33 Azerbaijani families returned to Khojavend

Today, 142 members of Azerbaijani families who fled during the Karabakh conflict returned to Khojavend. The number of IDPs returned to the city has reached 904.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," on February 20, the first groups of former IDPs returned to the city of Khojavend and the village of the same name. On March 31, another 253 people from 64 Azerbaijani families returned to Khojavend.

Today, a group of 142 former IDPs (33 families) returned to the city of Khojavend, APA reports.

These families were previously resettled in various regions of Azerbaijan, primarily in dormitories, sanatoriums, and administrative buildings, the agency writes.

Including this group, 904 people (234 families) have returned to Khojavend, Report writes.

The resettlement of Azerbaijani families to Karabakh has sparked a debate on social media.

As a reminder, Azerbaijani residents who returned to Karabakh told the "Caucasian Knot" that they are settling in and finding work. Despite ongoing problems with employment and infrastructure, the displaced people report improved living conditions.

For example, Rashid Aliyev, whose family returned to the village of Khidirli in the Aghdam region in the summer of 2025, reported that his retired parents were provided with a separate two-room house, while he, his wife, and three children were given a three-room house. "Each house was allocated a 12-hectare plot of land. Some planted flowers, others trees. But most, like me, created mini-farms for livestock. I built a barn and a chicken coop. I have four cows, a bull, a dozen rams, two dozen chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys. The conditions here are excellent for livestock farming," Aliyev said.

On September 19-20, 2023, Azerbaijan launched large-scale military operations and took control of the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which began a mass exodus of the Armenian population. By October 7, 2023, 100,632 internally displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh had arrived in Armenia, and by September 2024, only 14 Armenians remained in the region. The "Caucasian Knot" has prepared a report entitled "The Beginning and End of the Unrecognized Republic of Artsakh".

Earlier, Azerbaijani IDPs complained about the difficulties of returning to Karabakh. In particular, they noted a shortage of jobs in Fizuli. People are looking for opportunities to return to their homelands, but property issues in the territories under Azerbaijani control have not yet been resolved, the IDPs noted.

Azerbaijani analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" pointed out that simply providing housing to IDPs returning to their cities is not enough. The authorities must create jobs and build infrastructure, they emphasized.