156 Azerbaijani families have returned to the former Karabakh conflict zone.
Today, 654 members of Azerbaijani families who fled during the Karabakh conflict returned to the city of Zangilan and the Jabrayil region.
As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," Azerbaijanis from Karabakh settlements were forced to flee their homes after the start of the First Karabakh War. The return of Azerbaijani displaced persons began after Azerbaijan took control of these territories. By March 11, 2026, 7,541 families (30,261 people) had returned to 41 settlements in the former Karabakh conflict zone.
Today, 59 families (235 people) have been resettled to Zangilan, and 97 families (419 people) to the village of Shukurbeyli in the Jabrayil district, APA reports.
These families were previously temporarily resettled in various parts of the country - mainly in dormitories, sanatoriums, children's camps, and unfinished and administrative buildings, Report writes.
The Zangilan district, like Jabrayil, came under the control of Azerbaijan following the 44-day Karabakh war in 2020. President Ilham Aliyev announced that Azerbaijani troops had occupied the city of Jabrayil (Armenian name: Jrakan) on October 4, 2020.
As a reminder, internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in a Baku lyceum dormitory complained about living conditions. More than 30 families from the Zangilan and Jabrayil districts were housed in the building. The "Caucasian Knot" published a photo report by Aziz Karimov, "A hostel for internally displaced persons from the Karabakh conflict zone in Baku."
Mines and a shortage of vacancies are hindering resettlement to Karabakh
In November 2023, shortly after the end of hostilities, Azerbaijani authorities announced plans to return 34,500 families (140,000 people) to the former Karabakh conflict zone by the end of 2026. Despite the construction of roads, energy facilities, and housing, the pace of resettlement is hampered by mine danger, job shortages, and unresolved land use issues, analysts noted in April 2026.
In the former Karabakh conflict zone, security forces, sappers, and local residents are periodically killed by mines. From November 2020, when the 44-day war in Karabakh ended, to the end of December 2025, 415 people died from mines and unexploded ordnance in Azerbaijan. Of these, 71 were killed and 344 were injured.
Azerbaijani residents who returned to Karabakh told the "Caucasian Knot" that they are arranging their lives and finding work. Despite ongoing problems with employment and infrastructure, the displaced persons note an improvement in their living conditions.
For example, Rashid Aliyev, whose family returned to A resident of the village of Khydyrly in the Agdam district in the summer of 2025 said his retired parents were given a separate two-room house, while he, his wife, and three children were given a three-room house. "Each house was allocated 12 hundredths of a hectare of land. Some planted flowers, others trees. But most, like me, created mini-livestock farms. I built a barn and a chicken coop. I have four cows, a bull, a dozen rams, twenty chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys. "There are excellent conditions for livestock farming here," Aliyev said.
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.
On September 19-20, 2023, Azerbaijan carried out 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".