Gülüstan, Goranboy
Gülüstan is a village in the Goranboy District of Azerbaijan, which is part of the municipality of Buzluq. Gülüstan is a Persian word and means "The flower Garden".
Between the 16th and the 18th century, the Fortress of Gulistan was seat of the Principality of Gulistan under the leadership of the Armenian Melik Beglarian family, one of the Five Melikdoms of Karabakh.
Gülüstan has a historical significance for being the village where the Treaty of Gulistan was signed between the Russian Empire and Qajar Iran on 12 October 1813, concluding the nine-year-long Russo-Persian War. According to the agreement, Qajar Iran was forced to recognize Russian rule over territories north of Arax river with the exception of the Khanates of Erivan and Nakhchivan.
In the Soviet times, the village was part of the Shahumyan Region, a majority-Armenian administrative unit outside the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. Before 1991, the village was inhabited by ethnic Armenians who fled in the wake of Operation Goranboy. The Shahumian Region was then incorporated into the Goranboy District. Currently, Gülüstan is located in close proximity to the contact line between the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army and the army of Azerbaijan.
On 3 March 1992 an Armenian transport helicopter Mi-26 carrying around 50 women and children from Gülüstan on board was shot down with a MANPADS rocket from Azerbaijan-controlled territory, and 16 people were killed.
Notable natives of the village are Garegin Balayan and Shahen Meghrian.
