President Aliyev Launches Infrastructure Projects in Liberated Kalbajar

President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, along with First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, has visited the Kalbajar district, a region liberated from Armenian occupation in 2020, to inspect infrastructure developments and historical sites.

President Aliyev and First Lady Aliyeva attended inaugurations of several infrastructure facilities, including:

• the 22.5-MWt “Yukhari Vang” hydropower plant
• the “Istisu” mineral water plant
• the 4.3-MWt “Zar” and 4.1-MWt “Toghanali” small hydropower plants
• the 110-kW “Istisu” power substation

The "Istisu" mineral water plant is once again offering its namesake water, which is extracted from a thermal spring in Kalbajar known for its exceptional quality and health benefits, to consumers after a 30-year hiatus. 

Situated at an altitude of over 1,600 meters above sea level, the thermal springs provide mineral-rich water with a natural temperature exceeding 60°C.

The production of "Istisu" mineral water began in the Kalbajar district in 1976. However, due to the occupation of the district by Armenia in 1993, the operation of the mineral water plant was halted for 30 years.

The construction of the "Istisu" mineral water plant, which was initiated by President Ilham Aliyev on June 26, 2022, was completed in 2024. The annual production capacity of the cutting-edge facility exceeds 100 million glass bottles.

During their visit to Kalbajar, President Aliyev and First Lady Aliyeva also laid the foundation for the second residential complex, an administrative building, and the Istisu settlement in Kalbajar.

The Istisu settlement, situated in the western part of Kalbajar, spans an area of 63.1 hectares and will be developed in multiple phases. According to the master plan, the future development will include 159 individual houses, 71 townhouse-style homes (comprising 142 apartments), and 10 buildings with a total of 180 apartments.

Plans for Istisu settlement also include a school with a capacity for 352 students, a kindergarten for 100 children, an administrative building, a community club center, a sports and wellness facility, a medical center, a flag square, a sports field, and other essential infrastructure.

The visit of the president and first lady to Kalbajar continued in the construction sites of:

• the Toghanali-Kalbajar-Istisu highway
• the Kalbajar City Education Complex and a modular school
• a residential complex for 524 families
• the Istisu Recreational-Treatment Complex

The next stop for President Aliyev and First Lady Aliyeva in Kalbajar was the medieval Khudavang Monastery Complex.

Khudavang monastery, located in the Vang village of Kalbajar, was built in the VIII-XIII centuries during the reign of the ancient Azerbaijani state of Caucasian Albania where Christianity was the major religious belief. Caucasian Albania has no relation with modern-day Albania in the Balkans. Khudavang is one of the largest and most complete examples of Azerbaijan’s Christian heritage. Numerous construction inscriptions have survived in the Khudavang monastery, including the names such as Arzu, Tursun, Seyti, Hasan, Avag, Shams, Altun, Aghbuh, and Garagoz, which prove the Turkic identity of builders.

Building materials, knitting elements, elements of the cross, symbols, and architecture of the Khudavang complex differ from those that are inherent in the Armenian churches, testifying to Armenia’s efforts to misappropriate the Khudavang monastery during the years of occupation.

The Khudavang Monastery, an important global architectural monument, faced Armenian aggression from 1992 to 2020. During the occupation, so-called "restoration" work was carried out with support from the Armenian Apostolic Church and funding from the Armenian government. False additions were made to the Arzu Khatun and Great Hasan churches, as well as other buildings within the complex, and many parts of these monuments were vandalized. Following the liberation of Kalbajar, the remaining Armenian clergy, with the help of foreign experts, illegally removed ancient frescoes from the monastery, taking them out of Azerbaijan.

In December 2020, a bell, stone inscriptions, frescoes, carpets, and other cultural heritage items stolen from the Khudavang Monastery were unlawfully displayed at an exhibition in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital. These frescoes were later falsely presented as "examples of Armenian traditional art" in an exhibition titled "Frescoes in Armenian Christian Churches from the 7th to 13th Centuries" in Padua, Italy, and the exhibition was subsequently held in several other cities across Italy.