Immediately after liberating its lands from occupation, Azerbaijan began large-scale reconstruction work in Karabakh and East Zangezur, and the process of the Great Return is currently continuing successfully.
elchi reports that President Ilham Aliyev said this at the opening ceremony of the Islamic Development Bank Group’s 2026 Annual Meetings held in Baku.
Highlighting the current demographic and financial landscape in the liberated territories, the head of state said:
“Today, nearly 90,000 people are already living, working, and studying in Karabakh and East Zangezur. We have allocated more than 15 billion US dollars from our state budget for various infrastructure and housing projects. However, the total volume of funding from all sources for the liberated territories is close to 17 billion US dollars.”
The President emphasized that large-scale projects are being implemented in the region, including reservoirs, water canals, power plants, tunnels, bridges, and three international airports that have already been put into operation:
“We are grateful to the Islamic Development Bank Group for supporting our efforts in rebuilding the liberated territories. We must continue to turn Azerbaijan into a transport hub. Our plan is to double the volume of cargo transported through Azerbaijan. Today, this figure is approximately 14-15 million tons. We aim to double this number. Of course, not everything will depend solely on us, as it will also depend on the geopolitical situation and the conditions in the neighborhood, but these are our concrete plans.”