Khoda Afarin County

Khoda Afarin County (Persian: شهرستان خداآفرین) is in East Azerbaijan province, Iran. Its capital is the city of Khomarlu.

Before the Islamic Revolution, the city of Khomarlu was merely a village that was distinguished from other villages for housing the headquarters of Royal Gendarmery. The notary office was located in Abbasabad village and operated by a cleric, who also acted as the spiritual authority of the whole district.

In 2010, Khoda Afarin District was separated from Kaleybar County in the establishment of Khoda Afarin County, which was divided into three districts and seven rural districts, with Khomarlu as its capital and only city at the time.

The spoken language of a vast majority of the inhabitants is modern Azeri Turkish, which has much similarity to Turkmeni, Afshar and the Anatolian Turkish.

The ancient Indo-European, Iranic language of the province before its turkification, survives in the Tati language, particularly in its Karingani dialect. In addition to the large village of Karingan, the villages of Chay Kandi, Kalasor, Khoynarood, and Arazin also are the last speakers of the old native language of Azerbaijan.

The mountainous terrain, shepherding and cultivation of hillsides possess the isolating features for the development of a sophisticated whistled language. The inhabitants of the region employ the fingered whistle format for long range communication. More importantly, the majority of males are able, and perhaps addicted, to masterfully mimic the melodic sounds of musical instruments using fingerless whistle. Melodic whistling, indeed, appears to be a private version of the Ashug music for personal satisfaction.

At the time of the 2011 census, the county's population was 34,977 people in 9,169 households. The 2016 census measured the population of the county as 32,995 in 10,196 households.

Khoda Afarin County's population history and administrative structure over two consecutive censuses are shown in the following table.