Karabakh as a model of unprecedented reconstruction

Who is the true master of the earth? It is not difficult to answer this question. You can have volumes of fictional history written, and you can raise many generations under the delusion of your relative "greatness." But it's not historians' fantasies that tell us who owns the land, but reality.

Armenian nationalist propaganda has been promoting theses about the exceptional creativity of the Armenian people for decades. Wherever an Armenian steps foot, a garden blooms there, and so on. Moreover, this thesis is not built up just like that, but significantly opposes the Armenian people to their neighbors. At the same time, Armenian nationalist propaganda, as always, does not bother to match such theses to reality. Especially in those cases when it comes to the territory that the Armenians have reserved for themselves.

"They had Zangilan in their hands for 30 years, so they would have built something if they considered this land their own. We mothballed that destroyed Zangilan mosque and organized a small photo exhibition there so that no one would forget what they had turned our religious and historical monuments into. If it was theirs, they would have built it that way. It's only been five years, and look - not only in Zangilan, constructive work is underway everywhere: roads, bridges, power plants, reservoirs, houses for displaced people, schools are being built. That's what the owners do. And the robber, the occupier comes to demolish and destroy," President Ilham Aliyev said, addressing citizens in Zangilan, where the first residential complex was opened on May 10.

For about thirty years, the "creators" have been looting and destroying the occupied lands, hoping for something. Most likely, they did not think about anything, they simply destroyed and destroyed it, based on groundless hatred for the Azerbaijani people, who, as the President said, had done nothing wrong to the Armenian people. You can't argue with the Azerbaijani leader - this hatred should become an object of study for psychiatrists. Because there is no other way to explain it.

For example, during the occupation, a unique sycamore grove in the Zangilan region was destroyed. The grove of oriental plane trees (plane trees) occupied 100 of the 107 hectares of the Besitchay Reserve. This reserve is the smallest in Azerbaijan, but experts say its sycamore grove is the second largest in the world. The oriental plane tree is one of the most valuable species of plane trees, which have a small distribution in the world. Given the rarity of the species, it was listed in the "Red Book" of the republic.

During the years of Armenian occupation, almost fifty percent of the reserve's territory was destroyed. The trees were cut down, and the precious wood was shipped to Armenia for sale abroad. What the invaders did not have time to cut down and sell, they burned, fleeing from the offensive of the Azerbaijani army in October 2020.

After the liberation of the Zangilan region, work began on the restoration of the Besitchay Nature Reserve in accordance with the decree of the President of Azerbaijan "On measures to organize the activities of the Basitchay State Nature Reserve." The work is complicated by the presence of mines on the territory. But the process is underway.

Not only the Zangilan forests suffered at the hands of the occupiers, but all nature reserves and reserves remaining in the occupied territories suffered great damage. The same fate befell forests in the Kalbajar region, in Shusha.

The question arises: why did the Armenian occupiers mutilate the natural environment? Having acquired beautiful and rich lands, they turned them into a scorched desert, covered with ruins of towns and villages, fragments of historical monuments and desecrated cemeteries. Everything was destroyed. No logic can be discerned in this process, but the cave hatred is clearly visible. Perhaps even a psychiatrist would have difficulty understanding the intricacies of the "mysterious" mentality of Armenian nationalists.

Take, for example, former President Robert Kocharian. During his election campaign, he stated that when people live somewhere, they leave behind a trace, namely, a cultural and historical heritage. According to him, the Armenians have a trace, but the Azerbaijanis in Karabakh have nothing but one mosque in Shusha.

With this, the war criminal and separatist wanted to say that historically, Azerbaijanis have never lived in Karabakh, so they did not build or leave anything. But the Armenians built churches, which means that they are the masters here. Interesting logic, isn't it? Especially for a person directly involved in the destruction of the cultural and historical heritage of the Azerbaijani people in the territories occupied by Armenia.

Kocharyan, who lived in Karabakh and was involved in Komsomol and party work there, knows perfectly well that this is a lie. More than 700 state-protected historical and cultural monuments of the Azerbaijani people remain under Armenian occupation. Almost all of them were wiped off the face of the earth. All Azerbaijani cemeteries were destroyed. For what? And so that today such a Kocharian could tell his flock silly fairy tales.

If such a conversation has already started, then it is precisely the Armenians who have nothing to show to prove their alleged autochthonous status on Karabakh soil, except for the Armenized foreign churches, new buildings from the occupation period and artificially timbered stones with crosses. Kocharyan can't find them with a magnifying glass. Let's say even more - he will not find them in the territory currently occupied by the Republic of Armenia. This is not an exaggeration - there really are no traces of the historical presence of Armenians there. Only churches. But the presence of churches does not mean anything. Armenians build them wherever they go. Churches also began to be built in the South Caucasus after the resettlement of Armenians at the beginning of the last century. Even the capital, which is "older than Rome," has no historical center. And by the way, all the ancient cities of the world have a historical center. How come?

In fact, modern Yerevan certainly has a historical center. If you dig into the ground, you can find many traces of the Azerbaijani history of this city, rolled up in asphalt.

But this is so, by the way, and not in the order of claims to the internationally recognized territory of Armenia. Armenian talkers, telling historical tall tales, should know that reality can turn to them at any moment with its unpleasant side.

Never mind the footprints. It is not necessary to go back in time to explain to Kocharyan how much he is... Kocharyan.

Let the revanchists try to explain why they have not carried out any constructive work on the occupied Azerbaijani lands for thirty years. During the years of occupation, nothing was built either in Karabakh or in the surrounding areas of the former NKAO. Although you can build a whole city in thirty years. When people in Baku ask why the Armenians did not build anything during the occupation, but only destroyed it, on the other hand, they usually resort to demagoguery, leaving it unanswered.

But the voice of reason still sometimes breaks through.

While Kocharyan is busy searching for traces of Azerbaijanis in Karabakh, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is trying to explain to the Armenians why the occupied Azerbaijani lands were not Armenian.

"They say we have lost our lands. But how were these lands ours? How were they ours? Please explain: how were they ours? I don't want to talk behind the backs of the dead, but let's just say: they were under the control of several generals, who, for example, sowed wheat there, right? What was the point of them being ours? How? Explain: how was it? Did we build a school there? Have you built a kindergarten? The factory? Did we live there? Have you created a settlement?... What was the point of them being ours? They weren't ours. They were not ours," Pashinyan said at a meeting with voters.

After virtual stones were thrown at him, the Armenian prime minister made a reservation that he meant the areas around Karabakh. But that doesn't change the point. Because there was no creative movement within the borders of the former NKAO. Occupied Karabakh was unsettled, with broken roads, gloomy, the Armenians lived with the ruins of Azerbaijani villages in the neighborhood. The separatists used Armenian budget money to build villas. Cottages with beautiful views of the Karabakh mountains were built on the occupied lands by officials from Yerevan. A deliberately meaningless airport in Khojaly was built. It was clear to everyone that it would not function, but the separatist regime and Yerevan wanted to show off the "infrastructural development" of the occupied lands. Scammers from the diaspora tried to search for oil in Karabakh, breed sturgeon, and plunder the subsoil. Before the conflict, the rich Karabakh region occupied an important place in the agricultural and industrial sectors of the republic. After the occupation, all its possibilities were reduced to zero by the new "owners".

So what was the problem? The neighbors fulfilled their "age-old dream", but they could not become the owners. Not only the occupied lands have fallen into disrepair, but also Armenia itself. While the "defeated" Azerbaijan was developing and implementing large-scale projects, the "winners" lived in poverty and fear.

Who is the true owner of the land can be judged by what has already been done and what is being done in the liberated territories after 2020. The way Azerbaijan is reviving its lands can serve as an example for the whole world.

As President Ilham Aliyev said, this is what real owners do.