Small Migrations of the Great Return: When Will the Drops Turn into a Flood?

Galib Bayramov, Chairman of Economic Research Center

Since 2020, the Azerbaijani government has unwaveringly declared the resettlement of the Karabakh territories, liberated from Armenian occupation, as one of its main priorities for the next 20 years. Several documents have been meticulously prepared in this direction, intended for public access and official use (programs, strategies, plans, etc.). The government's primary principle for the resettlement of Karabakh is that only the population registered in the districts located in the liberated areas will be resettled in Karabakh. For this reason, registration in these districts has been halted since November 2020. Despite the discussion over the last four years of relocating Azerbaijani citizens not registered in these areas to Karabakh (e.g., the relocation of people who fled from Armenia to Hadrut or the opportunity for any Azerbaijani citizen to buy property in Khankendi), no concrete steps have been taken, and the efforts in this direction have remained incomplete.