Azerbaijan readies to resettle 22 families in liberated Zabukh village

The State Committee for Refugees and IDPs held a drawing of lots among families to be initially relocated to Zabukh village of Lachin district on August 7.

Representatives of the Special Representative Office of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Lachin district, which is part of the East Zangazur Economic Region, and the Executive Power of Lachin district took part in the event, APA reports with reference to the Committee.

As many as 22 families consisting of 88 persons took part in the drawing of lots. According to the family composition, four of them were provided with two-room apartments, four with three-room apartments, eight with four-room apartments and four with five-room apartments.

These families are currently living in Baku and Sumgayit cities, in places of temporary settlement in Absheron Region.

Azerbaijan started the return of former internally displaced persons to the liberated lands in July 2022. Since then, 96 families have been brought back to the Aghali village of the Zangilan district.

In March of this year, 20 families comprising 90 people resettled in Talish, Tartar district. By the end of 2023, the Sus and Zabukh villages of Lachin will also welcome their residents back.

The government of Azerbaijan plans to resettle 2,000 families or 10,000 people in the Karabakh and East Zangazur economic regions by the end of 2023.

According to a decree signed in November 2022 by President Aliyev approving the "First State program on the Great Return to Azerbaijan's liberated territories”, a total of 280,000 hectares (692,000 acres) of lands in the Karabakh and East Zangazur regions will be readied for resettlement by 2026.

By 2026, a total of 34,500 families will be relocated to the Karabakh and East Zangazur regions. To accommodate them, 34,500 apartments and private houses will be built by 2026.

The Lachin district was returned to Azerbaijan on December 1, 2020, after 28 years of being under illegal Armenian occupation following the terms of a Russian-brokered ceasefire deal that sealed the victory of Azerbaijan over Armenia.