaijanis returned to the village until the late 1980s, when they were permanently driven out due to escalating tensions and territorial claims. The researchers conducted fieldwork between 2021 and 2024 to identify surviving heritage sites. During this work, they discovered a building that may have served as a mosque, featuring a stone with an Arabic inscription from the late 19th century.

The project has organized information on nearly 600 villages in Armenia that were once inhabited by ancestors of Azerbaijanis.