Great Return: Azerbaijan to resettle 27 families in Khojaly’s Ballija village PHOTO

December 13 marks the first resettlement of the IDPs in Ballija village, Khojaly district.

Some 27 families, comprising a total of 152 individuals, are set to move into the village, Caliber.Az reports via local media.

As part of the resettlement initiative, a comprehensive plan has been outlined for the renovation of 192 private homes in the village. The renovation process will be carried out in two phases: in the first phase, 82 private houses will undergo repairs, while the second phase will address the renovation of 110 additional homes.

In the first stage, those temporarily residing in hostels, sanatoriums, former pioneer camps, unfinished buildings and administrative buildings in different districts of the country will be resettled to the village.

Notably, Ballija village has been under Armenian occupation since 1992. It was liberated during the one-day local anti-terrorist operation conducted on September 19-20, 2023 by the Azerbaijan Armed Forces to neutralize illegal Armenian armed formations and their military infrastructure in the Karabakh region.

The resettlement comes after a prolonged period of hardship for Khojaly, which was occupied on the night of February 25-26, 1992, during a tumultuous period in the region's history.

The occupation was marked by the tragic events of the Khojaly genocide, where Armenian forces committed atrocities against Azerbaijani civilians. During the attack on Khojaly, the Armenian armed forces killed 613 ethnic Azerbaijanis, including 106 women, 63 children, and 70 elderly people. They took 1,275 as hostages. Another 150 Azerbaijani nationals went missing, and their fates remain unknown to this day. Those suffering major injuries totalled 487, including 76 children. The bloodshed facilitated Khojaly’s invasion, which fell under Armenia’s occupation on February 26, 1992.

By Vafa Guliyeva