For five years now, the residents of Kalbajar and our entire nation, who once had to recall the day Kalbajar, one of the most beautiful natural regions of our homeland, was occupied with great heartache and longing, are now in a completely different mindset and mood. At the end of our glorious 44-day Victory Marathon, which entered our history as the Patriotic War, the enemy was forced to raise the white flag.
On November 25, 2020, Kalbajar was returned to Azerbaijan unconditionally, without a single shot fired, in accordance with the Trilateral Statement of November 10. For nearly 30 years, Kalbajar residents, scattered across almost every corner of our country and forced to live as internally displaced persons, gained the opportunity to return to their ancestral lands. The toponym "Kalbajar," one of Azerbaijan's oldest human settlements, means "fortress on the river" in ancient Turkic. Ancient settlements dating back over 30,000 years, rock carvings 6,000 years old, and examples of ancient Turkic stick-shaped alphabet have been discovered in the Kalbajar area. The stone monuments here were created during periods when early Turkism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and from the 7th century, Islam, spread in Northern Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, this ancient region, with its wondrous nature and underground and surface resources, also became one of the regions damaged by the Armenian aggression and occupation that began in the early nineties of the last century. On April 2, 1993, the Kalbajar district was occupied by the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia. Armenia committed acts of true vandalism in this district, just as in all our occupied territories. The district's historical and cultural heritage, schools, medical facilities, social and industrial infrastructure were subjected to genuine acts of vandalism. The enemy, adhering to the principle of either destroying or exploiting what is not theirs, engaged in looting Kalbajar for nearly thirty years.
However, they forgot that one day the true owner of this land would come, and they would have to answer. In the early days of the Patriotic War, during ongoing battles, the northern part of Kalbajar had been liberated from the occupiers by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. Our army, by taking strategic heights in the northern part of Kalbajar, was able to significantly restrict the movements of Armenian armed forces in this direction and virtually prevented them from using the Basarkechar-Kalbajar road. These facts paralyzed the enemy's movement in this direction. As a result, the devastating defeats in other areas where active battles were taking place, coupled with the incredible bravery and heroism of the Azerbaijani soldier, forced them to accept their defeat. Victorious Supreme Commander-in-Chief Mr. Ilham Aliyev, by his Decree dated July 31, 2023, approved November 25 as Kalbajar City Day. From now on, our people will forever specially celebrate November 25 each year as the date of Kalbajar's liberation from occupation.
Hilal Ahmadov
Neftchala district