Azerbaijan works to revive recaptured Karabakh resort of Shusha

FILE PHOTO: A view shows a crater following recent shelling in the town of Shushi (Shusha), in the course of a military conflict over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, October 29, 2020. Vahram Baghdasaryan/Photolure via REUTERS

SHUSHA, Azerbaijan (Reuters) - The area around Shusha was once called the "Switzerland of Azerbaijan" for its wooded hills and mild climate - a nickname that belies a history of periodic violence between ethnic Azerbaijanis and Armenians stretching back more than a century.

A year and a half ago, Azerbaijani forces retook the town from the ethnic Armenians who had seized it in 1992 for the Armenian-backed breakaway enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, driving out the 15,000 Azerbaijanis who lived there.