Azerbaijan, Baku, Aug. 23 / Trend /
Today is the 18th anniversary of the occupation of Azerbaijan's regions of Fizuli and Jabrail by the Armenian armed forces. On Aug.23 1993, 51 villages and center of the Fizuli region were seized by the Armenians, more than 55,000 inhabitants left their native land.
The Fizuli region covers the territory from the southeastern slopes of Karabakh Mountain range to Araz River. It is border with Azerbaijani regions of Khojavand, Jabrail, Agjabadi, Beylagan and Iran along Araz River.
The territory of the Fizuli district is 1,386 sq.km and the population is approximately 105,000 people. Some 13 settlements and 20 villages are located on the region's territory freed from the occupation. Twelve of the settlements are constructed after release, and the families of IDPs have been temporarily placed there.
Beginning from 1988, the Fizuli region is a subject to the constant attacks of the Armenians. As a result of occupation, more than 1,100 residents of Fizuli became martyrs, 113 - were captivated and 1,450 people become invalid.
The Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry's operations section supervising the devastating effects to the environment and natural resources in Azerbaijan's occupied territories has identified a number of facts of destruction of natural resources by Armenians in the Fizuli region in the occupation period. Armenians cut down all the trees in the Dovlatyarli village located in a forest zone, destroyed green spaces along the roads in the Gochahmadli and Yaglivand villages, and burned more than 35,000 hectares of land in 2006-2009.
As a result the occupation of the Jabrail region, whose territory is 1,050 sq.km, 72 secondary school buildings, eight hospitals, five mosques, two museums, 129 historical monuments and 149 cultural centers left in the occupation.
Some 61,100 IDPs from the Jabrail region settled in more than 2,000 habitable points in 58 regions of the country.