AGDAM, Azerbaijan – About 30 years after the war saw Armenian forces evict hundreds of thousands of Azeris from their homes in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, many hope they can return soon after that Azerbaijan recaptured much of the surrounding area on the counter-offensive last fall.
But for Sayali Pashayeva and others like her, this dream is clouded by questions such as where they would live in the rubble-strewn border territories and whether they could realistically figure out a new means of subsistence upon their return.
“I thank God for allowing me to die again on my own land,” Ms. Pashayeva, 74, said on her first visit to Agdam, once home to her family and 40,000 more people. . His son and daughter unfurled a red carpet from the trunk, a gift for the local mosque, the only building left here, about 3½ kilometers from the Nagorno-Karabakh border, still officially under the control of ethnic-Armenian. The capital there, Stepanakert, is overseen by Russian peacekeepers.
“For 30 years, we have been waiting for this moment,” said Ms. Pashayeva’s son, Alastun Pashayev, 45. Azerbaijan gained control of Agdam and several other disputed enclave regions and its environs during a bloody six-week battle before Russia reached a ceasefire in November.
Really coming back will not be easy. Pashayev says he knows his $ 135 million a month in disability payments and pensions paid to the displaced will not be enough to regain the life he lost in Agdam three decades ago, when he was still a child.