Azerbaijan to resettle 34,500 families in liberated lands by late 2026

Azerbaijan plans to resettle 34,500 families in its liberated territories by the end of 2026.

Emin Huseynov, the special presidential representative in the territories liberated from Armenia’s occupation that are part of the Karabakh Economic Region (with the exception of the Shusha district),  made the remarks in Shusha, Report informs.

According to him, projects to restore infrastructure in the country’s liberated territories are continuing.

"Our citizens have already been relocated to three settlements in these territories and live there perfectly. It is planned to relocate 34,500 families by the end of 2026. This is reflected in the state program for the great return to Azerbaijani territories liberated from occupation," Huseynov said.

He noted that all returning citizens are provided with the necessary comfortable living conditions and work.

The Azerbaijani government launched the Great Return program to relocate former IDPs to their homes in liberated territories. In 2022 and 2023, hundreds of people were resettled in the Zangilan district’s Aghali village, the Tartar district’s Talish village and Lachin city.

The conditions for the return of approximately 34,500 families to Karabakh should be created within the framework of the state programme by 2027.

Large-scale urban development projects have been launched alongside Shusha since last year, and communal and social infrastructure is being formed in Aghdam, Fuzuli, Zangilan, Lachin, and a number of other settlements in the liberated territories.

The return of former internally displaced persons to the liberated territories is defined as one of the five priorities of the national strategy of Azerbaijan until 2030. The main road map in this regard is the "I State Program on the Great Return to the Liberated Territories", approved by President Ilham Aliyev in November last year and under which the construction of roads, water and other utilities, network and other infrastructure should be accelerated. All this will ensure the process of fast and comfortable resettlement of citizens in the near future. And the most important of the tasks of Karabakh's revival is the rapid implementation of projects in the field of electricity and gas distribution infrastructure.