After Withdrawal Of Armenia's Troops, Azerbaijan Regains Control Over Lachin District

The Lachin district has been returned to Azerbaijan on December 1 after 28 years of being under illegal Armenian occupation following the terms of a Russian-brokered ceasefire deal that sealed the victory of Azerbaijan over Armenia.

On Tuesday, Azerbaijani Defense Ministry released a video showing a tank flying an Azerbaijani flag and leading a line of trucks into the Lachin district.

In a televised address to the nation on Tuesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev hailed the restoration of control over the areas as a historic achievement.

"Lachin district is one of our biggest districts. Lachin district will play an important part in the future economic development of Azerbaijan," said President Aliyev, adding that the return of the people to Lachin, who were forced to abandon their home as a result of Armenia's occupation, is one of the main priorities.

"When Lachin was occupied, just over 50,000 people lived in it. Today the population of Lachin district has reached 80,000 people. Of course, one of our main goals will be to return the residents of Lachin there as soon as possible."

Lachin, one of the largest districts in Azerbaijan spanning an area of 1,800 square kilometers, was occupied by Armenia's armed forces on May 18, 1992, connecting the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan to Armenia.

As a result of the Armenian aggression, 264 people were killed, 65 were taken hostage, 103 became disabled. Additionally, 18 out of the 24,374 children in the district aged from one to 16 became martyrs, 225 wounded, 1,071 children lost one, and 31 children lost both parents. Internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Lachin district were accommodated in 59 cities and districts of Azerbaijan. As a result of the occupation of Lachin district, 217 cultural centers, 142 health facilities, 133 offices and enterprises, 100 secondary schools, preschool institutions, five musical schools, one boarding school, one vocational school, and one communication center were looted and destroyed by Armenia's forces.

Armenia's forces destroyed more than 200 historical monuments of local and 54 monuments of world importance, including the Albanian Agoglan monastery (6th century), the tomb of Malik Azhdar (14th century), a mosque in the village of Garagishlag, and an ancient cemetery in the village of Zabukh. Lachin History Museum and an old collection of gold, silver and bronze coins were plundered. An exhibit from Lachin History Museum - a bag made of silver - was reportedly sold for $80,000 at Sotheby's in London.

The material damage caused to the area during the occupation exceeds $7.1 billion.

The Lachin district, situated between the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and Armenia, was the last of the three areas to be returned by Armenia to Azerbaijan as part of its obligations under the tripartite ceasefire statement signed between Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Russia on November 10. The agreement put an end to the 44-day-long hostilities kicked off on September 27 and obliged Armenia to return the occupied districts of Aghdam, Kalbajar and Lachin to Azerbaijan, all of which are internationally recognized territories of Azerbaijan, by December 1.

Congratulating Azerbaijani people and the population of Lachin district, the president reminded that Lachin district has been returned without firing a single shot.

"We have returned Lachin district without firing a single shot. We have forced the enemy to do this. The bright victory won on the battlefield has led to this remarkable result – three of our districts, Aghdam, Kalbajar and Lachin, have been returned to us. We have returned these districts without firing a single shot and without a single martyr," President Aliyev said in his address to the nation, according to Azertag.

To ensure security of civilian vehicle traffic and movement of residents, a contingent of Russian peacekeepers took under control the 5km-wide Lachin corridor and the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan in mid-November as part of the ceasefire deal signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Under the terms of the accord, a contingent of 1,960 Russian peacekeepers will remain in the region for at least five years with the possibility of extension.

Like in Aghdam and Kalbajar, the Armenian population settled illegally in the occupied Lachin district left the area ahead of the handover, taking livestock, firewood, furniture and even plastic water pipes. Most residents settled illegally in the district burned homes before they left.

The two South Caucasus neighbor countries Armenia and Azerbaijan have been at odds since the late 1980s with the dramatic rise in anti-Azerbaijan sentiments in Armenia, at the center of which stood the illegal claims for Azerbaijan's historic Nagorno-Karabakh (Daghlig Garabagh) region. Following the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991, Armenia kicked off a full-blown military aggression against Azerbaijan. The bloody war until a ceasefire in 1994 saw Armenia occupying 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories including the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. Over 30,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis were killed and one million others were forced to leave their homes. In 1993, the United Nations Security Council adopted four resolutions to demand immediate withdrawal of the occupying forces from Azerbaijani lands and return of internally displaced Azerbaijanis to their ancestral lands. Armenia failed to comply with all four legally binding documents.

The conflict in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan spiraled on September 27 after Armenia's forces deployed in the occupied Azerbaijani lands started shelling the military positions and civilian settlements of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani army took immediate counter-offensive measures to push back Armenia's attack. Azerbaijani army liberated around 300 settlements, including five cities in the Karabakh region before the military operations ended in a ceasefire on November 10.