[3] Most of the inhabitants fled during the town's capture by Armenian forces on 26 February 1992 during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and hundreds were killed in the Khojaly massacre.

The Khojaly massacre was the mass killing of Azerbaijanis — mostly civilians, but also armed troops — by local[11] irregular Armenian forces and the 366th Commonwealth of Independent States Guards Motor Rifle Regiment.

[citation needed] The death toll claimed by the Azerbaijani authorities is 613 civilians, including 106 women and 63 children.

[21][22] Artsakh launched the construction of two new residential districts in the town in 2021, consisting of more than 400 apartments for displaced people from the village of Mets Tagher (Boyuk Taghlar) in the Hadrut Province.

[25][26] Historical heritage sites in and around the town include burial mounds and fields from the 2nd–1st millennia BCE and a 14th-century tomb.

Tombstones from the Late Middle Ages and the 18th century, and a 19th-century Turkic mausoleum are located a few hundred meters to the west of the town.