Karabakh natives returning back to their homeland Armenia will have to accept it

Azerbaijan is preparing for a historic event - the mass return of former Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to liberated areas.

On the whole, the process started a year ago, and as the statistics show, it is systematically expanding and gaining scale - more and more people, who were forced to leave their small homeland because of the Armenian occupation, are returning to their homes.

And they do not return to the ashes, towns and villages devastated by the occupants, but to newly rebuilt houses equipped for a normal life. The government of Azerbaijan is making great efforts to create modern transport and urban infrastructure, restore housing stock, launch enterprises, so that people who moved to liberated areas could immediately move into comfortable houses and flats, moreover, find employment and ensure a decent life for themselves.

Last year, ten families were the first to go to live in the liberated village of Agali in Zangilan District, from where they fled under the bullets of Armenian soldiers more than 30 years ago. This was the first stage of settlement in the village of Agali, where 420 people now live.

Meanwhile, today there are over 43,000 natives of Zangilan district, who were forced to leave their homes, saving their lives and those of their relatives, during the First Karabakh War. And today most of the displaced people and their children, many of whom were born already in exile, have expressed their desire to return to their native lands. Some 1,200 people are expected to move soon into the 200 houses built for them in the "smart village" of Agali.

By the way, Zangilan District is located on the state border with Armenia, and therefore it was one of the first to be occupied - on October 29, 1993 the territory of Zangilan was fully occupied by Armenian forces and then for about 30 years was controlled by the "authorities" of the self-proclaimed regime in Karabakh. Today, special attention is paid to the development of this region. Back in October 2021, at a meeting with the public of the district, President Ilham Aliyev said that Zangilan will soon become the transport and logistics centre of the country.

"In Soviet times there was no airport in Zangilan. But now an international airport will be built here and Zangilan will become the transport and logistics centre of our country," Aliyev said, and just a year later, Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Azerbaijan and Turkey attended the opening ceremony of Zangilan International Airport.

And this event was not the only one in the liberated territories of Azerbaijan. In September 2021, the airport in Fuzuli was opened, and in early 2025, as is known, it is planned to complete the airport in Lachin, liberated from Armenian occupation. In 2024, it is planned to resettle more than 2,900 citizens in Fuzuli town (liberated from Armenian occupation) - private houses and flats will be built for them, as well as infrastructure will be created.

In total, according to the action plan of the State Programme on ensuring the return of the population and its integration in the territories, it is planned to build and commission 5,678 housing facilities in the Fuzuli district of Azerbaijan until 2026; 3,352 private houses and 2,326 flats will be built.

It is also known that Azerbaijan has developed general plans for Fuzuli, Khankandi and Khojavand, and according to the State Committee for Urban Planning and Architecture of Azerbaijan, 34,500 families are expected to be resettled in the liberated districts between 2024 and 2026.

And just the other day, the former migrants from Lachin had a significant event: 73 more Lachin residents left for their hometown, which was reborn from ruins, and now its new population is 424 people from 111 families. Taking into account that everything in the liberated territories was destroyed during the years of occupation, billions of dollars of investments are required to rebuild Azerbaijani towns and villages from the ruins and in general to revive full life in Karabakh and East Zangazur.

For this reason, the "Karabakh Revival Fund" was established by presidential decree back in early 2021 to collect donations for the reconstruction of the region. It should be noted that many IDPs lived in not the best conditions during the years of Armenia's occupation of Azerbaijani territories. Although the state built not only separate houses but also entire settlements for them, we should not forget that there were more than a million of our compatriots forced to leave their native places because of the war.

At present, as Azerbaijan revives Karabakh in the shortest possible time, the Great Return Programme is continuing to provide active employment programmes for residents resettled in Lachin. It is expected that in the next stage self-employment programmes will also be involved. It should be noted, however, that Azerbaijan's large-scale development work in the region is hampered by Armenia's mine terror, which continues to this day.

It is obvious that the deliberate mine threat by Armenians against the Azerbaijani people is a continuation of the war by other means, which is a serious obstacle for Azerbaijani citizens who have returned to their native lands. Azerbaijan has repeatedly called on the international community not to ignore Armenia's policy of mining territories, which results in the deaths of Azerbaijani civilians, but the situation remains tense.

Overall, since the signing of the Tripartite Statement of November 10, 2020, on the cessation of hostilities until today, 298 people, including military personnel and civilians, have suffered as a result of mines laid by the Armenian armed forces, of whom 54 have died and 244 have received bodily injuries of varying degrees of severity.

It is understandable that the revival of Karabakh infuriates many Armenian citizens, depriving them of peace and balance, which is why the Armenian authorities refuse to hand over maps of minefields to Azerbaijan.

However, although demining is a difficult process, especially because of the lack of accurate maps of explosive munitions, the work of Azerbaijani specialists in this direction does not stop. Professionals from different countries are helping. So, Azerbaijan is purposefully solving all the difficult tasks set before it, which means that Armenia will have to come to terms not only with the revival of Azerbaijani Karabakh and the return of Azerbaijanis there but also to accept all the realities following these events without complaint...