Shusha District

The district was formerly part of the Shusha District of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) of Azerbaijan SSR during the Soviet times. It was the only district of NKAO to have an Armenian-majority.[3]

The district came under the control of the Armenian forces during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and was made part of the Shushi Province of the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh. However, in 2020, parts of the district, including its capital, Shusha, were recaptured by Azerbaijan in November 2020 following a Forty Four-day battle during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.[4]

• Mir Mohsun Navvab, artist and poet
• Khurshidbanu Natavan, poet
• Sadigjan, musician, inventor of the Azeri variety of tar
• Gasim bey Zakir, poet
• Khudadat bey Malik-Aslanov, scientist and politician
• Najaf bey Vazirov, playwright and journalist
• Bulbul, folk and opera singer
• Bulbuljan, folk singer
• Muratsan (1854–1908), Armenian writer and novelist.
• Leo (1860–1932), Armenian historian.
• Stepan Aghajanian (1863–1940), Armenian painter.
• Hambardzum Arakelian (1865–1918), Armenian journalist and public activist.
• Alexander Atabekian (1868–1933), prominent Armenian anarchist.
• Vartan Sarkisov (1875–1955), Soviet-Armenian architect.
• Freidun Aghalyan (1876–1944), Armenian architect.
• Tuman Tumanian (1879–1906), Armenian liberation movement leader.
• Abdurrahim Hagverdiyev, dramatist
• Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli (12 September 1887 to 3 January 1943 in the GULAG, near Gorky, Russia), core author of the novel Ali and Nino, published under the pseudonym Kurban Said
• Karim bey Mehmandarov, doctor and social activist
• Khan Shushinski, folk singer
• Shamsi Badalbeyli, theatre director and actor
• Suleyman Sani Akhundov, Azerbaijani playwright, journalist, children's author, and teacher (3 October 1875, Shusha – 29 March 1939, Baku)
• Ahmad Agdamski, Azerbaijani opera singer, mugam singer and actor (5 January 1884, Shusha – 1 April 1954 Agdash)
• Soltan Hajibeyov, Azerbaijani composer and People's Artist of the USSR (5 May 1919 Shusha – 19 September 1974 Baku)
• Uzeyir Hajibeyov (1885–1948), founder of Azerbaijani composed music
• Jabbar Garyagdioglu, Azerbaijani folk singer (khananda) (31 March 1861 Shusha – 20 April 1944 Baku)
• Seyid Shushinski, Azerbaijani folk singer (khananda) (12 April 1889, Horadiz – 1 November 1965, Baku)
• Arsen Terteryan (1882–1953), Soviet-Armenian scientist.
• Artashes Babalian (1886–1959), a politician of the First Republic of Armenia.
• Sahak Ter-Gabrielyan (1886–1937), Soviet-Armenian statesman.
• Hayk Gyulikekhvyan (1886–1951), Armenian literary critic.
• Ashot Hovhannisyan (1887–1972), Soviet-Armenian statesman and historian.
• Mikael Arutchian (1897–1961), Soviet-Armenian painter.
• Ivan Knunyants (1906–1990), Soviet-Armenian chemist.
• Gevork Kotiantz (1909–1996), Soviet-Armenian painter.
• Shamsi Badalbeyli (1911–1987), Soviet-Azerbaijani actor and theatre director.
• Nelson Stepanyan (1913–1944), Soviet-Armenian pilot and Lieutenant–Colonel of the Red Army.
• Gurgen Boryan (1915–1971), Soviet-Armenian poet and playwright.
• Seyran Ohanyan (born 1962), Armenian politician and military commander.
• Aram Manukian (1879–1919), Armenian revolutionary leader
• Feyzullah Mirza Qajar (1872–1920), prince of Iran's Qajar dynasty. Major general in the Russian Empire and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, later military figure and politician in Iran.
• Latif Karimov, Azerbaijani carpet designer known for his contributions to a variety of artistic fields.(17 November 1906, Shusha – 1991, Baku)
• Avan Yuzbashi, (1670s–1735), Armenian military and political leader during Davit Bek uprising (1720s)
• Molla Panah Vagif, Poet the minister of foreign affairs in the Karabakh Khanate
• Ibrahim Khalil Khan (1732–1806), Azerbaijani khan of the Karabakh Khanate.
• Mehdigulu Khan Vefa, lyrical poet of Azerbaijan, lieutenant colonel in the Russian Army, son of a famous Karabakh poet Khurshidbanu Natavan (1855 Shusha – 1900 1900 Tiflis)
• Mir Hasan Vazirov, Azerbaijani revolutionary and one of the 26 Baku Commissars

39°45′N 46°45′E