How the rebuilding of Karabakh is giving hope to war-hit regions

Come November 2020, the second Nagorno-Karabakh war came to an end with Azerbaijan reclaiming most of its territory.

A major reconstruction and rehabilitation programme was launched, with full control of the region restored in September 2023.

To begin with, making the land safe is the top priority. It is believed that an estimated 1,166,702 hectares contain landmines, with a significant investment being channelled into demining the area.

This has been a challenge to rebuilding the region, with 69 citizens of Azerbaijan killed and 308 injured since November 2020, while the total number of Azerbaijani mine victims from the beginning of the conflict in 1991 stands at 3,456.

Admitting the challenge of demining, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said: “This is one of the main impediments to the rapid rehabilitation of the lands because only authorised areas can be visited by people.

“Before we start building infrastructure and housing projects, deminers do their job. International companies offering their services have prices for demining that are five to ten times higher than the cost known to us, as we have our own national demining company.”

According to the Azerbaijan Campaign Against Landmines Public Union, the country has spent on humanitarian demining around $350 million in the last four years. 

To open up the region, Azerbaijan is on an infrastructure-building spree.

First, access to the region has been made easier with the construction of two international airports (those in Fuzuli and in Zangilan are fully operational, with one in Lachin under construction) as well as major road and railway construction projects.

“The transport sector is always crucial for building prosperity, and while it is one of the key economic growth drivers, it is even more important for the reconstruction of the liberated territories.

“For the return to be successful, we need to reconnect goods and services to markets” Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Kenya Sultan Hajiyev told Sunday Standard.

I travelled to Azerbaijan recently to attend the Second Shusha Global Media Forum. After landing at Fuzuli International Airport, the over 100 kilometres of road to Shusha allowed me to observe the rebuilding exercise in parts of the region.

The road network indeed remains a critical piece in the economic and social rebuilding of the Karabakh region.

It is these infrastructures that have paved the way for the return of Azerbaijanis who had to leave the region in 1994 after the takeover by Stepanakert (former Armenian name for the city of Khankendi).

Currently, there are four cities and four villages where people have already returned.

“We have close to 8,000 people already living in the liberated territories. By the end of the year, the number will grow to 20,000,” said President Azerbaijan Aliyev.

“Here in Shusha, a couple of months ago in May, we inaugurated the first housing projects consisting of 23 four- or five-storey buildings. This is where people have already re-settled. Everywhere in Karabakh and East Zangezur, there is a huge rehabilitation programme.”

Finally, Azerbaijan being an oil and gas producing country in an ever-greening world, the Karabakh region is set to be reconstructed to be powered by green energy.

This is of special interest, as the country will be hosting COP29 this November and the World Urban Forum in 2026.

Karabakh, East Zangezur, and also Nakhchivan, which is geographically more or less the same region, have been announced as a green energy zone, having great potential for solar energy.

Energy plans