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Elnur Enveroglu

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Although the cleansing of Garabagh from Armenia's separatist regime has been completed, the existing illegal buildings and inadequate infrastructure in the area still remain issues.

Nevertheless, Azerbaijan started taking measures to eliminate such problems in its fully sovereign territories. First of all, the demolition of two buildings in Khankendi, which Armenia calls ‘monuments’, is included in the plan.

The building of the "Fighters who liberated Artsakh" union

With 3 floors—the basement, half-basement, and mezzanine floors—the total area of this building is 1,886 sq. m., and the construction area is 811 sq.m. That is, this building in the central square of the once occupied city of Khankendi was symbolised by the name of the occupying regime that existed in Garabagh at that time.

When looking at the building from above, it resembles the sign of the cross. In addition, the building does not have any strategic importance.

The opening of the building took place on May 9, 2013. Former President of Armenia Serzh Sagsyan and head of the so-called regime Bako Sahakyan took part in the ceremony.

The opening of the building was deliberately scheduled for May 9, the next anniversary of the occupation of Shusha, and the opening took place within the framework of the "holiday events" organised in Khankendi on this occasion.

The construction of the building was supported by the "Ministry of Defence" of the separatist regime and the charity fund of one of the richest representatives of the Armenian diaspora, Levon Ayrapetyan, who was arrested in Russia for financial fraud in 2014, died in prison, and owned VALLEX-group. Ayrapetyan made a large amount of "investment" in the occupied territories, together with the representatives of the Armenian diaspora in Moscow and Stavropol, Russia.

Another so-called monument is the building of the "Artsakh parliament" located in the centre of Khankendi city.

The opening of the building with a total area of 1,350 square metres took place on September 2, 2007, the 16th anniversary of the declaration of the separatist regime. Tigran Torosyan, the former speaker of the Armenian Parliament, who participated in the ceremony, called this building "another proof that the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is standing" and a symbol of "a beautiful event."

It should be noted that there are facts about embezzlement during the construction of the building. For example, according to the numbers heard in the meetings of the so-called "parliament", 586 thousand US dollars were allocated for the construction of the building in 2006, but these funds were "not enough", so in 2007, up to 985 thousand US dollars were allocated. However, funds were also taken from unnamed sponsors to complete the construction of the building.

Armenia is trying to politically dress up the demolition of these buildings, but this is groundless. The master plan of Khankendi was approved by the leadership of National Leader Heydar Aliyev in the Soviet era, and extensive construction works were carried out in the city by the Azerbaijan SSR.

However, after the occupation, the entire landscape of the city was disturbed, and awkward buildings were built that did not match the master plan.

Let's pay special attention to the symbolic meaning of these buildings: the building called "Parliament" was a terrorist nest where invasion and genocide plans against Azerbaijan were drawn and decisions were made. The terrorist groups of YERKRAPAH, which are still wreaking havoc on the conventional border between Azerbaijan and Armenia, operated in this building.

Let's add that the organization consists of terrorist groups and has a hand in the deaths of thousands of Azerbaijanis. Yerkrapah was founded by one of the former defense ministers of Armenia, and the organisation has always been somehow connected to the army.

Currently, it is reported that Yerkrapah has more than 10,000 members, most of whom are veterans of the First Garabagh War.

In general, the Republic of Azerbaijan considers any building built by such a terrorist and separatist regime on its sovereign territory as unequivocally illegal, and such buildings are demolished in any city of Azerbaijan.

It should be noted that during the occupation, the construction of the "parliament building" was also underway in Shusha. However, the Patriotic War and the victory of Azerbaijan against the Armenian occupation resulted in the destruction of another building that was to be laid in the city of Shusha.

On the site of the building, the construction of the Shusha Hotel-Congress Central Complex was started by order of President Ilham Aliyev. At that time, the head of state took part in the groundbreaking ceremony of the building and said the following words about the prevention of the next illegal building that the separatist regime wanted to build:

​"The so-called regime declared that it would move the "parliament" of the "Nagorno-Karabakh Republic" to the city of Shusha. Thus, another attempt had to be made to Armenianize the city of Shusha. See, they started building this building as the "parliament" building of the "Nagorno-Karabakh Republic". But they could not deliver. We came, the owners of this land came, drove them out of here, and thus their dirty deeds did not come true," President Ilham Aliyev underscored.

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Elnur Enveroglu is AzerNews’ Deputy Editor-in-Chief, follow him on @ElnurMammadli1

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