Azerbaijani former IDPs arrive in Khanyurdu village, get keys to new homes Great Return keeps progressing / PHOTO

A new group of Azerbaijani former internally displaced persons who left Baku earlier today for the revitalised village of Khan-Yurdu in the Khojaly district have arrived at their destination and were handed the keys to their apartments.

The key handover ceremony was attended by staff from the Special Representative Office of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the city of Khankendi, as well as from the Aghdara and Khojaly districts, along with representatives of the State Committee for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons.

In the first phase, 33 families (122 people) were resettled in the village of Khan-Yurdu, and in the current phase, 19 families (62 people). Thus, the total number of families resettled in the village has reached 52 (184 people).

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A new group of settlers has moved to the village of Khanyurdu in the Khojaly district.

This phase has seen 19 families, comprising 62 individuals, return to their homeland, Caliber.Az reports per local media.

It is worth noting that currently more than 50,000 people reside in Karabakh and East Zangazur.

This population includes former displaced persons as well as those involved in ongoing projects in the region, officials working in local branches of various government institutions, and employees in the re-established healthcare, education, culture, tourism, industry, and energy sectors.

After the occupation ended in November 2020 and Azerbaijan regained its territorial integrity, the country initiated the Great Return programme—a comprehensive, government-led initiative aimed at enabling internally displaced persons (IDPs) to return safely and with dignity to their revitalised ancestral homelands.

The first phase, scheduled to be completed by 2026, plans to resettle 140,000 IDPs in 100 settlements, with the ultimate objective of full restoration by 2040.

By Aghakazim Guliyev