Azerbaijani army units enter liberated Lachin region
By Vafa Ismayilova
The Defence Ministry has reported that Azerbaijan's army units entered Lachin region on December 1 under a trilateral agreement signed between Azerbaijan, Russia and Armenia on November 10 to end the war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Azerbaijani flag was raised in the Lachin region.
The Lachin region was occupied by the Armenian armed forces on May 18, 1992. During the defence of the region, 264 people were killed, 65 were taken hostage, 103 became disabled. Six people from the region were awarded the title of Azerbaijan's National Hero. Of the 24,374 children in the region aged from one to 16 years old, 18 became martyrs, 225 became disabled, 1,071 children lost one, and 31 children lost both parents. 65,507 IDPs from Lachin region resettled in 59 cities and regions of Azerbaijan
During the occupation, the area suffered $ 7.1 billion in damage.
Some 217 cultural institutions, 101 educational institutions, 142 health care institutions, 462 trade facilities, 30 communication facilities, two motor transport and other production facilities were looted and destroyed. More than 200 historical monuments of local and 54 monuments of world importance were destroyed. These include the Albanian Agoglan monastery (6th century), the tomb of Malik Azhdar (14th century), a mosque in the village of Garagishlag, and an ancient cemetery in the village of Zabukh. Lachin History Museum and an old collection of gold, silver and bronze coins were plundered. An exhibit from the Lachin History Museum - a bag made of silver - was sold for $80,000 at Sotheby's in London.
The trilateral peace agreement signed by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia on November 10 ended the 30-years-old conflict between Baku and Yerevan over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region that along with the seven adjacent districts came under the occupation of Armenian armed forces in the war in the early 1990s. For about three decades, Armenia failed to implement the UN Security Council resolutions and the resolutions of other international organizations demanding the withdrawal of the Armenian troops, which was the main obstacle to the resolution of the conflict.
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