| 1838 print JULFA, NAKHICHEVAN, AZERBAIJAN, #23 |
Print from steel engraving titled Pont a Julfa, published in a volume of L'Univers Pittoresque, Paris, approx. page size 21 x 13 cm, approx. image size 14 x 9 cm.
Julfa, Azerbaijan (city)
Julfa (Azerbaijani: Culfa), formerly Jugha (Armenian: Djugha and also rendered as Djulfa, Dzhul’fa, Jolfa, Dzhulfa, Džulfa, Jolfa, Jolfa-ye Nakhjavan ), is the administrative capital of the Julfa Rayon administrative region of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic in Azerbaijan.
Julfa is separated by the Araks River from its namesake, the town of Jolfa on the Iranian side of the border. The two towns are linked by a road bridge and a railway bridge.
History
Traditionally, the king of Armenia, Tigranes I, was said to have be the founder of Jugha.[4] Existing as a village in the early Middle Ages, it grew into a town between the 10th and 13th centuries, with an population that was almost entirely Armenian. For a time, Jugha was one of the most important settlements in medieval Armenia. It became prosperous during the 15th to the 17th centuries due to the role its Armenian merchants played in international trade: the caravans of those merchants travelled the ancient trade routes from Persia, India, South-East Asia and the Middle East, to Russia, the Mediterranean, and North-West Europe.
In 1603, Shah Abbas I of Persia retook Jugha from the Ottoman Empire and was seen as a liberator by its Armenian population. By 1605, however, Abbas had realized that he was unable to defend the territory along the Aras River from incursions by the Ottomans. His solution was to evacuate the region, undertaking a scorched earth policy to prevent its wealth and population falling into Ottoman hands. In October 1605, the Shah issued an edict declaring that the entire population of Jugha must leave their homes and move deep into the Persian Empire.
According to 17th century chronicler Arakel of Tabriz, the edict stated that they had three days to leave or face being massacred.About three thousand families were deported from Julfa, and many drowned while attempting to cross the Aras. After the deportation was completed, the town was destroyed by fire to prevent the inhabitants from returning. The deportees were taken to an area near Esfahan in Persia (now Iran), where a new town, New Julfa, was established. New Julfa is now a district of Esfahan, and still contains a small Armenian population.
In 1606, a second deportation was made of inhabitants that had escaped the first deportation. In the 17th century a small settlement was founded amid the ruins of the destroyed town, which, in 1747, became part of the Nakhchivan khanate. At the start of the 19th century this settlement moved to a new location three kilometres to the east of the historical town, at the point where the Yernjak River flows into the Aras. After the Treaty of Turkmenchay in 1828, the village of Julfa became the official border crossing between Persia and Russia, containing state customs services, a garrison and post office.
The town became part of the Armenian oblast from 1840 to 1847, and then part of the Erevan Gubernia of the Russian Empire between 1847 and 1917. Following the Russian Revolution, between 1918 to 1920 Julfa was the subject of a territorial dispute between the Democratic Republic of Armenia and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. As a result of the Treaty of Kars, it became part of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic under the Transcaucasian SFSR in 1922, which itself became part of the Azerbaijan SSR in 1936.
During the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh from 1988 to 1994, the remainder of the Armenian population (which had been slowly declining due to emigration during the Soviet era)either fled or was forcibly deported to Armenia.