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Lachin (Azerbaijani: Laçın, Armenian: Լաչին, Kurdish: Laçîn) is a town in Azerbaijan. Since may 1992 this region has been completely under the control of Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, and has been renamed Berdzor(Armenian: Բերդձոր) by the Republic. This town and the surrounding region serves as part of a crucial land corridor connecting the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic with Armenia.

Currently the population reaches about 2,200 for the town of Lachin and 9,800 for the Lachin (rayon) during a 2005 census. Notwithstanding what in Lachyn was capital Kurdistanskiy Uyezd, the basic share the population Azeris approximately made 82,7% (59,000), Kurds made 16% (9,500). Kurdish (speaking Kurdish and Azeri Turkish) population they basically lived in villages which have been located on mountain Zangezur, and made 46% of Lachin city. But before the Nagorno-Karabakh war the population stood at well over 67,000.

The town was inhabited by nomadic Kurdish tribes in the 18th century. Eventually, this population became the majority in most parts of the region, particularly around Lachin. The town of Lachin on July 7, 1923, became the capital of Kurdistan Uyezd often known as Red Kurdistan. It was dissolved on April 8, 1929. According to what Bushkapin wrote, official statistics of 1931 showed that there were 3,322 Kurdish speakers in Lachin. These figures did not include those individuals who did not speak Kurdish but nonetheless defined themselves as Kurds.^[1] Most of the Kurdish population in Lachin were Shi'a muslims. Most of the Kurdish population of Lachin was deported by the Soviet authorities, in late 1930s. Many Kurds still were able to remain in the town and there was a Kurdish minority in the area before the Nagorno-Karabakh war started. In 1992, the Lachin Kurdish Republic was declared in Armenia by a group led by Wekîl Mustafayev, but this attempt failed. Mustafayev took refuge in Italy.

The town is scenically built on the side of a mountain. The Ahavni River runs by the town.

Lachin town and the rayon surrounding the town was a scene of severe fighting during the 1990-1994 Nagorno-Karabakh war, this is why the town is still recovering from the destruct of a war. Lachin is the most important town under Armenian control because of the Lachin corridor which attaches Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh. The OSCE Minsk group co-chairs have noted that “Lachin has been treated as a separate case in previous negotiations.” This is because Lachin is Nagorno Karabakh’s humanitarian and security corridor. Without it, Nagorno-Karabakh would remain an isolated enclave. It is because of Lachin’s political and geographic reality and security dimension, that it is viewed differently in the negotiation process.^[2] The Lachin corridor and the Kelbajar district have been at the center of Armenian demands during the Nagorno-Karabakh peace talks with Azerbaijan.^[3]

• Lachin corridor

• Pictures of Lachin (Berdzor)
• Demographic Crisis in Lachin (Berdzor)
• More information about Lachin (Berdzor) from Armeniapedia.com

• Lachin (Berdzor). Azerb.com. Retrieved on 2007-02-04.

Coordinates: 39°38′N, 46°33′E