“Great Return” of Azerbaijanis to liberated lands begins Ten families return home after 27 years

The return of the former internally displaced Azerbaijanis to their homes in the liberated lands started on July 19 with the first group of families arriving in the Aghali village of the Zangilan district after 27 years of separation.

As part of the first stage of the state-run “Great Return” program, 10 families comprising 58 residents are being brought to their new homes in Aghali, the first village developed based on a “smart village” concept in the liberated lands of Azerbaijan. By the end of July, 31 more families and a total of 201 residents will be resettled in the village.

“I’m very glad, very excited. I’m 29 years old, I haven’t seen there [Zangilan], I was born here [Baku], grew here. But now I’m going to the home of my ancestors. Inshaallah, today, my steps will touch down those lands for the first time,” one of the residents of Aghali told reporters.

According to census data, 1,457 people have been registered in the Aghali village and 1,357 of them agreed to return.

“Large-scale infrastructure projects are being implemented in Zangilan. Railways and highways are under construction. The airport will be put into operation soon. The Aghali village of Zangilan was first restored. During this month, 41 families will be relocated to the village. Transfers of the people are expected to take place in the next months, as well,” the Azerbaijani president’s special representative in Zangilan, Vahid Hajiyev, told reporters on July 19.

According to him, the village has all the necessary infrastructure for welcoming its residents back. The offices of Azerpost Company, ASAN Service multi-purpose social services centre, DOST social support centre, and Centre for Development of Small and Medium Enterprises have been put into operation in Aghali. An agricultural park will also come online in the district soon.

These centres will render more than 100 services concerning social security and employment in an online format. The residents will be able to apply to the service centres in a direct video connection.

The long-awaited “Great Return” of Azerbaijanis to their homes in the once occupied lands was rolled out by the Azerbaijani government following the liberation of those territories from Armenian occupation in 2020.

Over the decades, Armenia and Azerbaijan had been locked in an armed conflict over the latter’s Karabakh (Garabagh) region. Following the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991, Armenia launched a full-blown military campaign against Azerbaijan, which lasted four years before ending in a ceasefire in 1994 and saw Armenia forcibly occupying 20 per cent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories. Over 30,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 3,890 went missing, and one million others were expelled from those lands as a result of the inhuman ethnic cleansing campaign carried out by Armenia.

In the wake of Zangilan’s occupation in 1993, the entire population of 42,700 people of the district were forcibly expelled. The district was all but razed to the ground during the years of occupation.

On September 27, 2020, the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict spiralled when Armenia’s forces deployed in occupied Azerbaijani lands shelled military positions and civilian settlements of Azerbaijan. During the 44 days of the war, Azerbaijani forces liberated over 300 settlements, including the cities of Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Zangilan, Gubadli, and Shusha, from a nearly 30-year-long illegal Armenian occupation. The war ended with the signing of a tripartite statement by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia on November 10, 2020. Under the agreement, Armenia also returned the occupied Aghdam, Kalbajar, and Lachin districts to Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani government launched major infrastructure projects in the liberated lands shortly after the war, including in Zangilan.

This autumn, a top-notch airport in the Zangilan district is expected to become operational. The Zangilan International Airport will be the first air harbour in the East Zangazur region of the country, which includes the districts of Kalbajar, Zangian, Lachin, Gubadli, and Jabrayil. The ground was broken for the airfield’s construction in April 2021. Since then, almost 80 per cent of the infrastructure project has been completed. The construction of the facility is scheduled for completion in September of this year.

Azerbaijani authorities opted for the most modern expertise and concepts in rebuilding the war-torn areas, including a “smart village” that comprises three main components of smart rural development such as program, smart public administration, smart infrastructure and services, as well as a smart economy and business environment. The first of a kind “smart village” in the liberated lands was built in the village of Aghali.

President Ilham Aliyev launched the first phase of the “smart village” in Aghali in May 2022.

The village is home to 150 two-story and three-story eco-friendly residential buildings, as well as a kindergarten, a school, a medical centre, a hydroelectric power plant, and more. Five key components of development, including housing, production, social services, smart agriculture, and alternative energy are the cornerstones of the village’s reconstruction. The “smart agriculture” concept in the Aghali village is expected to foster innovation within Azerbaijan’s agriculture sector. The village will have 600 hectares of the sown area with top-notch irrigation and cultivation techniques deployed. A public farm in Aghali will allow the residents to breed 850 heads of cattle. Private companies are expected to launch a combined factory complex for producing world-renowned mozzarella cheese in the village.