Soviet-Armenian historian
Suren Yeremian states that the area of present-day Zangilan was part of the Kovsakan gavar (county) of the
Syunik province within the
Kingdom of Armenia. According to Armenian historian
Konstantin Khudaverdyan, the area that would become Pirchivan was originally an Armenian settlement named
Verjnavan (). In the 14th century, Verjnavan was mentioned as being a part of the Kovsakan gavar of the province of Syunik, during the period of
Mongol Armenia. After the
Russian conquest of the Caucasus in the nineteenth century, Zangilan (then called
Pirchivan) became part of the
Zangezur Uyezd of the
Russian Empire's
Elisabethpol Governorate. According to 1886 census data, there were 50 homes and 211
Azerbaijanis (classified as "Tatars" in the census) of the
Shiite branch of
Islam in Pirchivan. According to the 1912
Caucasian Calendar, the village of Zangilan was home to 762 people, the majority of whom were Azerbaijanis (classified as "Tatars" in the census). Pirchivan I and Pirchivan II were part of the village council of the same name in the Zangilan District of the
Azerbaijan SSR during the early Soviet period in 1933. Pirchivan I was the administrative centre of the district, with 574 residents and 95 farms, while Pirchivan II had 148 residents and 35 farms. The village council's population, which also included the villages of
Genlik,
Malatkeşin, and
Tağlı, was 98.7 percent Azerbaijani. Pirchivan was classified as an
urban-type settlement and renamed
Zangilan by the Presidium of the
Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic on 31 August 1957. It was given
city status in 1967. The city had a railway station on the Baku-Nakhchivan branch line, three schools, a
music school, two public libraries, a
cultural centre, a movie theatre, and a hospital. In March 1962, the Zangilan district was visited by
Anastas Mikoyan and Soviet Armenian officials who met with their Azeri counterparts in celebration of the Soviet "
friendship of peoples." The population was 6,968 people, according to the
Soviet Census of 1989. During the
First Nagorno-Karabakh War,
Armenian forces occupied the city on 29 October 1993, forcing the
Azerbaijani population to flee. It was later incorporated into the
breakaway Republic of Artsakh as part of its
Kashatagh Province, where it was known as
Kovsakan (). Following the outbreak of the
Syrian Civil War, Armenian refugees from
Syria, mostly farmers, settled in the city. Azerbaijan protested and described the settlement of Syrian Armenians on its internationally recognised territory as a violation of international law that impeded the peace process. Azerbaijan recaptured the city on 20 October 2020, during the
2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War. On 23 December 2020, President
Ilham Aliyev raised the
Azerbaijani flag in the city. == Historical heritage sites ==