More Azerbaijani former IDP families receive keys to new homes in Aghdam's Sarijali PHOTO/UPDATED

Formerly displaced Azerbaijani families who departed from Baku earlier today have arrived in their native village of Sarijali in the Aghdam district, where they received the keys to their newly built homes.

The key handover ceremony for 35 returning families was attended by representatives of the Special Representative Office of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan for the Aghdam, Fuzuli, and Khojavend districts, along with officials from the State Committee for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, Caliber.Az reports, citing local media.

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On April 30, as many as 35 formerly displaced Azerbaijani families, consisting of 158 people, left Baku's Garadagh district for their native village of Sarijali in the Aghdam district.

Of these, 16 families (82 people) had been living temporarily in Baku, 14 families (52 people) in Aghdam, three families (12 people) in Yevlakh, and two families (12 people) in Aghjabadi, Caliber.Az reports.

For the record, these families had previously been temporarily resettled in dormitories, sanatoriums, children's camps, unfinished buildings, and administrative facilities in various regions of the country.

To recall, yesterday, April 29, 39 IDP families consisting of 169 people, once forced from their homes, officially returned to Sarijali, receiving keys to brand-new homes. 

Note that, following Azerbaijan’s 2020 victory in the Patriotic War, Sarijali village in the Aghdam district was returned to Azerbaijani control under the Trilateral Statement signed on November 20 2020. Before the occupation, it was home to 1,024 people across 239 families.

President Ilham Aliyev laid the foundation for the village’s reconstruction on October 4, 2022. The redeveloped Sarijali spans over 123 hectares and will accommodate 425 families — or 1,873 residents — in newly built individual homes.

By Khagan Isayev