Azerbaijani president inspects garrison complex of “Gazakh” Separate Border Division PHOTO

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev viewed the conditions created in the garrison complex of the “Gazakh” Separate Border Division of the Border Troops of the State Border Service on August 7.

Chief of the State Border Service, Colonel General Elchin Guliyev reported to President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Ilham Aliyev, Caliber.Az reports via Azertag.

The head of state was informed of the conditions created in the complex.

The complex occupies an area of 20.5 hectares. The garrison complex has the headquarters, a 146-apartment residential complex consisting of 5 buildings, a military dormitory consisting of a canteen, a bathhouse, a laundry and a medical point, as well as an athletic area.

The head of state also viewed an arsenal, combat equipment, armoured vehicles and ambulances of the “Gazakh” Separate Border Division.

Since the early 1990s, the villages of the far western Gazakh district of Azerbaijan, situated on the border with Armenia over 100 kilometres northwest of the Karabakh region, have been under attack by armed Armenian forces.

Between 1990 and 1992, the Armenian military forcibly expelled the unarmed local population from seven villages in Gazakh, including Sofulu, Barkhudarli, Baganis Ayrım, Gizil Hajili, Yukhari Eskipara, Ashagi Eskipara, and Kheyrimli.

Over seven thousand people were brutally displaced from the occupied villages and settled in temporary residential areas across the Gazakh district.  Some of the occupied villages of Gazakh have been inhabited by Armenians who were illegally relocated, while others remain in ruins following the conflict.

The return of the villages is an integral part of the ongoing peace talks between Baku and Yerevan, which also includes the delimitation and demarcation of the state borders between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Earlier, Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Khalf Khalafov said that seven villages of the Gazakh region, occupied by Armenian forces in the early 90s will be returned to Azerbaijan.

On the other hand, Hikmat Hajiyev, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan and Head of the Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration, stated that instead of creating false hype about the Lachin road, Armenia should acknowledge its occupation of Azerbaijani villages that are located far from the Karabakh region.

“Seven villages of the Gazakh district and one village of Nakhchivan are still under [Armenian] occupation,” the Baku-based Report news service quotes Hajiyev as saying.

According to him, even though Yerevan recognized Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty during the Prague and Sochi meetings in October 2022, Armenia is still occupying Azerbaijani territories.