Returning home: Azerbaijan revives dear lands in Eastern Zangazur Anaysis by Caliber.Az

The key direction of the investment strategy of the Azerbaijani government for 2021-2023 remains the revival of the territories of the country liberated from the Armenian occupation. Many initiatives to build primary roads, energy, and utility infrastructure have been implemented and projects to restore settlements in the framework of the First State Programme "Great Return to the Liberated Territories of Azerbaijan" are launched.

This work is also accelerated in East-Zangezur economic region: recently during a trip to Lachin, Gubadli, Zangilan and Jabrayil regions President Ilham Aliyev attended the opening ceremony of a number of facilities and jump-started the construction of settlements.

The head of the state visited an industrial, transport, and logistics cluster "Araz Valley Economic Zone" being formed in Jabrayil district. Five residents and one non-resident company have already been registered there, and housing and social infrastructure for future employees of various industries has been created. In the near future, 32.7 million manats will be invested in the industrial park, and over 420 permanent jobs will be created. A logistics and trade centre, warehouses, wholesale and retail facilities, heavy-duty car park, customs office, gas station, car repair, etc. will be created in the territory of 200 hectares.

The president viewed the construction of the centre for the maintenance of trucks and agricultural machinery of "Auto Leasing Azerbaijan" LLC, laid the foundation of a plant for the production of ready-mixed concrete, dry glue, and a terminal for the sale of cement of Holcim Azerbaijan OJSC, as well as facilities of Az-Tex-Import LLC, Karabakh Industrial Complex Improtex LLC.

"I keep saying that we must ensure the employment of more local people. One needs to be in touch with my representative and the ministry. Of course, your experienced employees will work in the first stage but they must be replaced with trained local staff only in a couple of years," President Ilham Aliyev urged during the groundbreaking ceremony of the new Holcim Azerbaijan enterprise.

Meanwhile, the plant Az-Tex-Import plans to establish maintenance and service of trucks, and at the next stage - the assembly of light-duty (up to 5 tons) trucks of Italian brand IVECO. At the same time, the resident of the Karabakh industrial complex Improtex plans to gradually develop in the industrial zone the production of special purpose machinery and metal products, in particular, we are talking about mechanical mine sweepers, fire extinguishers and semi-trailers with a tent.

Located along the new roads and railways of the Zangazur corridor and having great logistical potential, the Araz Valley Economic Zone is aimed at production and export as well as transit of products towards Türkiye and Russia, which is one of the main attractive factors for investors, contributing to making the industrial park a leading industrial and transport cluster of the whole south-west of the republic.

In order to give a boost to the reconstruction of the Jabrayil district and return the citizens to their homelands more quickly, the restoration of settlements will be accelerated here. On May 4, the head of state attended the foundation laying ceremony of Khorovlu village, the residential, social and industrial infrastructure of which is designed in close connection with nearby Chapand, Safarsha, Fuganli and Hasangaidi villages. The 248.1 hectares allocated for the construction of the village of Khorovlu will provide housing for 3,470 people, and 334 individual houses will be built there in the first phase alone.

On the same day works on the construction of Shukurbeyli village began. A total of 1,042 families will be settled on 298 hectares, and modern social, production and trade infrastructure created. The ceremony of the laying of another settlement Khudaferin named after the bridge located nearby, where about 150 residential houses will be built took place. The president also inspected the construction of the comprehensive secondary school named after Academician Mehdi Mehdizade for 960 pupils in the administrative centre of Jabrayil district.

In general, according to recent studies, the East Zangazur economic region, which includes Jabrayil, Gubadli, Zangilan, Lachin and Kalbajar districts, has solid economic potential based on considerable natural wealth. According to preliminary estimates the potential of the mentioned districts already in coming years allows to form almost 4% of the GDP of the country which means production worth more than 3 billion manats.

High-mountain fat pastures and dense forests, abundant water resources, and the fertile land of Araz Valley create unique opportunities for the development of cattle breeding, beekeeping, viticulture, cotton growing, silkworm breeding, cultivation of tobacco, grain, fruit and other crops and development of processing, food and textile industry in future.

Healing springs of Istisu, Tutgun, and Minkend, as well as favorable climate and balneological potential, picturesque mountain landscapes, forests, and rivers contribute to the transformation of the region into a resort-tourist zone at the international level. Finally, the listed areas are rich in mineral resources, including deposits of gold, mercury, chromite, various raw materials for the production of building materials, etc.

During the 27 years of the Armenian occupation, the regions of Eastern Zangazur, as well as the other liberated regions, were severely damaged: the infrastructure of roads, dwellings, and industry was completely destroyed, the separatist regime robbed the mineral resources, cut forests, mercilessly exploited the arable lands.

Considerable work has been done over the past three years to restore the shattered infrastructure and unlock the resource potential of this economic region. Since the Eastern Zangazur economic region is aimed to become the most important component of international routes - the "Middle Corridor" and the "North-South" ITC, a highway (123.6 km) and a railway (110 km) from Goradiz to Agbend are under construction here. Integration of these transport communications into the future "Zangazur Corridor" along with the development of transit opportunities will help to bring local products to larger markets of the world.

In its turn, the construction of the essential highway Khudaferin-Gubadli-Lachin with the length of 56.4 km, which covers more than 30 localities of Zangilan, Gubadli and Lachin districts, as well as 14-km road from the locality Khanlyg to Gubadli town is in full swing. The mountain road between Kalbajar and Lachin with many kilometres of tunnels and complex engineering solutions is being rehabilitated.

The Zangilan international airport was put into operation last October, and work is currently underway on a modern air hub in the Lachin district, which is expected to be operational in early 2025. However, there are many opportunities for small-scale power generation in Eastern Zangazur.

At the same time, there are many opportunities in Eastern Zangazur to generate electricity through small hydroelectric dams and derivation plants, as well as the construction of solar panels and wind turbines. And several small hydropower plants have already been reconstructed, and work is underway to attract foreign investors to develop other segments of renewable energy sources (RES).

The power distribution infrastructure of Eastern Zangazur is also developing very rapidly: on May 4, 2023, the head of state participated in the opening of the 330-kilovolt Jabrail substation, an essential element for connection to the nearby 110-kilovolt Gubadli substation and the creation of a ring power supply in Karabakh, with the perspective of supplying energy to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and its export to Türkiye.

On the same day, President Ilham Aliyev inspected the construction of the 10.5 MW Sarygyshlag hydroelectric dam, located on the left tributary of the Araz, the Okhchuchay River.

Along with the restoration of infrastructure in this region, the undertakings envisaged by the First State Programme "Great Return to the Liberated Territories of Azerbaijan" are being implemented: preparations are underway to build housing and social facilities, develop products and create new jobs for the early return of citizens to the East Zangezur economic region. In particular, since July of the last year and to the beginning of March 2023 about 86 families (420 people) were settled in the "smart village" of Aghali in the Zangilan region.

Approximately 90 houses have been commissioned here and the number will increase to over 200 in the near future. Also, in October of the last year in Zangilan district the first phase of agricultural park Dost, an Azerbaijani-Turkish cattle breeding park, designed for keeping 3,5 thousand cattle, was put into operation.

In general, the Zangilan region is assigned an important role in the agro-industrial development of the region, so here the creation of new settlements and expansion of their infrastructure is forced. Recently visited this region President Ilham Aliyev participated in laying of the foundation of Jahangirbeyli village, where on 179.5 hectares will be built 242 two-, three-, four-and five-room individual houses, aimed for 2,520 persons to be settled.

On the same day, the foundation of the Zangilan Central District Hospital with 90 beds, a hotel complex for 110 guests, an administrative building, and the Congress Center in Zangilan city was laid by the head of state.

Similar works are underway in Lachin and Gubadli districts. The head of state launched the construction of Khanlig, Mahruzlu, and Zilanli villages, and laid the foundation of the central hospital, a secondary school for 600 students and the first residential community in Gubadli city. In the Lachin district, the construction of Gulabird village has begun. At the same time, the president was briefed on the implementation of other reconstruction projects.