Early history In ancient times, the territory where modern-day Kalbajar is located was part of the county () of Tsar of the
Artsakh province within the
Kingdom of Armenia. inscription found in the village|left|227x227px The settlement is mentioned by Armenian sources in the 15th century as the village of '
(17th-century and later Armenian sources spell it '). It is first mentioned in the colophon of an Armenian manuscript dated to 1402: According to Armenian historian
Samvel Karapetyan, its population likely consisted of
Armenians until the 1730s. In the mid-18th century, Kalbajar was again incorporated into the province of Khachen as a part of the newly-formed
Karabakh Khanate. In the mid-19th century, the area was settled by Kurds, and the settlement's name was distorted from
Kar(a)vachar to
Kyarvajar or
Kyalbajar.
Red Kurdistan The city was part of the
Kurdistansky Uyezd (later called the
Kurdistan Okrug) of the
Azerbaijani SSR from 7 July 1923 to 23 July 1930. To its Kurdish population, it was known as .
Battle of Kalbajar The city was seized by Armenian forces on 2 April 1993 during the Battle of Kalbajar, near the end of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and all of its Azerbaijani inhabitants were forced out. Civilians reported being forced to flee through mountains still covered in snow, resulting in hundreds freezing to death.
Human Rights Watch findings concluded that during the Kalbajar offensive Armenian forces committed numerous violations of the rules of war, including forcible exodus of civilian population, indiscriminate fire and hostage-taking. In April 1993, the
United Nations Security Council adopted
Resolution 822 which called for the withdrawal of all occupying forces from the Kalbajar district, including the town of Kalbajar. An
OSCE Fact-Finding Mission visited the occupied territories in 2005 to inspect settlement activity in the area and report its findings to the Co-Chairs of the
OSCE Minsk Group. According to FFM figures, at that time the number of Armenian settlers in the Kalbajar District was approximately 1,500, of which about 450–500 lived in Kalbajar proper. FFM reported that "housing conditions were basic and no more than 20 to 30 percent of the ruins were reconstructed, usually in a crude and make-shift manner. Some were without glass windows and were only heated by a small wood-burning stove". According to 2013 local estimates, which the historian and political scientist Laurence Broers considers plausible, the city had some 700 inhabitants at the time while the
larger, namesake district had a total of 3,000 inhabitants. From 2014 to 2020, the city maintained ties with
Pico Rivera, California as a
friendship city.
Return to Azerbaijani control As part of an
agreement that ended the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, the town and its surrounding district were initially to be returned to Azerbaijani control by 15 November 2020, but this deadline was subsequently extended to 25 November 2020. The city, along with the district were returned to Azerbaijan on 25 November 2020. Following the end of the
2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, Armenian armed forces and civilians began to leave the Kalbajar area on 11 November 2020 in preparation for the handover of the town to Azerbaijani control on 15 November 2020. It was reported that some residents were burning their own homes, schools and forests and were cutting fruit trees and downing power lines prior to the handover. In the days leading up to the return to Azerbaijani control, there was heavy traffic on the road leading into the area as residents rushed to leave while other Armenians rushed to visit the nearby 9th century
Dadivank monastery one last time before the border closed. On 16 August 2021, the Azerbaijani president
Ilham Aliyev visited the city and hoisted the
flag of Azerbaijan in the city. In September of the same year, the building of the military prosecutor's office and a bakery were opened in Kalbajar. On 26 June 2022, the foundation of the İstisu mineral water plant was laid in Kalbajar. == Historical heritage sites ==