Turkic-speaking reporters visit Armenian-destroyed sites in Ganja [PHOTO]

2 September 2021 12:35 (UTC+04:00)

By Vafa Ismayilova

Reporters from the Turkic Council member and observer countries have visited the sites in Azerbaijan's second-largest city of Ganja destroyed by Armenia during the last year's war.

They familiarized themselves with the areas, where Azerbaijani civilians were killed as a result of Armenia's missile attacks in 2020. They were informed in detail about Armenia's night missile attacks on Ganja, which killed 26 civilians were killed and injured 142 civilians. Large damages were inflicted on civil facilities, historical and cultural monuments, vehicles in the city.

More than 20 foreign journalists from Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina are taking part in the visit to Azerbaijan's liberated lands.

The trip is aimed at informing the media representatives about the Armenian vandalism, the destruction of historical monuments and settlements in the territories previously occupied by Armenia.

During the three-day trip, the journalists will visit Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Shusha, and Ganja cities. On the first day of the trip, journalists will meet representatives of the Azerbaijani Mine Action Agency in Fuzuli, observe the demining process, visit a mosque in Alkhanli village, as well as inspect the destructions in Jabrayil city, see destroyed Islamic historical and religious monuments, and cemeteries.

On September 1, as part of the visit foreign journalists first viewed the monuments of Azerbaijani poetess Khurshudbanu Natavan, famous Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibayli, and Azerbaijani singer Bulbul, which were vandalized by the Armenian armed forces during the first Karabakh war in the early 1990s. Then the journalists visited the Shusha fortress and Jidir Duzu plain.

The scale of destruction in Azerbaijan’s formerly occupied territories suggests deep hatred and animosity against Azerbaijanis, with many experts describing these mass destructions as genocide.

Azerbaijan and Armenia resumed the second war after that latter started firing at Azerbaijani civilians and military positions starting September 27, 2020. The war ended on November 10 with the signing of a trilateral peace deal by the Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian leaders.

The peace agreement stipulated the return of Azerbaijan's Armenian-occupied Kalbajar, Aghdam and Lachin regions. Before the signing of the deal, the Azerbaijani army had liberated around 300 villages, settlements, city centres and historic Shusha city. The Azerbaijani army declared a victory against the Armenian troops. The signed agreement obliged Armenia to withdraw its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it has occupied since the early 1990s.