Displaced Azerbaijani families given keys to new homes in Sugovushan Photo / Updated

A new group of former displaced persons has settled in the village of Sugovushan in Azerbaijan's Aghdara district, with the distribution of keys to their new apartments.

The key handover ceremony was attended by representatives from the Restoration, Construction, and Management Service of Khankendi, Aghdam, and Khojaly districts, as well as officials from the State Committee for Refugee and IDP Affairs, Caliber.Az reports per local media.

At this stage, 53 families, comprising 185 individuals who had previously lived in dormitories, sanatoriums, and administrative buildings across various regions of the country, have returned to Sugovushan.

With this latest development, the total number of families who have resettled in the village has reached 126. Plans are in place to eventually relocate 180 families, amounting to 591 individuals, to the village.

14:57

A new group of internally displaced people (IDPs) has returned to the village of Sugovushan in the Aghdara district of Azerbaijan as part of the government’s "Great Return" programme.

As many as 53 families comprising 185 individuals were resettled during this latest phase, Caliber.Az reports per local media.

The resettled families had previously been living under temporary conditions in various parts of Azerbaijan, including dormitories, sanatoriums, and administrative buildings.

Their return to Sugovushan is part of a broader initiative aimed at ensuring the voluntary and safe repatriation of those displaced by the conflict in and around Karabakh.

To recall, Sugovushan, a strategic village in Azerbaijan’s Aghdara district, was liberated from Armenian control on October 3, 2020, during the Second Karabakh War. Azerbaijani forces raised the national flag in the village, marking a symbolic victory on the northeastern front.

Known historically as Sugovushan and renamed Madagiz during the Soviet era, the village had previously changed hands in the early 1990s before falling under Armenian occupation in 1994. It later became a key Armenian military hub, hosting elite units such as Military Units No. 49971 and 33651.

The operation to reclaim Sugovushan was one of the war’s most pivotal. Azerbaijani forces destroyed four Armenian tanks and seized three more, while artillery strikes devastated Armenia’s 5th Mountain Rifle Regiment, forcing units to retreat.

By Aghakazim Guliyev