He may have written the first Opera in the muslim world but Soviet Union was not a muslim country. Moreover, neighboring Georgia and Armenia are actually Christian, where so many Operas had been written long before the era of Uzeyir Hajibeyov. Conservatory of Caucasus Shushi was indeed a part of Russian Empire, a city in Elizavetpol Gubernia with multiethnic population, and the majority of the city was Armenian with its Armenian districts. So many composers, other Russian Imperial celebrities track their roots from Shushi. The city was fundamentally burnt durint the Armenian Azeri clashes after the break up of Russian Empire. Later it became a village-like, 10000 inhabitants populating town in Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous district with absolute zero influence and significance because the Armenian intelligentsia moved to Karabakh's new capital Stepanakert.Later in 1992, Azeris lost the town to Armenians during the Karabakh war for independence. Armenians returned to their Shushi after 80 years, to the conservatory of Caucasus which they built and developed. The historic data given in this article is very politically motivated and unilateral, it is a pure propaganda. You better read Armenian sources as well before claiming not well grounded pretensions about Shushi's being an Azerbaijani town occupied my Armenian guerillas.