Shekher
Շեխեր Şexer | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 39°38′47″N 46°58′45″E / 39.64639°N 46.97917°E | |
Country | Azerbaijan |
District | Khojavend |
Population (2015)[1] | |
• Total | 407 |
Time zone | UTC+4 (AZT) |
Shekher (Armenian: Շեխեր; Azerbaijani: Şexer) is a village in the Khojavend District of Azerbaijan, in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
During the Soviet period, the village was part of the Martuni District of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast within the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. After the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, the village was administrated as part of the Martuni Province of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh. The village came under the control of Azerbaijan on 9 November 2020, during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.[2]
Historical heritage sites in and around the village include the church of Surb Vardan (Armenian: Սուրբ Վարդան), the 16th/17th-century shrine of Pir Bab (Armenian: Փիր բաբ) with an adjacent khachkar, and two 17th-century khachkars.[3]
The village had an ethnic Armenian-majority population in 1989.[4] Prior to the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, it also had an Armenian majority with 408 inhabitants in 2005,[5] and 407 inhabitants in 2015.[1]
In October 2018, the village signed a friendship declaration with the Commune of Arnouville, France.[6] In June 2019, the French administrative court of Cergy-Pontoise declared that the signing breached French law by exceeding the authority of a municipal jurisdiction and by not respecting the international commitments of France (notably Nagorno-Karabakh's lack of recognition as a state), proclaiming the declaration null and void.[7]