Year of the Great Return: Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur Become a New Center of Growth

The outgoing 2025 can rightfully be called the year of the Great Return. The process of resettlement of former internally displaced persons has taken on a massive scale, covering dozens of cities and villages simultaneously, writes the newspaper "Caspian".

After the glorious victory in the Patriotic War, which ended almost 30 years of occupation of Karabakh, the republic threw all its forces into restoring its historical territories. The unprecedented construction and plans regarding former displaced persons became the embodiment of Azerbaijan's power.

Future on the ruins

The liberated territories are returning to life step by step, transforming into a center of peace and creation. Currently, more than 64,000 people already live in the Karabakh and East Zangezur economic regions. And by the end of the coming year, 140,000 former internally displaced persons will return to their native lands.

On the site of ruins, the foundations of future homes and social facilities are being laid. In the first half of the year alone, the area of commissioned housing in the Karabakh economic region increased by 2.7 times compared to last year and exceeded 43,000 square meters. Fuzuli, Lachin, Shusha, and Zangilan took on the main burden of receiving new residents. The changes are especially noticeable in Shusha: by November, the city not only welcomed new residents but also showed a high level of employment among the resettlers.

In the schools of Shusha, as well as Khankendi and Khojaly, the bell rang again this year: thousands of children took their seats at desks, for whom their homeland had long existed only in their parents' stories. Now they have a real chance to study, grow, and build a future on their native land. Each family that received keys to a new home went through a system of comprehensive state support: medical examinations, employment assistance, jobs at enterprises and industrial parks created specifically for the development of the region.

New center of growth

The "Great Return" program has gone beyond resettlement, says economist Asiman Guliyev:

"It has transformed into a sustainable renewal process, a living pulse that fills the liberated lands with real content and confidently inscribes Karabakh in a new page of Azerbaijan's development. For example, May of this year was marked by a historic event: the first flight was received by Lachin International Airport. With the opening of this air gateway, the republic finally formed a full-fledged air network - the airports of Fuzuli, Zangilan, and Lachin strengthened the transport significance of the liberated lands.

At the same time, key road projects were being completed. Builders commissioned the main sections of the Kalbajar-Lachin highway. The new road significantly reduced travel time, made communication with mountainous areas convenient and safe, and became another important step toward integrating the region into the national transport system.

And then: in the outgoing year, the Karabakh and East Zangezur economic regions of the country finally consolidated their status as the main driver of the national economy. More than 4 billion manats were allocated from the state budget for the needs of the liberated region. And the results were not long in coming. The total length of roads under construction and already completed in the region exceeded 3,000 kilometers. And the main event of the industry was the Rebuild Karabakh-2025 exhibition, where international investors recognized the region as a showcase of global construction technologies.

But more importantly: private and foreign investments began flowing into the region. In addition, the government is actively discussing investment packages with foreign financial institutions, an