25 years without Zangilan

By Azernews

By Sara Israfilbayova

October 29 sees the 25th anniversary of the occupation of Azerbaijan’s Zangilan region by the Armenian invasion troops.

Zangilan, having a 157 mile border with Armenia, had a significant place in the gradual increase in tensions in the region from 1988 at the start of Armenia’s open hostile actions aimed at claiming Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Armenian armed forces surrounded the region from three sides and exposed all settlements of the region to continuous shelling, inflicting new destruction and casualties.

People of Zangilan gathered at the Araz River to flee to the Iranian territory. They found a way out by crossing the Araz River to get to Iranian territory.  Otherwise, they could have been subjected to horrors similar to those that the residents of Khojaly suffered in February 1992.

Occupation of Zangilan led to serious consequences: 200 residents were killed, 395 children lost one of their parents, 127 became disabled and 44 people are still missing.

As a result of the continuous ethnic cleansing policy pursued by Armenia, the residents of Zangilan were expelled. Today, 35,000 displaced people from Zangilan and their descendants are dispersed in various parts of Azerbaijan. The historical, cultural and natural heritage of the city has been completely destroyed.

Located along the Baku-Julfa-Nakhchivan railway, this area is of great strategic importance.

The basis of the economy of the region was agriculture, namely, viticulture, tobacco growing and animal husbandry.

In Zangilan region, which before the occupation consisted of one city, one settlement and 83 villages, there were 9 pre-school institutions, 19 primary and 15 secondary schools, one vocational school, one music school, 35 libraries, eight cultural centers, 23 club-houses and 22 film projector facilities.

The largest platanus forest in all of Europe was also located in this area. Now these trees are cut down by Armenians and sold to foreign countries. Valuable tree species, molybdenum, marble, gold, granite and other wealth of the subsoil are also being plundered by Armenians.

Occupation of Zangilan was the last stage of the military operations of the Armenian armed forces to seize the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and seven adjacent regions.

More than 20 percent of the territory of Azerbaijan was occupied, more than 20,000 people were killed, more than 50,000 people were wounded and maimed. More than 1 million people, victims of the policy of genocide and ethnic cleansing carried out by Armenia against Azerbaijan, live in the situation of refugees and IDPs, are deprived of basic human rights.

Armenia continues its illegal actions, efforts aimed at detaining the military occupation, activity to artificially change the demographic situation in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, thereby disregarding the position of the international community.

The Azerbaijani side hopes that the international community, in order to ensure the restoration of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which poses a threat to peace and stability throughout the region, will take a more decisive approach to quickly resolve this conflict.