Ilham Aliyev: During the First Karabakh War, Armenia had no forced migrants

During the First Karabakh War, Armenia did not have internally displaced persons because Azerbaijan did not occupy the territory of Armenia.

As reported by BAKU.WS, this was stated by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in an interview with "Al-Arabiya".

"They occupied our territory. That's why we had so many refugees and internally displaced persons who lived in difficult conditions during these years. We initiated a resettlement program even during the occupation, because the absolute majority of them lived in tent camps for more than ten years. Therefore, as soon as I became president, we began to eliminate these camps. This process was completely finished in 2007. But still thousands, tens of thousands of people lived in very poor conditions. So now the return process has begun, based on a program called 'Great Return'. To date, we have already resettled more than 50,000 people in the liberated territories. And this process continues," noted the head of state.

The President noted that there were two main obstacles - the first of which was mines.

"During the occupation, Armenians planted more than a million mines. From the end of the Second Karabakh War in November 2020 until today, almost 400 people have become victims of mines on our side, including more than 70 killed. The rest received severe injuries. These mines do not allow us to conduct a wide, large-scale restoration process, since first of all we need to ensure safety.

The second obstacle was the completely destroyed infrastructure in Karabakh. Our cities and villages were wiped off the face of the earth, sewage system, water supply, electricity, railways, highways - everything was completely destroyed. Therefore, in the first years of restoration, we spent most of the money on building infrastructure and, in parallel, on building villages and cities. Now we are almost at the final stage of infrastructure development. I think that infrastructure projects will be completely ready, perhaps in two to three years," he emphasized.

Ilham Aliyev noted that Azerbaijan is now spending more money on housing construction. "Now it's visible - buildings seem to appear out of nowhere. Our plan is to provide decent housing conditions and jobs for all former internally displaced persons, and this process has already begun. As I said, more than 50,000 people are already living on their ancestral lands," he concluded.