Nagorno-Karabakh: Azerbaijan rebuilds homes in Lachin area
In western Azerbaijan, the city of Lachin feels like a vast construction site. Everywhere you look, efforts to erase the scars of the last all-out war between Armenia and Azerbaijan are evident.
Transcript
00:00 The city of Lachin in western Azerbaijan feels like a vast construction site.
00:09 Everywhere you look, efforts to erase the scars of the last all-out war between Armenia
00:14 and Azerbaijan are evident.
00:17 Three years ago, Russia brokered a ceasefire deal that saw Azerbaijan take back parts of
00:22 the Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia.
00:25 This area is so strategic that shortly after the agreement, Moscow sent its troops here
00:30 to monitor the deal and stand between the two sides.
00:35 Today, the so-called Lachin corridor no longer goes through here, and the soldiers have largely
00:42 relocated.
00:43 But the importance of the town is undeniable.
00:49 Tanks have been replaced by construction trucks, and a significant investment has been made
00:54 in this city to rebuild, but also to build anew with the objective of bringing people
01:00 back to Lachin.
01:03 Your great-grandfather?
01:04 Yeah, great-great-grandfather's house.
01:06 This one, my grandfather's house.
01:08 That one?
01:09 Yeah.
01:10 Hikmat's family is among them.
01:12 Hikmat, you were saying that you were not born here.
01:15 Yeah, I'm not born.
01:16 But you feel like you are from Lachin.
01:18 Why?
01:19 Because my parents, my grandparents, every time talking Lachin.
01:26 About Lachin?
01:27 About Lachin, yeah, every time.
01:28 What did they say to you about Lachin?
01:31 I don't know.
01:32 They are just feeling so bad.
01:34 They are missing every time.
01:38 He takes us to the home he says belonged to his grandparents, where his mother, uncles
01:43 and aunts were born and raised.
01:46 Gülşen says she hopes to celebrate her 60th birthday here next year.
01:59 But part of this family's journey included more painful moments, like looking for their
02:05 grandparents' grave in a cemetery nearby.
02:09 Here the resentment towards the other side becomes very clear.
02:16 For
02:44 now the incomprehensible pain might be the one thing the two sides have in common.
02:51 While negotiations continue between the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia, the road to lasting
02:57 peace will have to include the people, who still seem overtaken by the indelible marks
03:04 multiple conflicts have left.
03:06 And that will take more than concrete and bricks to hide.
03:11 Elis Borges in Lachin, Western Azerbaijan, for Euronews.
03:15 - Goose.
03:16 - Goose.
03:17 - Goose.
03:18 [SWOOSH]