Arakül
Arakul or Arakel is a village in the Khojavend District of Azerbaijan, in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The village had an ethnic Armenian-majority population prior to the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, and also had an Armenian majority in 1989.
Etymology
According to local tradition, the village is named "Arakel" because Thaddeus (Jude the Apostle), the patron saint of the Armenian Apostolic Church, stayed in the area.History
The modern village was founded in 1828. During the Soviet period, the village was part of the Hadrut District of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. After the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, the village was administrated as part of the Hadrut Province of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh. The village was captured by Azerbaijan on 9 November 2020, during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.In January 2021, footage of Azerbaijani soldiers destroying an Armenian cross-stone monument in the village was shared by the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia.