Azerbaijan to launch first resettlement in Khojaly's Ballija village on Dec 13

Azerbaijan will start the first resettlement of the IDPs in Ballija village of Khojaly district on December 13.

In the first stage, those temporarily residing in hostels, sanatoriums, former pioneer camps, unfinished buildings and administrative buildings in different districts of the country will be resettled to the village, Caliber.Az reports, citing local media.

Notably, Ballija village has been under Armenian occupation since 1992. It was liberated during the one-day local anti-terrorist operation conducted on September 19-20, 2023 by the Azerbaijan Armed Forces to neutralize illegal Armenian armed formations and their military infrastructure in the Karabakh region.

The resettlement comes after a prolonged period of hardship for Khojaly, which was occupied on the night of February 25-26, 1992, during a tumultuous period in the region's history.

The occupation was marked by the tragic events of the Khojaly Genocide, where Armenian forces committed atrocities against Azerbaijani civilians. During the attack on Khojaly, the Armenian armed forces killed 613 ethnic Azerbaijanis, including 106 women, 63 children, and 70 elderly people. They took 1,275 as hostages. Another 150 Azerbaijani nationals went missing, and their fates remain unknown to this day. Those suffering major injuries totalled 487, including 76 children. The bloodshed facilitated Khojaly’s invasion, which fell under Armenia’s occupation on February 26, 1992.

By Khagan Isayev