By Eldar S., Special to Azerbaijan.US
Kalbajar, August 21, 2025 – When President Ilham Aliyev stood in Kalbajar and declared it would become “one of the most beautiful cities in the world,” he was not engaging in rhetoric. He was delivering a verdict on history.
For decades, Armenia turned Kalbajar into a wasteland—looted, burned, stripped of life. Now Azerbaijan is turning it into a symbol of rebirth: housing for 10,000 returnees, schools, cable cars, modern infrastructure, and jobs. Where Armenian occupation destroyed, Azerbaijan builds.
Aliyev also reminded the world of a forgotten truth: Armenia never paid for the billions of dollars in weapons it used against Azerbaijan. Those tanks, missiles, and guns were donated by patrons who wanted to prolong occupation and deny peace. Today they lie rusting in Azerbaijani depots, captured as trophies of a failed project.
The so-called “Lachin corridor” is gone, replaced by Azerbaijan’s checkpoint and sovereign control. The operations at Farrukh, Sarybaba, Grykhgyz, and the decisive September 2023 action completed what November 2020 began: full restoration of territorial integrity. This was not luck or diplomacy—it was strategy, executed with patience and precision.
The implications are regional. The Minsk Group is irrelevant. Armenia has signed onto peace terms crafted by Baku. The “Artsakh project” is finished, not by negotiation but by reality. For Yerevan, the choice is now simple: adapt to peace or be left behind.
Kalbajar’s transformation is not just about one city. It is the blueprint of Azerbaijan’s post-war future: modern, confident, forward-looking. Every school, road, and home built there is a rebuke to those who once believed war and destruction could prevail.
While Armenia’s church and nationalist elites cling to the ashes of lost wars, Azerbaijan lays foundations of life. Kalbajar is the proof: Azerbaijan wins by building, Armenia loses by resisting.
