Rebirth from ruins: Aghdam as a symbol of creation and return

Two years before the Victory, on November 5, 2018, the Mugham Center began operating in the Agdam district. It was opened in the village of Guzanli with the participation of top officials of the state.

During the occupation of the city of Aghdam, Guzanli was chosen as the administrative center of the Aghdam region, which prompted its comprehensive development, including from the point of view of national culture. And on May 10, 2025, seven years later, a new, modern mugham center opened its doors in liberated Aghdam. The symbolic ribbon was cut by President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva.

The cradle of the Karabakh mugham school is Shusha. This is a unique place where many famous hanandes were born. It was as if the very air and healing waters of Shusha encouraged the formation of talents. But not only Shusha, but the Karabakh region as a whole was rich in voices. Including Aghdam. Suffice it to recall that there was a mugham School named after Khan Shushinsky in Aghdam, which trained many famous khandais. The school was destroyed by the Armenian invaders. The internally displaced persons were members of the famous children's ensemble "Karabakh Nightingales", which made mugham famous all over the world. The band was founded in 1971 and for many years represented Azerbaijan at song festivals held in different countries of the world, receiving 40 gold medals, more than 100 honorary orders, and starred in 12 documentaries and feature films.

When opening the Mugham Center in Guzanli seven years ago, President Ilham Aliyev said that we have the will and strength and we will achieve what we want. We demand justice. "We demand that our historical lands be liberated from the occupiers, and they will be liberated. The Azerbaijani state will continue to take all necessary measures to achieve this sacred goal," the head of state promised.

On May 10, he spoke at the new Mugham Center, built in free Agdam, and recalled that meeting with artists in Guzanli. All the promises made to the people have been fulfilled. "Today we live freely in a free Karabakh," the Azerbaijani leader said.

At the ceremony of the beginning of the restoration of Aghdam in May 2021, the President assured that "we will create such a city, such Aghdam, which will become an example for the whole world." Today, these words are becoming reality, Aghdam is taking shape as a modern settlement with advanced infrastructure and layout, convenient for life in all respects. Not only the traditions of the mugham school will be revived here, but its spirit will be restored to the city. For example, the Aghdam tea house, an object that had an original architecture and served as one of the symbols of Aghdam, will be restored.

There are big plans for Aghdam. A small town of regional importance, as it met the Armenian invaders, will be turned into a major regional center. And the regional center requires a modern road infrastructure.

Speaking at the opening of the Mugham Center on May 10, President Ilham Aliyev shared interesting news: "This morning we celebrated the opening of the Agdam Railway Station. Now there are excellent opportunities to comfortably travel from Agdam to Baku, Ganja and other regions. At the same time, we have started work on the restoration of the Agdam-Khankendi railway, and a railway station complex will probably be built in the city of Khankendi within a year and a half, at most two years. As you know, the Karabakh University is currently operating in Khankendi, more than 8,000 people live there, and at the same time, the road from Khankendi to Shusha through this railway station complex is getting shorter. And we are shortening this path. We are both expanding and shortening it so that it can be reached from Khankendi to Shusha in a maximum of 10 minutes. We have another idea. This is the first time I've shared this with the public. We are working on a cable car project connecting Shusha with Khankendi. I should also note that, most likely, the construction of a cable car in the city of Lachin will begin this year. There is a similar project in Kalbajar. That is, it will be an excellent tool, both from the point of view of tourism and for the comfortable movement of people."

Construction work on the Agdam-Askeran-Khojaly-Khankendi road is currently accelerating. The road starts from the Barda-Aghdam highway, has a total length of 33.6 km and will avoid the hook through Aghdam, heading from Barda to Khankendi, Shusha or Lachin and back. At one time, the communication lines passing through Agdam - roads and railways - provided for the needs of the residents of Khankendi, Shushi and Lachin. The shortest route from Baku to Khankendi, Shusha, and Lachin was through Agdam. Now this route will be shorter and more convenient. In the 1980s, the republican highway R-28 Yevlakh-Khojaly-Lachin, which runs through the center of the city of Agdam, was used to travel from Baku to Khankendi and Shusha. In the same years, the two-lane Agdam Ring road with a length of 17.5 km was laid from the 40th kilometer of the Agdam-Barda road, which was actively used by the entire population of the region.

Highways of the quality that are being built in the liberated territories now did not exist in Soviet times. But it was possible to get from Khankendi to Baku via Barda by train.

The Agdam-Khankendi railway was built in 1979 on the initiative and under the leadership of national leader Heydar Aliyev. During the Armenian occupation, the road was dismantled for scrap and taken to Yerevan. The last train on this route ran in 1991. His Azerbaijani passengers did not know that they would be able to return to their native land only after thirty years.

Immediately after the Second Karabakh War, the restoration of the Barda-Aghdam railway began in accordance with the Decree of the Head of State "On measures for the design and construction of the Barda-Aghdam railway line". The Barda-Agdam road is a part of the Yevlakh-Khankendi railway.

"If we take into account the scale of all the work done, then, to be honest, I do not know in which country development work is currently underway, construction on such a scale. That is, it is again the fruit of our people's labor. We do all this at our own expense and we plan all the work ourselves. All people work with enthusiasm and pleasure," President Ilham Aliyev said on May 10 in Agdam.

The Head of State is not exaggerating - the scale of the restoration of the liberated territories is truly amazing. I remember that before the war, analysts and economists made calculations and forecasts about how long it would take Azerbaijan to reanimate destroyed cities and villages and restore the entire infrastructure. The dates were several decades. The boldest experts saw the return of the population to Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur no earlier than 10-15 years after the liberation of the regions. But the reality has exceeded all forecasts. Thousands of families already live in the rebuilt settlements. By the end of this year, the return of former internally displaced persons to Agdam will begin. As the President of Azerbaijan said, the creative work done in the four and a half years since the Victory is in full view. The incredible transformation of Karabakh can also be seen in the example of the "Hiroshima of the Caucasus". That was once the name of Aghdam, which was wiped off the face of the earth by the invaders. The panorama of this city became a symbol of Armenian Nazism. Today, foreign guests are being taken to the renovated Aghdam to show them who is the creator in the region and for whom nothing is sacred.

"Foreign visitors visiting this and other liberated regions cannot hide their surprise and, in many cases, anger. When they are told that these destructions were committed not during the war, but during the ceasefire period, then, of course, the ugly face of Armenian fascism is clearly visible," Ilham Aliyev said, addressing the audience in the cozy hall of the beautiful Mugham Center in Aghdam.

Azerbaijan is not going to turn the liberated lands into an advertising showcase. Everything that is done there is designed for people, not for outside viewers. The new Aghdam will last for the people of Aghdam, former internally displaced persons and their descendants who want to return to their ancestral lands. And there's no doubt that they won't regret it.