Return to Lachin: Photo from 34 years apart

Azerbaijan’s State Committee for Refugees and IDPs has shared a heartwarming photo of an Azerbaijani family - residents of the Lachin district of the country.

In the photo - collage, Lachin residents - mother, father and their son, are depicted at the same place in their native village with a difference of 34 years, as the first photo was taken in 1989, and the second - in 2023, Caliber.Az reports.

This photo is one of the symbols of the return of Azerbaijanis to their native Lachin district, which was occupied by Armenians for almost 30 years.

Commentators on social networks wish the members of the family pictured in the photo many years of life in their native Lachin, the restoration and revival of which is now in full swing.

On October 20, another 23 families (83 people) moved to the city of Lachin.

The resettled families will settle in the houses where they once lived in Lachin, which were restored or rebuilt based on instructions by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

So far, a permanent settlement in the city of Lachin has been provided for 295 families or 1,135 people.

The Azerbaijani army took full control of Lachin City along with the adjacent Zabukh and Sus villages on August 25, 2022.

Earlier, Lachin City was temporarily controlled by the Russian peacekeepers to provide communication between Armenia and the Karabakh region. Under the November 10, 2020, trilateral statement, signed by the Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian leaders, the city should be handed over to Azerbaijan after the completion of a new road, which would be an alternative to the Lachin road.

Following the completion of the new road bypassing Lachin, Azerbaijan demanded that Armenia clear the unlawfully occupied city and adjacent settlements by August 25, 2022.

Just a year and a half after the end of the war, starting from July 19, 2022, 679 families of former IDPs comprising 2,715 people have returned to the towns of Lachin and Fuzuli, Aghali villages of Zangilan district, Talish of Tartar district and Zabukh of Lachin district, according to Head of the Presidential Administration Samir Nuriyev.

Nuriyev noted that by the end of the year, more than 1,400 families of former IDPs comprising over 5,000 people are planned to return to the liberated territories.

He added that the past three years have been memorable for the restoration of our sovereignty, as well as for the high-level reconstruction and construction works in the territories liberated from occupation.

"In total, foundations of 105 projects were laid in 2021-2023, 63 of which are facilities of various purposes, the opening of which has already taken place. After the Victory, the return of 2,717 former IDPs to the liberated territories was ensured. It is planned to return 5,300 people by the end of the year," he added.