Keys to flats handed over to residents in Azerbaijan’s Khojaly UPDATED / PHOTO

Another group of 62 former internally displaced persons, comprising 17 families, has been resettled in their native village of Ballija in Azerbaijan’s Khojaly District.

The newly arrived families were handed keys to newly built homes in a formal ceremony attended by officials from the State Committee for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, as well as representatives of the Presidential Special Envoy to Khankendi, Aghdara, and Khojaly districts, Caliber.Az reports per local media.

It was noted during the event that, to date, 197 families — a total of 902 people — have permanently resettled in Ballija.

Currently, 327 families (1,433 individuals) are residing in the city of Khojaly and the villages of Ballija, Tazabina, and Khanyurdu.

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A further group of displaced families has moved to the village of Ballija village in the Khojaly district.

This phase saw 17 families, totalling 62 people, return to their homeland, Caliber.Az reports per local media.

Currently, over 50,000 people live in Karabakh and East Zangazur.

This population includes former displaced persons, as well as individuals engaged in regional development projects, serving in local branches of various government institutions, and working in revitalised healthcare, education, cultural, tourism, industrial, and energy facilities.

Following the end of the occupation in November 2020 and the restoration of territorial integrity, Azerbaijan launched the Great Return program as a comprehensive, state-led effort to facilitate the safe and dignified return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) to their revitalised ancestral lands.

By 2026, the first phase targets the resettlement of 140,000 IDPs across 100 settlements, with a long-term goal of full restoration by 2040.

By Aghakazim Guliyev