Azerbaijan on Sunday marked the fifth anniversary of the return of the Lachin district, a key region in the Karabakh area that had been under Armenian control for nearly three decades.
Five Years Since Lachin Returned to Azerbaijani Control
According to Report, today marks exactly five years since Azerbaijani forces regained control over the district on December 1, 2020, under the terms of the trilateral ceasefire agreement signed on November 10, 2020, by President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, President Vladimir Putin of Russia, and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia.
Lachin had been occupied on May 18, 1992, during the First Karabakh War. Its return became one of the final steps in the settlement that ended the 44-day Second Karabakh War.
Background: The 2020 Counteroffensive
The operation that paved the way for the district’s return began in the fall of 2020, when Azerbaijan launched a counteroffensive on September 27 in response to what it described as an Armenian military provocation.
Over 44 days, Azerbaijani forces liberated:
5 cities,
4 settlements,
286 villages,
along with several key strategic heights.
Among them:
Jabrayil city and 90 villages,
Fuzuli city and 53 villages,
Zangilan city, the Minjivan, Aghbend, and Bartaz settlements, and 52 villages,
Hadrut settlement and 35 villages of Khojavend district,
Gubadli city and 41 villages,
parts of Tartar and Khojaly districts,
and the historic city of Shusha, retaken on November 8, 2020.
These gains culminated in Azerbaijan’s victory, after which the national flag was raised across all newly liberated territories.
Lachin: Geography and Significance
The Lachin district is one of Azerbaijan’s most scenic regions, located in the southwestern part of the country in the Lesser Caucasus. It borders:
Kalbajar to the north,
Gubadli to the south,
Khojaly, Shusha, and Khojavend to the east,
and Armenia to the west.
The district includes one city, one settlement, and 125 villages. It spans 1,835 square kilometers, featuring:
72,000 hectares of pastures,
34,000 hectares of dense forests,
and mountainous terrain reaching up to 3,594 meters at Mount GyzyIlbogaz.
Two local rivers, Shalva and Minkend, merge and flow into the Hakari River, which originates in the district.
Official Commemoration
By presidential decree signed on July 31, 2023, August 26 was designated as Lachin Day – an annual day of remembrance and celebration.
