Azerbaijan marks third anniversary of Fuzuli’s liberation from Armenian occupation “Great Return” to Karabakh’s “air gate”

Three years ago, today, we were celebrating the liberation of one more Armenia-occupied cities of ours, namely Fuzuli. It was the second biggest news that thrilled us during the 44-day Patriotic War after Jabrayil’s liberation on October 4.

On October 17, 2020, President Ilham Aliyev announced the liberation of the city of Fuzuli and seven villages of the Fuzuli district - Gochahmadli, Chimen, Juvarly, Pirahmadli, Musabeyli, Ishigly, Dedeli - from the Armenian occupation by the Azerbaijan Armed Forces.

President Ilham Aliyev's announcement of Fuzuli's liberation on Twitter (presently X)

Fuzuli’s liberation was crucial in breaking the defensive line, the notorious “Ohanyan line”, installed by the Armenian forces during the years of occupation of the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

President Aliyev said reclaiming Fuzuli was very important given its strategic location and area that allowed to expand the scope of the “Iron Fist” counteroffensive operation.

“It was the third largest settlement to be liberated from the occupiers after Jabrayil and Hadrut,” President Aliyev said during a meeting with members of the general public of Fuzuli district in 2021.

According to him, Fuzuli and surrounding areas staged fierce battles for several days before it was freed from the Armenian occupiers.

“The enemy put up stiff resistance, but the Azerbaijani Armed Forces fulfilled its historic mission nonetheless. When I shared the news of the liberation of Fuzuli with the Azerbaijani people, the Azerbaijani people and I think the whole world saw that we would complete our glorious mission to the end and that there was no force capable of stopping us,” he stated.

Armenia captured Fuzuli, including the district’s central part and 51 villages during the First Karabakh War in 1993. A total of 55,000 Azerbaijanis was forcibly expelled from the district in Armenia’s brutal ethnic cleansing campaign. Although a certain portion of Fuzuli was liberated by the Azerbaijani forces in 1994, its significant part remained under Armenian occupation for nearly three decades.

Post-liberation monitoring in Fuzuli in 2020 discovered catastrophic results of the Armenian vandalism. Not a single whole building remained in the city of Fuzuli, only fragments of walls. Along with Aghdam, it resembled a “ghost town” with no sings of life.

Ruins of Fuzuli

The renewed clashes between the Armenian and Azerbaijani forces broke out on September 27, 2020, with Armenia’s troops shelling heavily the military positions and civilian settlements of Azerbaijan. The attack prompted immediate counter-attack measures by the Azerbaijani army. By the liberation of Fuzuli, Armenia's shelling of the densely populated residential areas in multiple zones, including major cities of Azerbaijan situated far from the frontline, have killed 60 and wounded 270 civilians.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a decades-old conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is the internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan but occupied by Armenia. Following the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991, Armenia launched a military campaign against Azerbaijan that lasted until a ceasefire deal reached in 1994. Armenia occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. One million ethnic Azerbaijanis were forcibly displaced from these areas and 30,000 were killed.

Reviving Fuzuli

Currently, Fuzuli, one of nine districts in the Karabakh Economic Region of Azerbaijan, is being revived as part of the Azerbaijani government’s large-scale campaign to restore and reconstruct the liberated territories.

The master plan for the city of Fuzuli, which is the district’s administrative center, has already been developed. According to the master plan, Fuzuli city will cover 1,936 hectares, and by 2040, it will be home to 50,000 people. 

Fuzuli's city center in the new master plan

On October 18, 2021, President Aliyev broke ground for the “smart village” in the district. The project is being implemented using green and alternative energy and a “smart management” system. At the initial stage, a total of 450 houses will be built there. Also, the village will be surrounded by a “smart village” farm.

On October 26, 2021, President Ilham Aliyev and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated the Fuzuli International Airport, the first all-new airfield launched in the liberated Azerbaijani lands. President Aliyev labelled the air harbor “air gate of Karabakh”.

The Fuzuli International Airport

The airport’s runway spans 3,000 meters in length and 60 meters in width. It is designed to receive all kinds of aircraft, including large cargo planes and small-sized private jets. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) granted the Fuzuli International Airport a three-letter distinguishing geocode – FZL. It was also assigned the UBBF code by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

Fuzuli has already welcomed a part of its former IDP residents back as part of Baku’s state-run “Great Return” program. So far, a total of 258 families comprising 928 individuals have been relocated to the newly-built residential areas in the district.

President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirzioyoyev, gifted a secondary school to the resettled residents of Fuzuli. The 960-seat school, after a prominent medieval Uzbek statesmen Mirza Ulugh Beg, was launched in August.

The secondary school after Mirza Ulugh Beg in Fuzuli