During the Soviet era the region was best known for the oil-cure sanatorium resort of Naftalan, though administratively Naftalan technically counts as an independent city. Naftalan is now starting to operate again following several years of virtual inaction when the resorts were filled with refugees from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Following fighting during the 1991–1992 a small strip in the south of the rayon is controlled by Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.