Arakel / Arakül

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Arakel (Armenian: Առաքել) or Arakyul (Azerbaijani: Arakül) is a village in South Caucasus. According to jurisdiction of Azerbaijan, controlling it, it is in the Khojavend District of Azerbaijan. According to jurisdiction of Artsakh Republic, claiming it, it is in Hadrut Province of the Artsakh Republic. The village had an ethnic Armenian-majority population prior to the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, and also had an Armenian majority in 1989. According to local tradition, Arakel is named so because Thaddeus, the patron saint of the Armenian Apostolic Church, stayed here whilst preaching to the Armenians. The village was emptied of Armenians during the Operation Ring in 1990. Then Armenian forces liberated it during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1993 and was administrated as part of the Hadrut Province of the de facto independent Republic of Artsakh. The village was recaptured by Azerbaijan in 9 November 2020 during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war. In January 2021, according to the Public Radio of Armenia, Azerbaijani soldiers reportedly destroyed an Armenian cross-stone (khachkar) monument in the village, based on footage posted by the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia.