On February 25, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, and their daughter Arzu Aliyeva visited Khojavend town to inspect the reconstruction progress.

The head of state, the First Lady, and their daughter met with residents of Khojavend town and Khojavend village and held a conversation with them.

President Ilham Aliyev: Welcome. Congratulations. You arrived a few days earlier than me. I sincerely congratulate you on your return to our native Garabagh land. I am confident that you will live here comfortably, happily, in peace and security. You deserve this.

You endured long years of suffering and hardship. Life as an internally displaced person is difficult — both morally and physically. Leaving your native land and going elsewhere, even within Azerbaijan, and living in hardship is a great trial. You emerged from this trial with honor. I am sure that the entire Azerbaijani people, including you, always believed that this day would come — that we would liberate these lands, restore justice, and drive the enemy out of our territories.

As you know, although a large part of the formerly occupied lands was liberated five years ago during the Patriotic War, Khojavend remained under occupation, and the people of Khojavend believed that the situation would change someday. I am confident there was faith in society that not even one inch of our land would remain under the enemy’s heel — and we achieved that as well. For more than two years now, we have exercised full control over the entire sovereign territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan. We destroyed the enemy’s last stronghold, expelled the separatists, brought them before the court, and fully restored justice.

Therefore, that difficult period is now behind us — it is in the past and will never return. Today, our state is strong, our army is strong, and our people have shown the whole world their greatness over these years. In the last 80 years, no other country has achieved such a complete and absolute victory as Azerbaijan.

Now is the time for construction. The state has already created conditions for you here. Some houses have been restored and rebuilt, and this process will continue. Tens of thousands of Azerbaijani citizens are already living in the liberated territories, and approximately 30,000 of them are former internally displaced persons. As you know, over the last four to five years, we have primarily allocated funds to infrastructure projects because the essential conditions for living must first be ensured — electricity, gas, water, roads, bridges, and tunnels. Now, more funds will be directed toward the construction and restoration of residential houses. Therefore, the “Great Return” process will accelerate even further.

Jobs are also being created here — through the state, public institutions, and, of course, the private sector. The majority of people living here were previously engaged in agriculture. You know well that this region has beautiful nature, fertile land, water, and springs — everything necessary is here. The main thing is that people now live here comfortably and remain fully confident that such tragedies will never again befall our people.

To ensure this, we must always remain strong and vigilant, never forget the past, and look to the future with confidence — just as we look with confidence and live today. I sincerely congratulate you once again and wish you good health.