President Ilham Aliyev has announced the return of Azerbaijanis to the city of Lachin and the district's two villages, which link Azerbaijan's Karabakh (Garabagh) region with Armenia.
"Today, on August 26, we – the Azerbaijanis – have returned to the city of Lachin. Azerbaijan's Army is now stationed in the city of Lachin. The villages of Zabukh and Sus were taken under [Azerbaijan's] control. I congratulate all the residents of Lachin and the people of Azerbaijan on this occasion. Long live Lachin! Long live Azerbaijan!" he said in a post on his official Twitter account.
The illegally settled Armenian residents of Lachin and the villages of Zabukh and Sus were given until August 25 to leave the areas before they return to Baku's control.
President Ilham Aliyev said on August 12 that the Armenians had settled in Lachin and Zabukh illegally after Lachin District came under Armenian control during hostilities in May 1992. Baku will soon relocate back to their homes the Azerbaijanis who fled Lachin and the villages of Zabukh and Sus.
Azerbaijan has built a new road bypassing Lachin and Zabukh, which will replace the Lachin corridor. The new road will be put into operation in the first week of September. Azerbaijan completed the new road on August 15, having also built 4.8 km of the connecting road. Russian peacekeepers will also be redeployed along the new road.
The Lachin district was the last of the three areas to be returned by Armenia to Azerbaijan as part of its obligations under the tripartite statement signed between Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia on November 10, 2020. The Lachin district was returned to Azerbaijan on December 1, 2020 after 28 years of illegal Armenian occupation. Like in Aghdam and Kalbajar, Armenians settled illegally in the occupied Lachin district left the area ahead of the handover, taking livestock, firewood, furniture and even plastic water pipes. Most illegally settled Armenians burned homes before they left.
Under the tripartite agreement, 5km-wide Lachin corridor, including the city of Lachin and two surrounding villages remained in the temporary monitoring zone of the Russian peacekeepers. These territories were due to return to Azerbaijan’s control after a new highway came into operation, connecting ethnic Armenians settled in Azerbaijan's Karabakh region with Armenia.
Lachin, one of the largest districts in Azerbaijan spanning 1,800 square kilometers, was occupied by Armenia's armed forces on May 18, 1992.
As a result of Armenian aggression, 264 people were killed, 65 were taken hostage, and 103 became disabled. Additionally, 18 out of the 24,374 children in the district aged from one to 16 were killed, 225 were wounded, and 1,071 children lost one parent and 31 children lost both parents. Over 65,000 forcibly displaced Azerbaijanis from the Lachin district were accommodated in 59 other cities and districts of Azerbaijan.
During the occupation of the 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 is estimated to exceed $7.1 billion.
The conflict in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan took a violent turn on September 27, 2020 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. The Azerbaijani army liberated around 300 settlements, including five cities in the Karabakh region before the military operations ended on November 10 of the same year.
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