The liberated territories of Karabakh and Eastern Zangazur have become a vast construction site where the future is being built. Modern residential settlements are being established in place of cities and villages that were once destroyed as a result of Armenian vandalism, while new roads and communications networks are being constructed, and energy, gas, water and telecommunications infrastructure is being developed.

The main objective of this process is not merely to rebuild the devastated territories. The key priorities include reintegrating Karabakh and Eastern Zangazur into the country’s socio-economic life, ensuring sustainable settlement in these areas, and enabling people to build safe and comfortable lives in their ancestral homes.

The fact that the Great Return has been identified as one of Azerbaijan’s National Priorities for 2030 further demonstrates the particular importance of this strategy in state policy. With the approval of the “I State Program on the Great Return to the Territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan Liberated from Occupation,” specific tasks have been established. The projects currently being implemented are aimed at achieving these objectives step by step.

Reconstruction efforts in Karabakh and Eastern Zangazur are being carried out in parallel with mine-clearance operations. Alongside ensuring the safety of the territories, large-scale work is underway to rebuild residential settlements, construct roads and other transportation links, and establish electricity, gas and drinking-water supply systems.

This picture can also be seen in the village of Shukurbayli in the Jabrayil district, one of the next destinations of the Great Return.

On September 10, another resettlement to the village took place. A total of 154 people from 25 families returned to their native village and familiarized themselves with the new living conditions created for them there. Residents who had once been displaced from their homes as a result of the occupation have now returned to Shukurbayli, which has been completely rebuilt.

All the essential facilities needed for life have been established in the village. These include two nursery-kindergartens, a school with a capacity of 360 students, a medical center, a music school, a club-community center and an administrative building. A 35/10 kV substation has also been constructed to provide the village with electricity.

The example of the families returning to Shukurbayli clearly demonstrates the essence of the Great Return: the goal is not simply to bring people back to their ancestral lands, but to create all the conditions necessary for a modern and sustainable life in these territories.

Today, every new opening and every new resettlement in Karabakh represents another stage of the Great Return. The new life being built on the sites of destroyed cities and villages is a tangible result of one of Azerbaijan’s key post-victory objectives — ensuring that people can live safely, comfortably and prosperously in their ancestral lands.