President Azerbaijan Raises Flag in the center of Newly Liberated Lachin City

Lachin: 21 Sep 2022 – President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has raised the flag of Azerbaijan in the center of the city of Lachin. The head of state then viewed the destructions perpetrated by the Armenians in the central street of the city of Lachin, as well as the territory of the city.

The President addressed the nation at this occasion. He said, “At the end of the 44-day Patriotic War, Armenia was forced to sign an act of capitulation, thus acknowledging Azerbaijan’s historic victory. As a result of the act of capitulation, Armenia had to remove its troops from the occupied part of Aghdam, Kalbajar and Lachin districts, and so it did.”

A part of Lachin and Kalbajar districts had been liberated during the 44-day Patriotic War. The southern part of Lachin and the northern part of Kalbajar were freed from the occupiers by the victorious Azerbaijani army. However, the city of Lachin was not under Azerbaijani control. The reason for that was the fact that the automobile road connecting Armenia with Khankendi passed through the center of the city, which was why Azerbaijan was unable to take control over the city of Lachin.

However, as a result of negotiations on 9 November, the construction of an alternative way was incorporated into the document on President Ilham’s insistence and consultations were to be carried out on the construction of a new road in three years. Azerbaijan completed the consultations earlier than that, the route of the new road was agreed with the Russian side and prompt measures to start the construction of the new road. This period took a total of a year and eight months. In other words, an alternative road was ready after a year and eight months.

Azerbaijan issued an official notification that the road would be ready on 2 August 2022, that Azerbaijan would enter the city of Lachin, including the old road, on August 5, thus returning to Lachin. After that, the Armenians living in Karabakh asked to give them additional time until 25 August. Although there was an illegal settlement here, Azerbaijan showed humanism and gave them this opportunity. Thus, on 26 August, the Azerbaijani Army entered the city of Lachin and regained the city of Lachin.

“As is the case with Lachin district and indeed all other residential settlements under occupation, the city of Lachin was exposed to Armenian vandalism. There are traces of Armenian vandalism in every village and city. The city of Aghdam was completely razed to the ground. So were the cities of Fuzuli and Jabrayil, as well as all our villages. In some places, including Lachin, Armenians conducted illegal settlement, as Armenians from Armenia and mainly from abroad – Syria and Lebanon – were brought here. This is a war crime. This is defined as a war crime in all international conventions, and this crime took place right before the eyes of the world community” , Said the President.

President shared, “Most of the city of Lachin has been destroyed and razed to the ground. The illegal settlement was carried out in some places. The world community, and international organizations, including the co-chairs of the Minsk Group who were directly dealing with this issue, were simply turning a blind eye to that.

However, they had seen this scene many times, multiple times. Going from Armenia to Karabakh and from Karabakh to Armenia by this road, they saw that illegal settlement was taking place here.

They saw that Azerbaijani place names were being removed. They saw that Lachin, our historical and ancient Azerbaijani land, was being Armenianized and that illegal settlement was being carried out here. But they turned a blind eye to that, as if showing their tacit consent.

We, the people of Azerbaijan, could never put up with this. I always said that we would never allow a second Armenian state to be created on our lands.”