Culfa (city)
| Culfa | |||
| State : |
 Azerbaijan
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| Rayon : | Culfa | ||
| Founded : | 1848 (re-establishment) | ||
| Coordinates : | 38 ° 57 ' N , 45 ° 38' E | ||
| Height : | 720 m | ||
| Residents : | 12,900 (2014) | ||
| Time zone : | AZT ( UTC + 4 ) | ||
| Telephone code : | (+994) 36546 | ||
| Postal code : | AZ7200 | ||
| License plate : | 72 | ||
| Community type: | City (şəhər) | ||
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Culfa , German and Julfa (of Russian Джульфа ; Armenian Ջուղա , Dschugha ), is a city in Azerbaijan and capital of the districts Julfa in Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic . The city is located on the left bank of the Aras River and had about 12,900 inhabitants in 2014. On the other bank of the river that marks the state border with Iran is the city of Jolfa .
history
In the Middle Ages, the city, first mentioned in the 5th century, was an important trading center on the road from Persia to Armenia and was populated by Christians and Muslims. From the 15th century the city lost its importance, especially after the wars between the Ottoman Empire and Persia in the 16th century. But at the beginning of the 17th century the city had over 20,000 inhabitants. In 1604, however, the city was burned down by the Shah Abbas I because he could not defend it against the Turks. The residents were resettled to Isfahan , where there is still an Armenian community and a district that is inhabited by them and named after Culfa Neu-Culfa .
The city was largely deserted afterwards. Around 1880, around 80–90 caravans with Turkish and Persian goods worth 1.6 million rubles passed through the newly founded Culfa in 1848. At that time it had 200 inhabitants, a post and telegraph station and 24 churches, mostly in ruins. Parts of the old city were destroyed by the construction of a railway line from Russia to Persia at the beginning of the 20th century, but the city regained importance when the line opened in 1906.
Armenian cemetery
Near the city, near Alt-Culfa, there was an Armenian cemetery from the 15th and 16th centuries with over 3000 tombstones. The Culfa cemetery was divided into three areas. The first sector comprised tombs from the 9th to 13th centuries, the second sector from the 14th and 15th centuries and the third sector from the 16th century to 1605. It covered 1,600 square meters and originally probably over 10,000 Khachkar (literally cross stone; typical stelae of the Armenian stonemasonry). In 1903, when the railway was built between Culfa and Hamadan (Iran), around 6000 cross stones were destroyed. However, this was completely destroyed from 1998 to 2006. In mid-December 2005, the Azerbaijani army leveled the facility and converted it into a military training area, which is now inaccessible as a restricted military area. The destruction was criticized by the European Parliament and called a breach of the World Heritage Convention. The Armenian government and spokesman for the European Parliament accused Azerbaijan of a similar approach to that of the Taliban with the Buddha statues of Bamiyan in Afghanistan . Azerbaijan denied the allegations and did not allow foreign observers to enter the area.
traffic
Culfa has a train station on the Yerevan – Jolfa railway line, which opened in 1908 . Railway traffic in Nakhchivan has been discontinued, however, also because the connection to the rest of the Azerbaijani railway network is only via routes running through Armenia . Rail traffic over the border crossing into Iranian Jolfa, currently the only one between Azerbaijan and Iran, is currently on hold. It is planned to put it back into operation. However, the construction of a new railway line between Iran and the Azerbaijani heartland with a border crossing in Astara is well advanced, the commissioning of which will further relativize the importance of the crossing between Culfa and Dscholfa.
swell
- ↑ Population by sex, economic and administrative regions, urban settlements of the Republic of Azerbaijan at the beginning of the 2014 ( Memento from July 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on the website of the Azərbaycan Respublikasının Dövlət Statistika Komitəsi (State Statistics Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan)
- ↑ azerb.com about city and rayon
- ↑ European Parliament on Cultural Sites in Azerbaijan (English)
- ↑ Azerbaijan 'flattened' sacred Armenian site , The Independent, by Stephen Castle, May 30, 2006
- ↑ hjs: route Culfa-Jolfa . In: IBSE telegram 307 (6/2016), p. 10.