Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

May 18 marks twenty one years of the occupation of Azerbaijan's Lachin region, located between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, an Azerbaijani region occupied by Armenian armed forces since a lengthy war in the early 1990s.

Lachin, a highland region in the southwest of Azerbaijan with beautiful mountains, which was populated predominantly by Azerbaijanis and Kurds, was seized by the Armenian armed forces on May 18, 1992.

After the May 8 occupation of Shusha, an Azerbaijani city within the Nagorno-Karabakh region, Armenian armed forces, having occupied the settlements around Lachin, intensively fired shells into the center of the region. Launching their invasion on the night of May 16, 1992 from a place called Turshsu in Shusha and the Gor region of Armenia, Armenian forces occupied Lachin. Most of the enemy forces managed to intrude into the region through the Lachin corridor.

The only road from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh passed through the Lachin region's center.

On May 18, the Armenian invaders destroyed hundreds of cultural facilities, tens of settlements, villages and historical monuments. 63,341 Azerbaijani citizens were driven out of their homes as a result of the occupation.

The Lachin region included 121 villages with a total space of 1,835 square km. More than 300 military men and civilians were killed or went missing during the occupation of the Lachin region. Moreover, 103 people were wounded or disabled. 18 Azerbaijani children were killed, 225 were injured and 31 lost both of their parents.

8,950 buildings, 7 industrial and construction enterprises, 471 service facilities, 154 schools and hundreds of cultural and historical monuments remain in the occupied territory.

The occupation of Lachin, a region of geo-strategic significance, dealt a serious blow to the economy of Azerbaijan.

With this occupation, the people of Azerbaijan were not only ousted from their lands, but also sustained loss of magnificent architecture and historical sites due to warfare.

After the occupation, historic and cultural monuments in Lachin were looted or appropriated by the Armenians. The occupation of this region caused considerable damage to Azerbaijan's economy. The losses incurred as a result of the Armenian occupation are estimated at $7 billion.

The enemy destroyed light industrial enterprises and agricultural fields there as well.

Also, after the invasion the Armenians plundered the natural resources of Lachin. The region was rich in minerals, construction materials, gold, mountain crystal, silk, granite, mercury, limestone, harsh stone, traver­tine, mineral water, and healing herbs. There were rare mahogany trees, cobalt, uranium, iron, and marble of different colors.

34,877 hectares of the region's territory was covered with rare mahogany trees included in the Red Book.

It has been 21 years since the occupation of Lachin and to this day, the Azerbaijanis who hail from the Karabakh region are keen on returning to their beloved homeland, but their wish remains unfulfilled.

Now the residents of Lachin long for liberation of their native lands from the Armenian occupation and proper enforcement of international law.

Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that caused a brutal war in the early 1990s. Long-standing efforts by US, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.

The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenia's withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.