From dream to victory Symbolic highlights of the 3rd Shusha Global Media Forum

How many symbolically significant signs did the world witness at the 3rd Shusha Global Media Forum. One of the most unique moments was undoubtedly the fact that this international event was held directly in Khankendi. While participants of the first media forum in Karabakh, held in our incomparable gem — Shusha — looked at Khankendi from Jidir Duzu, in 2025, the city founded by Panah Ali Khan, the creator and first ruler of the Karabakh Khanate, opened its hospitable doors to the forum participants.

The forum moderator, head of Euronews Middle East Bureau Jane Witherspoon, called Khankendi part of the "cultural heart of Azerbaijan." In his welcoming speech, the President of the country, Ilham Aliyev, speaking about the event held in the newly built Congress Hall on Victory Square in Khankendi, emphasized the significance of this occasion, including through the lens of acquainting guests with the extensive work carried out since the liberation of the previously occupied territories, their restoration, and the return of people who had been forcibly displaced from these areas more than 30 years ago.

Answering questions from forum participants, the head of state noted the recent laying of the foundation for the Aghdam–Khankendi railway, the expected start of construction of the Khankendi–Shusha cable car, the operation of the Karabakh University in the city, and widespread implementation of infrastructure projects. He stressed that following this, significantly more funds will be allocated for the construction of residential buildings.

On this note, President Ilham Aliyev touched hearts and spoke sincerely that fulfilling the will of the National Leader Heydar Aliyev — "my father’s will, as well as the will of those who were expelled from these lands and passed away without ever seeing this triumph of justice" — was a great honour and a source of pride for him.

It is impossible not to recall how, on November 8, 2020—the day of the liberation of the city of Shusha from Armenian occupiers—Ilham Aliyev paid tribute to the memory of the National Leader at the Alley of Honour, and to the memory of those who died for the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity at the Martyrs’ Avenue.

On that day, he said that upon visiting Heydar Aliyev’s grave, he “bowed his head before his memory” and felt like a happy man because he had fulfilled his father’s will: “We have liberated Shusha! This is a great victory! The souls of our martyrs and the Great Leader are happy today!”

In this context, no further comment is needed on the fact that in his speech in Khankendi, President Ilham Aliyev recalled the existence of one million refugees and internally displaced persons in Azerbaijan in the first half of the 1990s, the absence at that time of any significant international support, total unemployment, poverty, and the threat of civil war. He noted how fortunate the people were that Heydar Aliyev had taken on the leadership of the country then, shouldering “this heavy burden.”

Azerbaijan began to gradually revive, and the entire society thought about only one thing — “how to return the occupied territories.”

That was exactly how it was. We thought, we dreamed, and the National Leader believed—and piece by piece created the necessary conditions for this. In 1996, during a meeting with residents of the Shusha and Lachin districts, he stated that the primary goal was the mandatory liberation of Shusha and Lachin, expressing complete confidence in achieving this goal, including the return of the people of Shusha and Lachin “to their homes, to their land. There is no doubt about this.”

That same year, at a gathering to celebrate Gurban Bayram with refugees from Shusha, Khojaly, Lachin, and Aghdam, Heydar Aliyev once again assured that, no matter how difficult it might be, “we will reclaim our lands at any cost, free them from occupation, and become their rightful owners. We will achieve this.” It is this very legacy that the current leader of the country, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev, has fulfilled.

This historical continuity is especially underscored by the very fact that the 3rd Shusha Media Forum was held in Khankendi, where, in 2019, the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, declared, “Karabakh is Armenia, period.” According to the president, by saying this, “he signed up for a hard life for himself.”

Four years after those words, the head of the Azerbaijani state raised the State Flag of Azerbaijan in Khankendi. As he emphasised, upon assuming his duties in 2003, he set before himself the number one goal — that the flag of Azerbaijan would be raised on all territories, all lands, in all cities and villages that were under occupation.

The president noted that every day, every hour, “we moved towards this sacred goal,” bringing that historic moment closer. Naming the Azerbaijani people as the main factor in victory, he stressed: “We have raised a young generation ready to die for the Motherland, our lands, and they were confronting death. May Allah have mercy on all our martyrs. We bow our heads to their souls. We, the people of Azerbaijan, are in their eternal debt.”

Ilham Aliyev then pointed to the “great symbolic significance” of his presence in Khankendi in the year marking the “100th anniversary of the great leader,” noting that it was thanks to the wisdom of the Azerbaijani people that Heydar Aliyev returned to power in 1993, which allowed the country to “follow the path of development.”

Returning to Ilham Aliyev’s speech at the meeting with participants of the 3rd Shusha Media Forum, it should be noted that, by his own admission, as for all of us, the most cherished desire of the National Leader was to see the day of return to Karabakh.

“I was president for 17 years before we liberated these territories,” the head of state emphasised. And this is also one of the symbolic signs: it was Ilham Aliyev who became the successor of Heydar Aliyev’s cause, confidently leading Azerbaijan not only to become a recognised leader in the region but also to a significantly broader international level.