Azerbaijan to relocate 10,000 IDPs to Karabakh, East Zangazur by late 2023

Azerbaijan has made public the number of IDPs to be relocated to liberated Karabakh and east Zangazur by late 2023.

It is planned to return to their native homes in the Karabakh and East Zangazur economic regions about 2,000 families of IDPs by the end of the year, that is about 10,000 people, Report informs, citing Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Refugees and IDPs of Azerbaijan Fuad Huseynov.

"In addition, it is planned to return 267 families to the city of Fizuli and about 100 families to the village of Agali in Zangilan district," Huseynov added.

According to him, 700 families are planning to return to the city of Lachin, and 400 families to the villages of Zabukh and Sus in the Lachin district.

In this vein, 22 families, totalling 79 people, went to the Lachin district as part of the current dispatch.

A native of the district Irada Huseynova recalled with sadness the 30 years she lived as an internally displaced person.

"I am both happy and sad to return to Lachin. We have waited many years for this day. I wish I could go back there with my loved ones for obvious reasons. I express my gratitude to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for giving us such an opportunity," she said.

Another district resident Ramiz Hasanov shared that he left his home in 1993.

"I have many memories. Every time in my dreams I remembered my school years, and how I spent my time in Lachin. Praise the Almighty that our lands have been liberated from occupation. We express our immense gratitude to the head of state Ilham Aliyev," he added.

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.