Foreign diplomats complete visit to Karabakh PHOTO

Representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in Azerbaijan completed their visit to Karabakh.

The visit was aimed at familiarising with the reconstruction work in the liberated territories, Report informs.

The delegation comprised about 60 diplomats and military attachés from 33 countries, as well as representatives of 10 organisations.

The foreign diplomats first arrived at the bridge where the Lachin border crossing point between Azerbaijan and Armenia is located. They were briefed on Armenia's recent provocations, which resulted in the wounding of an Azerbaijani border guard.

Then the guests got acquainted with the reconstruction works carried out in Lachin. They inspected the first residential quarter built on December 1 Street. Guests talked to the inhabitants who returned to their native land.

Diplomatic corps representatives also visited the Agroindustrial Park and Lachin Boulevard, which is under construction.

At the end of the visit, foreign diplomats and military attachés visited the villages of Zabukh and Aghali.

During the visit to Aghali, the guests were given detailed information about the village.

"This smart village was built last year. At the moment there are 420 people living in it. The village was built on the basis of the smart village concept, that is, it uses the latest technology. This approach fully meets the Sustainable Development Goals," Special Representative of the Azerbaijani president in Jabrail, Gubadli and Zangilan districts, which make up the East-Zangilan economic region Vahid Hajiyev said.

He also added that the use of solar energy extends to all areas of life in Aghali.

The Azerbaijani government launched the Great Return program to relocate former IDPs to their homes in liberated territories. In 2022 and 2023, hundreds of people were resettled in the Zangilan district’s Aghali village, the Tartar district’s Talish village and Lachin city.

The conditions for the return of approximately 34,500 families to Karabakh should be created within the framework of the state programme by 2027.

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.