Sharur

In a manuscript of the 16th-century Oghuz heroic epic Book of Dede Korkut stored in Dresden, the place Sheryuguz is mentioned, which, according to a Russian orientalist and historian Vasily Bartold, is a distorted form of Sharur.^[2] In the Russian Empire, the town was the administrative centre of the Sharur-Daralayaz uezd of the Erivan Governorate and was known as Bash-Norashen.^[3]

In 1948, the city received the status of an urban-type settlement, and on 26 May 1964, it was renamed from Norashen to Ilyichevsk, after Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.^[4][5] In 1981, Ilyichevsk received the status of a city, and in 1991 the city was renamed Sharur according to the historical name of the area.^{[6][better source needed]}

Until 1905, Sharur, then known as Bashnorashen (Russian: Башнорашен), was composed of 100 Armenian and 25 Tatar households, a Russian primary school, telegraph-office, and a police station. The population was engaged in gardening, cultivated cotton and rice. The Armenian element of the population was "eliminated" during the Armenian–Tatar massacres of 1905–1907.^[7] In 1897, Bashnorashen, which had the status of a selo ("rural locality"), had a population of 867 consisting of 597 Tatars and 132 Armenians.^[8] In the early 20th century, the settlement had a predominantly Tatar population of 749.^[9]

According to official information from The State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan, on January 1, 2020, the city had a population of about 7,400.^[1]

Sharur has two parks, a stadium, a museum, a mosque, a monument-memorial to those killed in the First Nagorno-Karabakh war and a cinema.^[15]

• Arthur Voloshin – Hero of Russia.^[16]
• Adil Aliyev – President of the Azerbaijan Kickboxing Federation and a member of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan.

• Iğdır, Turkey