BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 27. On May 27, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev met with residents relocated to the village of Beylik in the Lachin district and presented them with the keys to their new homes, Trend reports.
President Ilham Aliyev greeted the residents.
Residents: Welcome!
President Ilham Aliyev: You are also welcome to your homeland.
Residents: May Allah protect you! We are proud of you, Mr. President. It is a great happiness to see you in Beylik. You are welcome!
President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you. I congratulate you on the restoration of the village. At the same time, as you know, tomorrow is Independence Day. I congratulate you on Independence Day as well. You are returning to your native land on the eve of a wonderful holiday. This is a significant event, and I am sure that your life here, in your native land, will be pleasant.
Residents: Inshallah.
President Ilham Aliyev: The government has done everything in its power to create very good conditions for you.
Residents: Long live our state, thank you very much!
President Ilham Aliyev: There are wonderful houses, roads, electricity, natural gas, water, land plots—in other words, all the opportunities to live and work here. Living in such beautiful natural conditions, on your own land, I am sure, is a very pleasant feeling. This is tremendous happiness. After we ended the 30-year Armenian occupation, reconstruction work immediately began in all our districts. The villages that were subjected to Armenian vandalism have now been rebuilt. The village of Beylik was also razed to the ground by the Armenians. Now, a beautiful settlement has been created here. Nearby, there was a neighboring village once - the village of Sus - and on that side is Zabukh and the city of Lachin. Four settlements have already been restored in the Lachin district. But overall, the number of restored cities and villages has already reached 15. We have achieved all this in a short period of time, and the work is still ongoing. Large-scale efforts are underway in all the liberated territories so that our citizens can return to their lands soon.
Residents: Inshallah.
President Ilham Aliyev: So far, 40,000 to 43,000 people live, work, and study in higher education in the liberated territories. The Second Karabakh War is our glorious history. May Allah rest the souls of all our martyrs in peace!
Residents: Ameen.
President Ilham Aliyev: As you may know, at that time, a small part of the Lachin district - the southern part - was liberated on the battlefield. However, the main part was liberated after Armenia surrendered, without a single shot being fired. Most of Lachin, Kalbajar, and Aghdam were returned to us by Armenia, and since then, the Azerbaijani people have been returning to their native lands.
May is now a double holiday for you – both Independence Day and the day you returned to Beylik. But May was also a tragic month for the people of Lachin. It was in May that Lachin was occupied, 10 days after the occupation of Shusha. It was an immense tragedy - a great disaster for you and for our entire country. Because it was the occupation of Lachin that paved the way for our subsequent failures in the war. The then Nagorno-Karabakh region gained geographical link with Armenia. The notorious Lachin corridor, which no longer exists now, was opened. There has been the Lachin-Khankendi road there for many years now. The Lachin corridor belongs to the past.
You know, those who lived through that time will remember very well that there was a power struggle in Azerbaijan. The Popular Front-Musavat tandem, which was aiming to seize power in the country, committed treason. They played an enormous and disgraceful role in the occupation of our lands. It was just a month after the occupation of Lachin that they came to power—bringing immense misfortune to our country. Selling lands to the enemy in order to gain power is a heinous crime - betrayal, treachery, and cowardice. But that too is now history. That dark page of our history has long been turned. Today, Azerbaijan has restored its sovereignty over its entire territory. From now on, May will only be a month of celebration for you and for all of us. Thank you.
Residents: May Allah bless you! Thanks to you, thanks to the “Iron Fist.”
President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you. We now have wonderful dates and holidays to celebrate. May 18—the day Lachin was occupied—and May 8—the day of the occupation of Shusha—have already been consigned to history. You know very well that during the occupation, the people of Lachin, Shusha, and other districts marked the day of the occupation every year as a day of mourning. This added pain to their suffering every year. But those days are now gone forever. Now, we have November 8—Victory Day; August 26—the day of the liberation of Lachin, celebrated as Lachin Day; and April 23—the day when we took possession of our border in the Lachin direction and, by removing those who were stationed on our border, took control of the notorious Lachin corridor. Of course, September 20 is also a great Victory Day for us. As a result of a one-day anti-terrorist operation, separatism was eradicated and the Armenian army surrendered in full. A new era has begun, and the whole world has been forced to reckon with this. Both during the Second Karabakh War and afterward, until September 2023, various insidious initiatives were put forward by different foreign circles. None of them mattered. Because, as you said, the “Iron Fist” is still there. I congratulate you again. Live happily here.
Resident: Mr. President, on behalf of my family and the village of Beylik, please allow me to express our gratitude to you. May Allah have mercy on our martyrs and grant health to our ghazis. Ameen. I want to say quite frankly – may Allah always keep you with the people of Azerbaijan. Ameen! May you and Mehriban khanum grow old together. Be there for us. Thank you!
President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you, thank you very much.
X X X
Then, the key presentation ceremony was held.
