Azerbaijan spares no effort on restoration of civil aviation in liberated lands Three cutting-edge airports to operate in Karabakh and East Zangazur regions PHOTO/VIDEO

The liberation of the Azerbaijani lands from Armenian occupation in 2020 ushered in an all-new era for the country and the entire region in multiple spheres ranging from geopolitics to economy and communication. Azerbaijan has not been sparing any effort to bring the once destroyed and looted Karabakh and East Zangazur regions back into the good old days, and civil aviation is one of the fields prioritized in the mass reconstruction and restoration campaigns.

Flights to the liberated lands have already been enabled through the first newly built Fuzuli International Airport, which is known as the “gate to Karabakh”.  However, the Azerbaijani government aims to expand the air connection network in those territories.

In this autumn, the second top-notch airport in the liberated Azerbaijani lands, namely in the Zangilan district, is expected to come online. The Zangilan International Airport will be the first air harbour in the East Zangazur region of the country.

The ground was broken for the airfield’s construction in April 2021. Since then, almost 80 percent of the infrastructure project has been completed.

“The construction of a 600-meter-long rudder track on an apron, which measures 60,000 square metres and designed to accommodate 8 aircraft simultaneously, has begun,” representative of Azerbaijan Airlines Company, Valeh Amirsalanov, told local media last week. “Construction of the reinforced concrete structure of the terminal building was completed on an area measuring 5,000 square metres, and work is underway to close the roof. Eighty percent of the work has been completed.”

Amiraslanov added that the runway, measuring 3,000 meters in length and 60 meters in width, as well as the aircraft control tower of the airport will be commissioned in July. The launch of the airport is scheduled for some time in September 2022.

The airport is designed to serve 200 passengers per hour. It is able to receive passenger and cargo planes with a takeoff weight of 400 tonnes. VIP halls, cafés, medical service points and office rooms will be launched inside the airport’s terminal.

The revival of the Zangilan district followed its liberation from Armenian occupation in October 2020. Armenia occupied the internationally recognized Azerbaijani territories, including Zangilan in the early 1990s during a bloody war that lasted until a ceasefire deal was reached in 1994. The war saw Armenia illegally occupy 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s sovereign territories. Over nearly three decades of occupation, the occupied lands have been razed to the ground, being turned into “ghost towns” by Armenians. No single building survived the destruction and looting in Aghdam, Fuzuli, Zangilan, Gubadli, and Jabrayil districts. Aghdam was called “Hiroshima of the Caucasus” due to the scale of destructions.

On September 27, 2020, the decades-old conflict between the two countries broke into a full-fledged war after Armenia’s forces deployed in the occupied Azerbaijani lands shelled military positions and civilian settlements of Azerbaijan. During the counter-attack operations over 44 days, Azerbaijani forces liberated over 300 settlements, including the cities of Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Zangilan, Gubadli, and Shusha. The war ended in a tripartite statement signed on November 10 by Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia. Under the statement, Armenia also returned the occupied Aghdam, Kalbajar, and Lachin districts to Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani government launched a massive restoration and reconstruction campaign in the liberated lands, including in Zangilan, shortly after the war.

In addition to a new airport, the first ever AI-based hi-tech “smart village” is being built in the Aghali village of Zangilan, of which the first phase was launched recently by President Ilham Aliyev. The village is expected to pioneer the long-awaited return of former Azerbaijani IDPs to their houses after three decades.

Zangilan will also produce high-quality “made in Azerbaijan” labelled mozzarella, burrata, and other buffalo cheeses in the factories to be built by the Israeli and Italian companies. The district will also house a huge logistics centre that will serve for storing and assorting the fruits harvested in the large intensive fruit gardens.

In parallel with socio-economic programs, the restoration of civil aviation stands in one of prime position in the agenda of the Azerbaijani government for rehabilitating the liberated lands. The government plans to put a total of three internationally recognized airports into operation in these territories. The first in the district of Fuzuli is already operating, while the Zangilan International Airport will be the second, and the third will come online in the Lachin district in 2024.

In October 2021, 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). The Azerbaijani authorities are going to acquire the same recognitions for the new airports in Zangilan and Lachin.

Mushvig Mehdiyev