Shushi – A tragic destiny

The foundation of the Shushi fortress and the birth of the Karabakh Khanate determined the decline of the Armenian meliks, who in the following decades were subjugated by Panah Khan and his son Ibrahim Khan. The Armenian population of the region then experienced a sharp decline, but the conquest by the Russian Empire significantly changed the situation. In particular, during the nineteenth century Shushi lost its importance as a fortress and became a rapidly expanding city, inhabited by both Armenians and Azeris, then called Tatars. According to the Russian census of 1822, 765 Tatar and 326 Armenian families lived in Shushi.