Daşkəsən

For the administrative district, see Dashkasan Rayon; for the settlement and municipality also called Daşkəsən, see Daşkəsən (settlement); for the village in Jabrayil Rayon, see Daşgəsən; for the place in Zanjan Province of Iran , see Dashkasan.

Coordinates: 40°29′41″N 46°04′38″E / 40.49472°N 46.07722°E / 40.49472; 46.07722

Daşkəsən
—  City & Municipality  —
Daşkəsən
Coordinates: 40°29′41″N 46°04′38″E / 40.49472°N 46.07722°E / 40.49472; 46.07722
Country	Azerbaijan
Rayon	Dashkasan
Population (2010)[1]
– Total	14,300
Time zone	AZT (UTC+4)
– Summer (DST)	AZT (UTC+5)

Daşkəsən (Azerbaijani: Daşkəsən) is a city and municipality in and the capital of the Dashkasan Rayon of modern Azerbaijan. It has a population of 10801. The municipality consists of the city of Daşkəsən and the village of Alunitdağ.^[2]

Etymology

The city's name means Rock Cutter in Azerbaijani translation of this name, in which Azerbaijani daş and kəsən is rooted in the verb kəsmək, "to cut", thus referring to a place where rocks have been hacked.^[3]

History

The mountains of Dashkesen were used as pastures for a long time. The most beautiful pastures of the South Caucasus are located here and in Khoshbulag. Khoshbulag was inhabited by the primitive people in the Stone Age whose main engagement was hunting. In the 3rd century B.C. people engaged in animal breeding rose to Khoshbulag pastures. The tradition is followed up today. Dashkesen summer pastures are 2000 m high from sea level. Different animal-breeding tribes settled here and built Cyclops-like small towers to protect themselves from attacks. Since that period Dashkesen turned to the place of settlement.

Tumuli type burying monuments found in the archaeological digs carried out in 1959-1960 in the places of ancient settlement in Dashkesen show that people used this area as summer pastures and there was only one way to those pastures in summer- north-east, the valley of the river Kur.

Before Islam the local population practiced Christianity and for the reason that Islam was poorly spread in the mountains of Dashkesen, one can find here plenty of Albanian-Christian temples.

The middle ages in Dashkesen are characterized with the development of cultural work.

The region Dashkesen is very rich for its natural resources. In the period of the Soviet Union the so-called strategic products of the region, i.e. iron-stone, aluminium, cobalt, marble and others were actively exploited.

The administrative region of Azerbaijan SSR-the region Dashkesen (formerly known as Destefur till 1956) established in 1930. In 1963 it was liquidated and the territory of the region attached to the region Khanlar and in 1965. As of January 01, 2004 the area of the region was 1,047 km2 and the population was 31,238. ^[4] In 1988 armenian population of the Daşkəsən began to arm and attacked Azeri-populated villages. During Operation Ring soviet soldiers and Azerbaijani law-enforcement officers erased those gangs. Several thousand IDP from occupied Nagorno-Karabakh territory of Azerbaijan is settled in here.

Prominent People from Daşkəsən

• Javad oglu Huseynov - Poet
• Bayramov Maharram Ahad oglu - Honorable doctor of Azerbaijan SSR

References

1. ^ The state statistical committee of the Azerbaijan Republic
2. ^ Belediyye Informasiya Sistemi
3. ^ Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan:Dashkesen city
4. ^ Brief information on history of Dashkesen

External links

• Daşkəsən at GEOnet Names Server