Lerik, Azerbaijan


Lerik is the capital city of Lerik Rayon in the southern area of Azerbaijan not far from the Iranian border.
It is located in the Talysh Mountains, a northwestern subrange of the Alborz mountain range.

History

Lerik can be considered as one of the ancient settlements of Azerbaijan. There are imprints of ancient people who were living In the caves. Nowadays there are settlement imprints which belong to bronze-Neolithic ages.
Lerik became a center of Zuvand Region of Azerbaijan SSR. In 1930 this region was renamed as Lerik.
According to census back in 1939 main population of Lerik were talysh people.

Historical monuments

One of the sightseeing  is Buzeir cave. In 19th century Jacques de Morgan has discovered the specimen of  human imprints belonging to Neolithic era. Professor Asadulla Jafarov has discovered an ancient settlement which belongs to paleolith era.

Population

Lerik city population 1939 :
Ethnic groupQuantityPercentage
Talysh99668.7%
Azerbaijani30320.9%
Russians1077.4
Armenians110.8%
Other322.2%
Total1 449100%

Demographics now
Ethnic groupQuantityPercentage
Azerbaijani7222896.92%
Talysh22813.06%
Russians110.01%
Other20.00%

Most of the population nowadays are Azerbaijani and Talysh people which is more than 99% of entire Lerik region population. But we can see the shift in correlation between Azeri and Talysh people, where Azerbaijani ethnic group is now major group.

National reservation of  Zuvand

National reservation of Zuvand was created in Lerik region to maintain the flora and fauna.The area of national reservation covers 40.3 hectars of land.  National academy has settled Botanical Research center, where active observations and researches are made. These forests are habitats for wolves, bears, foxes, wild cats, boars and other animals.