Uzbek president’s visit to Azerbaijan: from Baku to Garabagh A “gift” to Azerbaijanis by Uzbekistan in Fuzuli

Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev paid this week a quite fruitful official trip to Azerbaijan, where he held bold discussions with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev over expanding mutual ties, as well as visited the liberated territories of the country.

The first day of the Uzbek president in Azerbaijan on August 22 focused primarily the talks with the Azerbaijani officials on the issues of mutual interest and signing a series of documents to foster cooperation in multiple fields.

A total of 20 documents were signed by President Aliyev and President Mirziyoyev, as well as by the ministers from the two countries for reshaping the existing cooperation in economy, security, transport, energy, media, and others. The pinnacle of the new chapter in bilateral relationship was the establishment of the Supreme Interstate Council between Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.

“We are determining our directions together with the nearest country - Azerbaijan. I think that this is the only right decision. If we do everything, we agreed on today, they will be implemented, there will be success both for the economy of Uzbekistan and for the economy of Azerbaijan,” President Mirziyoyev said in a joint press briefing with President Ilham Aliyev in Baku on August 22.

On August 23, the president of Uzbekistan visited the Fuzuli city of Azerbaijan in the Garabagh economic region to attend the inauguration of a secondary school. The construction of the education complex was funded by the Uzbek government upon the personal initiative of President Mirziyoyev. President Aliyev called the school the “first gift” by a foreign country to the reconstruction of Garabagh.

The two-floor school after prominent Uzbek statesman Mirza Ulugbek is designed for 960 students. It contains 40 classrooms, six laboratories, two computer classes, five functional study rooms, a 500-seat assembly hall, a gym, a 320-seat cafeteria, and a library. The premises of the building house also a football pitch, places for recreation, running tracks, chat rooms, a checkpoint, a boiler room, water tanks, and a transformer substation.

In Fuzuli, the presidents of Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan also met with the residents of the city, who had recently settled the city after nearly three decades of forcible deportation due to Armenian occupation. Mirziyoyev and Aliyev also viewed the master plan for Fuzuli’s post-liberation revival.

Fuzuli was occupied by the Armenian military during the First Garabagh War in 1993. The years of occupation took a heavy toll on the district encompassing massive destructions, vandalism, and looting. Fuzuli was liberated as a result of the 44-day counter-attack operations, codenamed “Iron Fist”, of the Azerbaijani army on October 17, 2020. Back then, President Aliyev said the Azerbaijani servicemen could not find an intact building in the district to stick the state flag.

The next stop for President Mirziyoyev and President Aliyev in Garabagh was the city of Shusha on August 23.

They toured the prominent sightseeing places in the ancient Azerbaijani city, including the Jidir Duzu plain, the Sattli and Yukhari Govhar Agha Mosques, the Natavan Spring, the Mehmandarovs Estate Complex and others. The master plan for the city’s reconstruction was also presented to the presidents.

Shusha is a historically and geographically significant city in the Garabagh region of Azerbaijan, known for its economic, administrative, and cultural importance. The city was founded in the 18th century by the Azerbaijani Garabagh khanate’s Panahali khan, who wanted to build an “eternal and invincible fortress in a firm and impassable place in the mountains.” 

Shusha quickly became a prominent trade center, with merchants bringing goods from other Azerbaijani cities such as Baku, Sheki, Nakhchivan, and Ganja, as well as trading with the Ottoman Empire, Russia, Iran, India, and various European countries. The city played a key role in the development of Azerbaijan’s carpet-weaving industry and became the Garabagh region’s carpet-weaving center in the second half of the 19th century. The ornamental and plot groups of Shusha carpets defined the mainline trend in local carpet-weaving. In terms of music, Shusha is known as “the temple of Azerbaijani music" and the conservatory of the South Caucasus, with one of the leading schools of mugham.

However, the city faced serious problems after being occupied by Tsarist Russia in the early 19th century. Under the auspices of the Tsarist government, Armenians began to oust Azerbaijanis, who were the Garabagh region’s indigenous inhabitants. 

Between 1905-1906, Azerbaijanis were subjected to a brutal terror and genocide campaign, while Armenians attempted to occupy Shusha multiple times from 1918-1920. After the Soviet Union was established in 1922, Armenians in the Garabagh region repressed the Azerbaijani population further. The autonomy granted to the region within Azerbaijan in 1923, with Khankendi as its center, led to Shusha losing its status as the administrative center. Consequently, the quality of life for Azerbaijanis in the region significantly deteriorated, and many historical and architectural monuments belonging to Azerbaijanis were destroyed. As a result, the city’s population decreased from around 44,000 people in 1917 to 14,000 people in 1970 due to the massive expulsion of ethnic Azerbaijanis.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Armenia occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories, including Shusha. Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over the city was restored on November 8, 2020, during a 44-day-long counter-offensive operation from September 27 through November 9, 2020. The liberation of Shusha played a crucial role in the retreat of Armenia’s forces and the cessation of hostilities.