Hadrut District

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Hadrut district (Azerbaijani: Hadrut rayonu, Armenian: Հադրութի շրջան) is an administrative unit within the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh and former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region of the former Azerbaijan SSR with absolute majority of Armenian population. It was formed on August 8, 1930 under the name of Dizak district. On September 17, 1939, it was renamed the Hadrut region. Since 1933, the regional newspaper “Koltntesakan” (Armenian: Կոլտնտեսական) has been published, since 1962, the local editorial office of radio broadcasts has been operating.
With the beginning of the Karabakh conflict, interethnic clashes took place in the Hadrut region.

In May-June 1991, 14 Armenian villages in the south of the region were deported. It was a large-scale ethnic cleansing carried out with the participation of OMON officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Azerbaijan SSR, internal troops of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Soviet Army. It was called "Operation Ring". The male population was driven out to deportation camps. Their families also left their homes behind them. Refugees flooded the regional center of Hadrut and other cities and villages of NKAO and the Armenian SSR.

With the declaration of independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic after a referendum on September 2, 1991, the Hadrut region became part of the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh (NKR), though south remained under Azerbaijani control. Situation changed in August 1993, when during the First Karabakh War the troops of the already independent Azerbaijan also left the neighboring regions of Lachin, Kubatly, Jebrail and part of Fizuli. After the signing of the Bishkek Peace Agreement, the former Jebrail region and part of the Fizuli region were transferred to the administration of the Hadrut region. The city of Jabrayil became a military town called Mekhakavan (in Armenian: Մեխակավան), and to city of Fizuli was returned to its old, pre-Karyagino name: Varanda (in Armenian: Վարանդա). Thus, the Hadrut region extended to the bank of the Araxes river and became bordering to Iran. The village of Arachamukh (Armenian: Առաջամուղ) was built south of Mekhakavan at the expense of the Armenian diaspora.
In the fall of 2020, during the Second Karabakh War, Azerbaijan, having enlisted the comprehensive military support of Turkey, took control of the whole territory Hadrut region and a number of adjacent territories.

Only in the north-west of the region, the holdout of the Armenian resistance remained, so-called "Khtsaberd enclave": the villages of Khtsaberd (Chaylaqqala), Hin Tager (Kohne Taglar), Spitakashen, Arpagetik and a number of adjacent territories. After the signing of the ceasefire agreement on November 9, 2020 and the withdrawal of the troops of the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh from the Lachin region, this Armenian holdout would become practically surrounded by Azerbaijan Army (with the exception of a thin strip of land on the eastern slope of the Karabakh ridge). But on November 12, the militaries of Azerbaijan made an attempt to capture the Khtsaberd enclave. Armenia appealed to the Russian Federation for help. On November 13, the peacekeepers of the Russian Federation took control of this section of the region, including it in the zone of responsibility of the peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation in Karabakh. But soon they left the Khtsaberd enclave. After their left, the troops of the Azerbaijani-Turkish coalition took control on this territory.