[6] The city of Kalbajar was renamed to Karvachar (Armenian: Քարվաճառ) after its occupation in the First Nagorno-Karabakh war, which corresponds to the ancient district of Vaykunik, one of 12 cantons of Artsakh.

It was also known as Upper-Khachen or Tsar (after its chief town) and was ruled by one of the branches of the House of Khachen, who held it until the Russian conquest of the Karabakh region in the early 19th century.

[14] The district has close to 750 Armenian cultural monuments, which include monasteries, churches, chapels, fortresses, khachkars and inscriptions.

[23] According to the 2005 census carried out by the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh, 2,560 Armenians were living in the western part of the Shahumyan Province, which roughly corresponded to the Soviet Kalbajar District.

According to FFM figures, at that time the number of Armenian settlers in Kalbajar District was approximately 1,500.

[27] The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, who conducted a Field Assessment Mission to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan in October 2010 reported that there was no significant growth in the population since 2005.

[28] Though remote, Tsar nevertheless suffered from the deportations of Shah 'Abbas in the early seventeenth century and was almost denuded of its Armenian inhabitants.

Eventually, Kurds settled the area, as they did in the district of Kashat'agh across the Karabagh (Arts'akh) Mountains to the south.40°06′24″N 46°02′18″E / 40.1067°N 46.0383°E / 40.1067; 46.0383