self-government; Azerbaijan had the right to maintain garrisons in Shusha and Khankendi only in peacetime states; he could not send troops into Nagorno-Karabakh except with the consent of the Armenian National Council; disarmament of the population was stopped until the decision of the Paris Peace Conference. According to British journalist Robert Scotland Liddell, who visited Karabakh, peace has been established in the region, which, according to residents, has never happened before.

March 1920 Defeat of the Armenian part of Shusha
The agreement concluded in August 1919 limited the Azerbaijani administrative and military presence in Nagorno-Karabakh and established the internal autonomy of the region. Almost immediately, however, the agreement was violated, Azerbaijani troops entered Nagorno-Karabakh and concentrated on the border with Zangezur. On February 19, 1920, Sultanov categorically demanded that the Armenian National Council of Karabakh immediately resolve the issue of "the final entry of Karabakh into Azerbaijan as its inseparable economic part." Azerbaijan has begun to concentrate its troops and irregular armed detachments around Nagorno-Karabakh. The Turkish general Khalil Pasha arrived in Shusha as a military adviser.
On February 28 - March 4, the VIII Congress of the Armenians of Karabakh was held in Shusha, which rejected Sultanov's demand, accusing the governor of numerous violations of the peace agreement, bringing troops into Karabakh without the permission of the National Council and organizing the killings of Armenians.
Sultanov, trying to strengthen his control over Karabakh, forbade Armenians to leave Shusha without permission, ordered registration of Armenians who served in the Russian army, developed plans for the destruction of Armenian settlements between Zangezur and Karabakh in order to break the connection between the Armenians of these regions.
Violation of the terms of the August agreement by the Azerbaijani side, according to Richard Hovhannisyan, ultimately led to an unsuccessful attempt at an armed uprising at the end of March 1920.
On the night of March 22-23, during the celebration of Novruz holiday, Armenian armed groups attacked the Azerbaijani garrisons in Shusha, Askeran and Khankendi, trying to catch Azerbaijanis by surprise.
In Shusha, however, due to the uncoordinated actions of the Armenian detachments, the Azerbaijani troops managed to organize the defense of the Shusha fortress, and with the onset of the morning - to strike back at the attackers, after which they, with the participation of local Azerbaijani residents, staged a massacre in the Armenian quarters, which led to mass the death and expulsion of the entire Armenian population and the destruction of the Armenian part of the city as a result of a fire that broke out. Several thousand residents managed, taking advantage of the thick fog, to escape from the city along the Dashalta road towards Varanda. Among the victims was the Armenian Bishop Vagan, who was hanged by the Azerbaijanis, and the head of the city police, Avetis Ter-Ghukasyan, who was burned alive.
On May 26, the Armenian newspaper “Zhoghovurd” (“People”) reported: “... As a result of the battles that took place in Karabakh, the city of Shusha and over 30 villages were destroyed and plundered, as a result of which 25,000 refugees appeared. According to the record made on April 28, 12335 people. settled in Varanda and Dizak, with 5975 people. of them urban residents, completely hungry, undressed and barefoot. Refugees are also scattered in the Khachen and Jevanshir districts, in which, due to the violation of communications, there was no accurate record. Approximately 25,500 refugees can be counted in these areas, for whom suitable public and private buildings are occupied. Food shortages are felt in Varanda and Dizak.”

Soviet period
The March events were a serious blow to Shushi. Having lost the urbanized Armenian part of the city with its commercial, cultural, educational and medical institutions, the remaining Muslim part of Shushi was doomed to a miserable existence and gradual stagnation.
The population fell to 9 thousand (5.1 thousand people in 1926, 5.6 thousand in 1932) and only by the end of the Soviet period rose to 17 thousand (for more details, see History of Nagorno-Karabakh). Shusha has lost its former significance; Stepanakert was chosen as the capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region, while Shusha became one of the regional centers.
In Soviet times, a production plant, a weaving shop of the Karabakh silk plant, a factory for the production of oriental musical instruments, an agricultural technical school, a pedagogical school, and a museum worked in Shusha. the history of Shushi, the memorial house-museum of the composer Uzeyir Gadzhibekov, sanatoriums, rest houses, pioneer camps, a tourist center. Из достопримечательностей - сохранившиеся части крепостных стен, два замка (все — XVIII в.), многочисленные жилые каменные 18th-19th century houses (which are characterized by the use of shebeke and murals).
In 1977, by the decision of the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijan SSR, Shusha was declared a city-reserve. At the same time, only the eastern, Azerbaijani part of the city was declared protected and restored, in which house-museums were created and mausoleums were erected. The Armenian monuments were not included in the list of protected objects, the Armenian cemeteries and the churches of Aguletsots and Megretsots were destroyed and used as building materials. In the late 1970s, a mausoleum was erected on the grave of the poet and statesman of the 18th century, Molla Panah Vagif, at the opening of which Heydar Aliyev was present.
According to the latest census conducted in the USSR in 1989, 17,000 people lived in Shusha; Azerbaijanis made up 98% of the total population of the city. In May 1988, the last Armenian residents were deported from Shushi, and already in the autumn of 1989, the tombstones of the Armenian cemetery were destroyed.

After the collapse of the USSR
On September 2, 1991, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic was proclaimed. On September 23, Armenia declared independence. Azerbaijan - 18 October. Since the end of 1991, the city has been in the blockade of the Armenian forces. In the winter of 1991-1992, intensive shelling of Stepanakert was carried out from Shushi, including with the use of Grad and Alazan installations.
By the spring of the same year, Shusha remained the last large settlement with an Azerbaijani population on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. From May 8 to May 9, 1992, Shusha was taken by the Armenians; the population and the garrison retreated to Lachin. During the assault, the Armenian forces used Grad multiple launch rocket systems and armored vehicles. After the capture of Shusha by the Armenian Karabakh forces and the suppression of Azerbaijani firing points, the merciless shelling of Stepanakert, which had lasted for several years, stopped, leaving not a single whole building in the city.
"Monument to the liberation of Shushi" at the entrance to the city: an Armenian T-72 tank, the first to break into the city at noon on May 8, 1992 and shot down by Azerbaijanis
bombed the Armenian Cathedral is currently fully restored. Also preserved are the Upper Mosque of Shushi, built in 1883, the Lower Mosque and the Saatly Mosque with one minaret of the 19th century, the previously damaged minaret of which was restored in 2004-2005. One of the mosques in Shusha is being restored at the expense of a foreign Armenian charitable organization. The correspondent of The New York Times, who visited Shusha in 2015, noted that the mosques restored by the Armenians and under the protection of the unrecognized state are not touched and are in excellent condition. The former house-museum of the opera singer Bulbul (XIX century) was damaged during the war.
In 1992, the Azerbaijanis set up a warehouse of missiles for the installations of the Grad MLRS in the Ghazanchetsots church. All stone sculptures were thrown out of the temple, and a large bronze bell was sold. Subsequently, in December 1992, the bell was found in one of the markets of the city of Donetsk, was bought by the Armenians for three million rubles and returned. In retaliation, after the occupation of the city by the Armenian side, the bronze busts of Uzeyir Gadzhibekov, Natavan and Bul-Bul were taken to Georgia for scrap, where they were bought by the Azerbaijani authorities and are currently on display in the courtyard of the Baku Art Museum. The Shushi Revival Foundation expressed its readiness to erect a bust of Natavan in front of the poetess's house if the Azerbaijani side returns it. According to the Azerbaijani newspaper "Nash Dom", the house of the famous Azerbaijani poetess, a native of Shushi, Khurshid-banu Natavan was burned down. A monument to the commander, former Prime Minister of Armenia Vazgen Sargsyan was erected in the city. Part of the screenings of the film festival "Golden Apricot" are held in Shusha.
In 2005, the population of the city was 3105 people, in 2011 it is about 4200 people, mostly refugees from Azerbaijan.
Since 2009, the Hayastan All Armenian Fund has been carrying out restoration work on the communal systems and the destroyed streets of the city.
In 2012, the NKR Ministry of Culture and Youth Affairs moved to the city. It is planned to transfer the Ministry of Justice to Shusha as well.

Tourism
On May 1, the tourist information center “Karabakh Information” was opened in Shusha, founded by the tourism department under the NKR government. The main task of the information center is to provide all kinds of free information of interest to tourists (about places of interest, hotel and entertainment complexes, banks, restaurants, transport, etc.) in Armenian, English and Russian.
There is a comfortable hotel "Shushi" in the city.
On May 9, 2013, the State Museum of Fine Arts was opened in the city in the spirit of Armenian cultural traditions and in full accordance with the architectural past of the city. Even before the gallery was built in Moscow, more than 300 paintings by various artists were collected for it.

Cultural