Tokyo, 25 November, /AJMEDIA/
November 25, 2020 went down in the history of Azerbaijan as the day when Kalbajar was liberated from Armenian occupation. According to the Decree signed by President Ilham Aliyev on July 31, 2023, this glorious date is celebrated as Kalbajar City Day for the first time this year.
AJMEDIA reports that today three years have passed since the liberation of Kalbajar, one of the charming corners of Azerbaijan. According to the tripartite statement, on November 25, 2020, 147 settlements of the region, including the city of Kalbajar, were liberated from occupation.
Kalbajar region was occupied on April 2, 1993. As a result of the occupation, 511 civilians were killed, 321 people were captured and disappeared.
The invaders looted and destroyed numerous historical and cultural monuments, schools, kindergartens, hospitals, medical centers, hundreds of administrative buildings, thousands of houses and took the region’s wealth worth billions of manats to Armenia. In Kalbajar, traces of Armenian brutality are visible at every step. Destruction and looting continued both during the occupation and in 2020 when the Armenians left the region.
On August 16, 2021, President Ilham Aliyev raised the State Flag in the city of Kalbajar and in his speech spoke about the importance of this historical event and said: “For 30 years, Armenians only exploited our lands, looted natural resources, destroyed and demolished houses. Then he said that this is Armenian land. This has never been an Armenian land and never will be. This is the land of Azerbaijan. We Azerbaijanis, the owners of these lands, have returned. We drove the enemy from our land, destroyed the enemy’s army, and returned with heroism and selflessness.”
Kalbajar is a land with rich natural resources and beautiful nature. Favorable relief of the region, pure mountain climate, mineral waters, including mineral water deposits with curative effects such as Yukhari Istisu and Ashaghi Istisu create ample opportunities for the development of tourism here.
Kalbajar is also rich in historical monuments that can interest tourists. Here, ancient settlements with a history of more than 30 thousand years, 6 thousand years old rock paintings, samples of the ancient Turkish alphabet were discovered. The stone monuments here are the relics of the period when early Turkicism, fire worship, Christianity, and Islam spread in Northern Azerbaijan from the 7th century.
Thirty years ago, the people of Kalbajar, who temporarily settled in 770 settlements of 56 districts of the republic, are waiting for the day when they will return to their native land. For this purpose, large-scale reconstruction and reconstruction works are being carried out in Kalbajar as well as in other areas freed from occupation. Among those projects, the construction of the Toganali-Kalbajar highway is of particular importance. The project length of this road connecting Goygol and Kalbajar districts is 80.7 kilometers. During the visit of President Ilham Aliyev and First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva to Kalbajar region on August 16, 2021, the foundation of the tunnel to be built on the Toganali-Kalbajar highway – in Murovdag was laid. As part of the visit, the 110/35/10 kilovolt “Kalbajar” substation was inaugurated. Also, the construction of a 3.4 kilometer long tunnel on the Kalbajar-Lachin highway has been started.
Last year, on June 26, the President of Azerbaijan participated in the opening ceremony of the newly built “Kalbajar-1” Small Hydropower Station and the “N” military unit of the Ministry of Defense in Kalbajar district, and got acquainted with the master plan of Kalbajar city.
On that day, the foundations of the Kalbajar Occupation and Victory museum complex, the Kalbajar Digital Management Center, the water production plant in the region, and the Istisu sanatorium were laid.
During his visit to Kalbajar region, Muzaffar Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev, who spoke at the solemn ceremony dedicated to the awarding of the battle flag to the commando military unit, emphasized the special meaning of this event: “Today, the opening of this military unit once again shows that we will achieve what we want – Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur. we will restore. This process has already started, and first of all, our military power must always be strong in this region – Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur. Therefore, today’s ceremony has a special meaning, it has a symbolic meaning.”
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev participated in the opening ceremony of the military hospital, “Qamishli” and “Meydan” small hydropower plants, the foundation laying ceremonies of the residential area and the new school, as well as Yanshag and Zallar villages, as part of his visit to Kalbajar region on May 27 this year.
On August 25 of this year, President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva paid another visit to Kalbajar region. Within the framework of the visit, several small hydropower plants were opened, and the foundation of the village of Zar was laid.
As it can be seen, the huge construction works carried out in Kalbajar district indicate that this land will have a great future and that the Great Return to the liberated areas will continue successfully.
Vugar Aghayev
