SHORLU (SHORLU DEMIRCHI,
BOYUK SHORLU DEMIRCHI, SHELLU)

The village of Zangibasar district, 3 km northwest of the village of Ulukhanli, the center of the Zangibasar district, on the left bank of the Zangi river.

Until the 1920s, only Azerbaijani Turks lived in the village, from that time until 1988, Azerbaijanis and Armenians.

In 1832, 338 Azerbaijani Turks (196 men, 142 women) lived in 46 households in the village, in 1873 - 1400 people (751 men, 649 women) in 125 households, in 1886 - 1318 people (741 men, 577 women) in 150 households, in 1897 - 1360 people, in 1905 - 1432 people, in 1914 - 2216 people.

At the beginning of 1918, one of the largest Azerbaijani settlements in Western Azerbaijan, initially subjected to savage attacks by Armenian bandit detachments of Andranik, was the village of Shorlu.­ At that time, up to 2,500 civilians lived in the village. Armenian executioners destroyed the village, looted it, then set it on fire, killed part of its population, and expelled the survivors from their native land.­

After the establishment of Soviet power in the region, a very small part of the refugee population of the village was able to return to their native village. In 1922, their number was 492 people, in 1926 - 687 people, in 1931 - 601 people.­­

Some of the unbelievers settled permanently on the territory of Turkey, and some moved to Nakhchivan and lived here.

The first Armenians (14 people in total) were registered in the 1926 census in the village of Boyuk Shorlu Demirchi. The main migration of Armenians to the village began after the deportation of Azerbaijanis in 1949-1950.­ They can be said to be mainly Armenians resettled in 1946-1947 from various foreign countries.­

The deported residents of Shorlu at that time mainly lived in the Imishli and Barda districts of Azerbaijan. Later, 30-40 families from the population of Shorlu who lived in Imishli returned and continued to live in their native lands.

On January 25, 1978, the village was renamed Shorlu and in Dashtavan, this is how this ancient Turkic toponym was Armenized.

In 1988, the Shors faced Armenian brutality again. The first attacks of the Dashnaks this time occurred on this village. Under oppression and pressure, the Azerbaijani population of the village was expelled from their homes.