Javid Shahverdiyev
Under the leadership of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev, the victorious Armed Forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan successfully ended the Patriotic War in September-November 2020, and the occupation was ended. After the victory in the 44-day war, Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur are experiencing a period of revival and restoration. The state of Azerbaijan has been rapidly continuing construction works in our liberated territories for 4 years.
In addition to the funds allocated from the state budget for 4 years, additional revenues were also directed to construction works. So far, a total of 12 billion manats have been spent on the restoration of liberated areas, and 6.4 billion manats have been invested in the economic regions of Karabakh and East Zangezur in 2023 alone.
In 2024, it is expected that Azerbaijan will allocate 2.4 billion US dollars for the restoration of liberated territories. All this suggests that the reintegration of Karabakh and Eastern Zangazur into the country’s economy will remain the main priority in the coming years.
President Ilham Aliyev said in one of his speeches: “We are rebuilding Karabakh and Zangezur, we must rebuild it. How much funds are needed for this, we do it all at our own expense. No one from anywhere helped us a single manat, we do everything ourselves. We build cities, villages, buildings, and how much more we will do.”
It should also be noted that Azerbaijan has sufficient experience in the restoration of territories freed from occupation. Even in our country, the Agency for the Restoration and Reconstruction of Territories was established, whose mission is to ensure the coordination of the restoration works and the creation of conditions for the return of internally displaced persons to their native lands.
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Currently, reconstruction and construction works in Karabakh and East Zangezur are being carried out according to plan. The construction of residential buildings is already being carried out rapidly. The locations of new residential areas to be created are determined.
Also, restoration of historical monuments is carried out according to the prepared schedule. The development of the agricultural sector, which conditions the sustainable settlement of the population and the transformation of those areas into a highly developed region, has been kept in mind.
Hundreds of kilometers of highways and bridges have been built, restoration and construction of roads, bridges and tunnels are ongoing in this direction, and works are also being continued in the field of railway construction. At the same time, the construction of residences continues. Thousands of families have already returned to their native homes.
One of the main issues on the agenda of the Azerbaijani state in the new strategic stage, to be more precise, one of the 5 national priorities is the provision of the “Great Return” to the territories freed from occupation in the 44-day Patriotic War. The strong state of Azerbaijan demonstrates its determination to ensure the “Great Return” of our refugees and internally displaced compatriots to the territories freed from occupation.
The strategic framework for the “Great Return” was defined in the “Socio-economic Development Strategy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2022-2026”, approved by the relevant Decree signed by President Ilham Aliyev on July 22, 2022.
The document emphasizes that sustainable settlement of the population will be ensured in order to realize the goal of “Great Return” to the territories freed from occupation. Sustainable settlement of the population will be supported by the creation of the necessary preconditions planned in the territories.
It is gratifying that, despite the fact that only a short time has passed since the end of the war, the settlement of the territories liberated from occupation has already started. Azerbaijanis Zangilan, Lachin, Fuzuli and other freed dogma have found their way to our towns and villages. The works carried out in Lachin, Agdam, Fuzuli, Kalbajar, Zangilan, Gubadli, Khojavand, Agdara, Khojaly and other areas are being successfully continued.
The government will complete the first phase of the Great Return program by the end of 2026, when 140,000 displaced people will return to their ancestral lands. Also, in order to ensure the “Great Return”, the Action Plan on the creation of a “green energy” zone in the territories freed from occupation in 2022-2026 was approved.
Areas such as mining, metallurgy, food industry, processing industry, tourism-recreation, creative industry, pharmaceutical, grain growing, vegetable growing, viticulture, cotton growing, fruit growing, animal husbandry, poultry, beekeeping, building materials have development potential in the areas freed from occupation.
Investments in these areas will be important both from the point of view of increasing non-oil exports and import substitution, as well as from the point of view of connecting to value chains. Post-conflict reconstruction will play an important role in the economic security of our country, including food security.
Various investment promotion mechanisms can be applied in these areas, including industrial parks and neighborhoods, agro and technological parks, and other investment promotion mechanisms. Karabakh has resources, strategic assets, efficiency and markets that can attract investors’ interests. The region’s access to the 80 million Iranian and 83 million Turkish markets via Nakhchivan is attractive for export-oriented investments.
By 2030, Karabakh is expected to own 5-10 percent of Azerbaijan’s non-oil economy. 3 international airports (Zangilan, Lachin, Fuzuli) will operate in the liberated territories. These airports, which are part of the infrastructure construction projects carried out rapidly after the liberation of Karabakh from occupation, will increase the prestige of Azerbaijan among the countries of the region not only economically, but also geopolitically and geoeconomically. First of all, the role of airports in the recovery period is very important.
One of the main reasons is the restoration of goods to be delivered to this region in terms of transport logistics, infrastructure, construction projects and the acceleration of the restoration process. The start of operations of the airports will also increase the importance of the Zangezur corridor. The restoration of this corridor will accelerate the development not only of Azerbaijan, but also of the region, as well as several countries of Eurasia.
In general, the Karabakh region will be a new geographical driver of economic development in Azerbaijan – a growth center.
In a word, the main task is to quickly turn the territories cleared of the enemy into one of the most prosperous and beautiful regions of the world. As President Ilham Aliyev emphasized, this region will be an exemplary region not only for Azerbaijan, but also for the world:
“The next important task is the restoration of Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur. I can say that the work done here fascinates every unbiased foreign visitor to the liberated lands. Because after the destruction of this extent, the restoration works at this speed is probably an unprecedented event in history.”
It is no coincidence that the head of our state has set an important task for the new era in connection with the restoration of Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur. Territories freed from occupation in the Patriotic War reveal the true faces of Armenians, who invented the myth of a “civilized nation” in the world, in all aspects. Azerbaijanis living in these areas were forcibly evicted from their homes, and at the same time everything was destroyed and razed to the ground.
The list of our cities and villages that were deliberately destroyed during the thirty-year occupation is very long. This list contains the names of 9 Azerbaijani cities. At the same time, Armenia deliberately destroyed hundreds of villages in Azerbaijan, destroyed and looted all our cultural and religious monuments, turning them into true examples of urbicide (genocide against cities) and culturcide (genocide against culture).
Undoubtedly, after the Second World War, the destruction of cities on this scale did not happen anywhere in the world. Armenia tried to erase the traces of the Azerbaijani people living in these territories for centuries.
Aghdam has been destroyed to such an extent that foreign experts call it the “Hiroshima of the Caucasus”. When the city of Fuzuli was freed from occupation, the Azerbaijani Army could not find a single safe building there to fly our flag over. 65 out of 67 mosques were destroyed in the territories occupied by Armenia, and the remaining two were seriously damaged. Even cemeteries were insulted, destroyed and looted.
After the end of the war, the Armenians claimed that Azerbaijan would not be able to restore the territories freed from occupation, it would take decades. But it didn’t happen like that. Immediately after the end of the war, the whole world once again witnessed the love for the land, strength and power of our state and people.
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Let us also remind you that the brutality of Armenia’s war against our country is characterized by the fact that the other party carried out ethnic cleansing operations, committed acts of terrorism and looting, and targeted the civilian population. Increasingly ethnic violence has destroyed the belief in peaceful coexistence. Ethnic violence was felt by many people.
Besides, Armenians mined the territories. There are thousands of unexploded shells from the First and Second Karabakh wars, and it will take several years to clear the area. Even after the war, there are already hundreds of deaths – both military and civilians. Mines placed by Armenia remain a serious problem, and it refuses to provide detailed mine maps under various pretexts. In total, nearly 400 Azerbaijanis have been victims of landmines since November 2020.
Today, the state of Azerbaijan is engaged in large-scale construction and restoration works, clearing the territory of more than 1.5 million mines and unexploded ordnance worth 340 million dollars inherited from Armenia in Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur. Billions of dollars will be spent on the restoration of the ruins in the liberated areas of Azerbaijan.
Of course, sooner or later, the political-military leadership of Armenia will be judged for the crimes they committed. Because according to UN calculations, the amount of economic damage caused to Azerbaijan as a result of the occupation is 53.5 billion US dollars.
In addition, according to the preliminary calculations of the complex forensic expertise conducted by the Azerbaijan Military Prosecutor’s Office, the total amount of material damage in all directions is 820 billion dollars.
A Working Group was established for the purpose of assessing the losses and casualties as a result of the occupation of the territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the armed forces of Armenia, and the calculation of the value of the loss of all kinds of property, including underground resources, suffered by Azerbaijan as a result of the armed Armenian aggression in 1988-1994, their evaluation and electronic information in this field base has been created. It is also possible to claim compensation for the damage caused to Armenia.
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