OFFICIAL NEWS
President Ilham Aliyev met with residents of Ashaghi Oratagh, Childiran, Heyvali, and Chapar villages in Aghdara
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev met with residents of the villages of Ashaghi Oratagh, Childiran, Heyvali, and Chapar in Ashaghi Oratagh village of the Aghdara district on January 13.
The residents warmly welcomed the head of state.
Addressing the meeting, President Ilham Aliyev said: “You have been settled in four villages of the Aghdara district for three days now. I congratulate you on this occasion. I have visited all these villages — Chapar, Heyvali, Childiran, and Ashaghi Oratagh. The houses have been beautifully repaired and restored. Over the past two years, we have conducted monitoring in all settlements and villages of the liberated Aghdara district. In the first phase, we identified the villages to be restored, and former internally displaced persons have already returned to nine villages in the district.
The longing of many long years is now behind us; justice and righteousness have triumphed with victory. Azerbaijan has restored its territorial integrity and sovereignty. Azerbaijanis have returned to their ancestral lands and will live here with pride, happily, and comfortably. I am confident that from now on there will be no more war. The Azerbaijani state is a strong state. What makes us strong is our people — our nation united like a fist.
Over the past two years — since the anti-terror operation in 2023 — life has been restored across these regions: Aghdara, Khojaly, Khankendi, and Khojavend. Five years ago, displaced persons began returning to other formerly occupied territories. Today, already 73,000 people — both former internally displaced persons and those who are working, employed, or studying in the liberated territories — have settled there. Every month, the number of citizens returning to Garabagh increases. All necessary conditions have been created here: electricity, water, gas, roads, and jobs.
Today, we marked the opening of the hydroelectric power plant with a capacity of nearly 15 megawatts in the village of Gozlukorpu. This region is now fully supplied with electricity, and the energy produced here is also transmitted to other regions of Azerbaijan. Roads are being built and expanded from here to Tartar and up to Kalbajar.
Today, I also familiarized myself with the operations of the ‘Damirli’ Ore Processing Complex, where nearly 1,000 jobs are being created. There will be no problem with employment. Both the state and the private sector are creating conditions. At the same time, taking advantage of this beautiful and refreshing nature, it is essential to engage in agriculture, animal husbandry, beekeeping, and fruit growing so that you can live here comfortably and prosperously.
May Allah rest the souls of all our martyrs in peace. Thanks to their blood and lives, and the heroism and bravery of our valiant fighters, we are here on this land today. We will forever keep the dear memory of our martyrs in our hearts. I must also note that we avenged the blood of our martyrs on the battlefield. Their blood has not gone unavenged. During the occupation period, we heard and repeated these words many times and lived with these aspirations. Because the loss of lands and the martyrdom of a large number of our heroes deeply pained us as a nation, but it did not break us. We did not bow down; we showed our will and, on the battlefield, we both avenged our martyrs and reclaimed our lands. In the last 80 years, no other country has achieved such a complete and absolute Victory like Azerbaijan. There have been wars and conflicts, and they continue today, but none have ended in a full and absolute Victory. Yet we, as a great nation, achieved this — in just 44 days, and then in one more day. We divided our glorious Victory and Victory march into two stages, also protecting our youth. Because if the war had not stopped on November 10, 2020, we might have had to sacrifice thousands more martyrs. Including here, in these mountains, in the Aghdara mountains, Kalbajar mountains, Lachin mountains, and the mined corridors of Aghdam. We protected them; we did not sacrifice them. But we knew that the day would come when we would reclaim all of Garabagh, restore our territorial integrity, expel the vile enemy from our lands, and achieve complete Victory. Now here, standing together with you — with a martyr's mother on one side and an elderly woman on the other — this is a very happy feeling, a happy day, a beautiful day. I sincerely congratulate you; live happily here. Thank you.”
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The meeting continued with commemorative photographs.
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President Ilham Aliyev continued: “Of course, we will have many more meetings. Today, the new Master Plan for the city of Aghdara will be presented to me. We will rebuild the city of Aghdara as well, just as we have already revitalized nine villages. We will construct the city too. This place will become a beautiful industrial and tourism center. These refreshing places are a delight to the eye. Mountains, forests, fresh air, springs, and rivers everywhere. That is why the future development of Aghdara will be very bright. The occupiers left virtually no intact building in this area. Look, all these restored buildings today have been rebuilt by the state. But they engaged in looting. From the “Damirli” ore deposit, they perhaps took away copper worth 2 billion dollars, or even more. This is looting, illegal exploitation. Now we have returned, and operations have been established there. As I mentioned, more than 900, approximately up to 1,000 jobs will be created there. Moreover, I have given instructions that the citizens to be employed there should be from this region. Additional investments will definitely be made to expand it.
Agriculture, tourism — in other words, this is a natural paradise. But the vile enemy devastated it, leaving not one stone upon another. Every year, they collected hundreds of millions from Armenian organizations. They did not invest a single manat or dollar here; they looted everything. They burned our homes, displaced you, displaced 1 million people, razed Aghdam to the ground, Fuzuli, Zangilan, Gubadli too. They illegally settled in Kalbajar, Lachin, Khojaly. They even gave Khojaly an ugly name, but none of it stuck. Because the owners of these lands are us; we have returned, and we are building and creating.
From now on, we will live only as a victorious and proud people. Inshallah.”
The residents expressed their gratitude to the President.
