Sığnaq

Sighnag / Sghnakh
Sığnaq / Սղնախ
Sighnag / Sghnakh is located in Azerbaijan
Sighnag / Sghnakh
Sighnag / Sghnakh
Location within Azerbaijan
Sighnag / Sghnakh is located in Karabakh Economic Region
Sighnag / Sghnakh
Sighnag / Sghnakh
Location within Karabakh Economic Region
Coordinates: 39°43′16″N 46°47′59″E / 39.72111°N 46.79972°E / 39.72111; 46.79972
Country Azerbaijan
DistrictKhojaly
Elevation
1,302 m (4,272 ft)
Population
 (2015)
 • Total
292
Time zoneUTC+4 (AZT)

Sighnag (Azerbaijani: Sığnaq) or Sghnakh (Armenian: Սղնախ) is a village in the Khojaly District of Azerbaijan. The village had an ethnic Armenian-majority population prior to the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, and also had an Armenian majority in 1989.

History

During the Soviet period, the village was a part of the Askeran District of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. After the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, the village was administrated as part of the Askeran Province of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh. The village was captured by Azerbaijan on 9 November 2020 during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.

In early July 2021, satellite images released by Caucasus Heritage Watch, a watchdog group made up of researchers from Purdue and Cornell, revealed that an Armenian cemetery dating back to the eighteenth century was bulldozed in order to make way for a new road. This makes it the "second historic cemetery destroyed along the new Fuzuli-Shusha road, after Mets T’agher/Böyük Tağlar."

Historical heritage sites

Historical heritage sites in and around the village include the 19th-century church of Surb Astvatsatsin (Armenian: Սուրբ Աստվածածին, lit. 'Holy Mother of God'), a 19th-century cemetery, and a spring monument built in 1949.

Demographics

The village had 251 inhabitants in 2005, and 292 inhabitants in 2015.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Hakob Ghahramanyan. "Directory of socio-economic characteristics of NKR administrative-territorial units (2015)".
  2. ↑ Андрей Зубов. "Андрей Зубов. Карабах: Мир и Война". drugoivzgliad.com.
  3. ↑ "Daha 23 kənd işğaldan azad edildi". report.az (in Azerbaijani). 9 November 2020.
  4. ↑ "ALERT:CHW confirms the destruction of an Armenian cemetery in the village of Sghnakh/Sığnaq, as first reported by Monument Watch...." Twitter. 2 July 2021.
  5. ↑ "The Results of the 2005 Census of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic" (PDF). National Statistic Service of the Republic of Artsakh.