Hüsülü, Lachin

Husulu (Azerbaijani: Hüsülü), historically also known as Kashataghk (Armenian: Քաշաթաղք) is a village in the Lachin District of Azerbaijan, located close to the villages of Malıbəy (Melikashen), Qarıqışlaq (Tandzut) and Ağoğlan. Kashataghk/Husulu is known for being the first capital of the Armenian Meliktom of Kashatagh.

Husulu Hüsülü
Tsitsernavank Monastery (5th–7th centuries)
Husulu Show map of Azerbaijan Husulu Show map of East Zangezur Economic Region
Coordinates: 39°38′26″N 46°24′33″E
Country	Azerbaijan
District	Lachin
Elevation	1,291 m (4,236 ft)
Population  (2015)[1]
• Total	113 (per Artsakh)
Time zone	UTC+4 (AZT)

Armenian monuments such as the Tsitsernavank Monastery from between the 5th and 7th centuries, and the 15th-century Melik Haykaz Palace are located near the village.

History

Most Armenian historians identify the village with Kashataghk, a settlement mentioned by the 13th-century Armenian historian Stephen Orbelian (one Armenian historian, Armen Gharagyozian, instead identifies Kashataghk with the nearby village of Qarıqışlaq).^[2] Despite the village's small size and population, the whole region of Kashatagh was named after this settlement due to it being a princely residence of the Armenian Meliks of Kashatagh.

The Kurdish population that settled in the Kashatagh region after the deportation of the Armenian population from the region by Shah Abbas I^[3] referred to the village as Sultankand; according to historian Samvel Karapetyan, this is because the inhabitants knew about the location's past as a princely residence.^[2] The name has also been rendered as Sultanlar and Sultanlı.^[4]

Under the rule of the Russian Empire, the settlement was administered as part of the Zangezur Uyezd of the Elisabethpol Governorate.^[5] During the Soviet period, the village was part of Red Kurdistan until its abolition in 1929. Thereafter, it was administered as part of the Lachin District. In 1931, the village received its current name, after the Azerbaijani communist official Hüsü Hajiyev.^[4]

The village was located in the Armenian-occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, coming under the control of ethnic Armenian forces during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War in the early 1990s. The village subsequently became part of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh as part of its Kashatagh Province, where it was known as Tsitsernavank (Armenian: Ծիծեռնավանք), with the Tsitsernavank community including the village of Melikashen (Armenian: Մելիքաշեն).^[1] It was returned to Azerbaijan as part of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement.

Historical heritage sites

Historical heritage sites in and around the village include the monastery of Tsitsernavank (Ծիծեռնավանք) from between the 5th and 7th centuries, khachkars from between the 8th and 17th centuries, two 20th-century tombstones,^[1] and the 15th-century Melik Haykaz Palace (Armenian: Մելիք Հայկազի ապարանք, romanized: Melik Haykazi Aparank), which was the palace of an Armenian melik, Melik Haykaz, the first ruler of the Melikdom of Kashatagh.^[6][7] The palace follows the classical architectural style of an Armenian melik palace,^[8][9] and was built on a slope surrounded by a fortified wall with towers and gates. It had several floors, with Melik Haykaz's living room being located on the ground floor and his throne room being located on the second floor.^[10] The palace underwent renovation between 1989 and 1992,^[2] and was turned into a hotel in 2007.^[11] Azerbaijani sources refer to the structure as Hamza Sultan Palace, attributing it to an 18th-century local ruler named Hamza Sultan of the Qaraçorlu tribe.^[4]

Demographics

According to administrative data from 1886, the settlement (recorded as two villages taken together, "First Sultankand" and "Second Sultankand") had 151 inhabitants.^[5]

The village had 113 inhabitants in 2005,^[12] and 113 inhabitants in 2015.^[1]

Gallery

• 
  The Palace of Armenian Melik Haykazyan

References

1. Hakob Ghahramanyan - Directory of socio-economic characteristics of NKR administrative-territorial units (2015)
2. Samvel Karapetyan (2001). Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh (PDF). RAA. pp. 147–149. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-10-19. Retrieved 2021-01-24.
3. Шнирельман В.А. Войны памяти: мифы, идентичность и политика в Закавказье. — ИКЦ «Академкнига», 2002. — С. 199. — ISBN 5-94628-118-6
4. Aliyeva, R. (2007). Azərbaycan toponimlərinin ensiklopedik lüğəti (in Azerbaijani). Baku: Şərq-Qərb. p. 330. ISBN 978-9952-34-155-3.
5. Hakobyan, Tadevos Kh.; Melik-Bakhshyan, Stepan T.; Barseghyan, Hovhannes Kh. (2001). Հայաստանի և հարակից շրջանների տեղանունների բառարան [Dictionary of toponymy of Armenia and adjacent territories] (in Armenian). Vol. 4. Yerevan: Yerevan State University Publishing House. p. 703.
6. Maghalyan A. V. PhD in History (2015). "Falsification Of The History Of The Artsakh Meliqdoms By Azerbaijani Historiography" (PDF). according to the famous Armenian historian Arakel Davrizhetsi, whose work is known to G. Mamedova as well, among the authorities that went to Iran's Shah-Abbas I in 1603 to ask him to save them from the Ottoman despotism there also was "from the Armenian nation...Meliq Haykaz from the country of Kshtagh
7. Artak Ghulyan. "Castles (Palaces) Of Meliks Of Artsakh And Siunik". Archived from the original on 2020-09-29. 2. The palace of Kashatagh (15th cent.) (pl. 2-3, I) is situated on the left bank of Tzitzernavanits tributary of the Aghavno river in the district of Kashatagh (Lachin). It refers to Melik-Haykaz the First (1450 - 1520), the founder of melikal principality of Kashatagh and is dated the end of the 15th cent. It is built on the slope of a hill, on the altitude created with brace walls. It consists of three smoothly covered, adjoined rooms, a colonnade arched hall and a two-storied vaulted hall adjoined to them from the west and the melik's flat is on the first floor and the open upper hall -the summer reception-throne hall -of Melik Haykaz is on the second floor. The compositional form created with a colonnade and two-storied hall of the fortified palace is the oldest and most entire one among the similar monuments.
8. Artak Ghulyan. "Castles (Palaces) Of Meliks Of Artsakh And Siunik". Archived from the original on 2021-04-13. The melikal palaces have mainly been the defence point, the special citadel of the residence-center, and they have also been called fortresses for this reason (Kashatagh, Kaghakategh, Mokhratagh, Horekavan, Gulatagh, Shushi).
9. "Kashatagh (Lachin) province". ArCgroup. 2001. Based on the research of 1985 architect Artak Ghulian provided the first architectural description of the princely quarters. In this regard he has particularly stated that "being the continuation of traditional forms and volumes annlied in the compositional resolution of the palaces of Khachen and Vayots Dzor of the 12th-14th centuries, the planning and volume of Kashatagh castle is a link between the further development of the 17th-18th cent melik residences frequent in Karabakh and Zanghezoor".
10. Vigen Avetisyan (2019). "The Armenian Kingdom Of Kashatagh – This Is Not A "Safety Zone", This Is Our Homeland". The village of Melikashen houses the palace of Kashatagh meliks built in the 1480s. The Melikatun (Melik House) complex is surrounded by a fortified wall with a tower and a gate. The palace consists of two-story chambers with vaulted rooms and other buildings. This structure was built by Melik Haykaz in 1480.
11. Rouben Galichian (2012). "The Invention of History- Azerbaijan, Armenia and the Showcasing of Imagination". HayBook. To pinpoint the outright lies contained in the table it is sufficient to look at page 104 of the book war against Azerbaijan(see Fig. 17), where the photo of the ruined Hamza Soltan palace in the village of Hüsülü(now Melikashen), which in fact is Melik Haykaz' summer palace, located in the District of Lachin is depicted, and then....the table claims the building has been "destroyed." In 2007 this writer stayed in a small guesthouse in the village of Melikashen, Lachin district which was the renovated and refurbished summerhouse of Melik Haykaz
12. "The Results of the 2005 Census of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic" (PDF). National Statistic Service of the Republic of Artsakh.

External links

• Hüsülü, Lachin at GEOnet Names Server