‘ Aghdam is ours!’ Azerbaijan reclaims war- ravaged town

AGHDAM, AZERBAIJAN — Azerbaijani forces reclaimed the war- ravaged ghost town of Aghdam on Friday, more than a quarter- century after Azerbaijanis were driven out by Armenian forces.

Aghdam and the surrounding region of the same name are the first of several territories adjacent to separatist Nagorno- Karabakh to be turned over under a ceasefire that ended six weeks of intense fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

“Today, with a feeling of endless pride, I am informing my people about the liberation of Aghdam,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in an address to the nation. “Aghdam is ours!”

Crowds of people carrying national flags gathered in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, to celebrate the handover.

Nagorno- Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. That war left not only Nagorno- Karabakh itself but substantial surrounding territory in Armenian hands.

Heavy fighting that flared up Sept. 27 marked the biggest escalation of the decades- old conflict between the two ex- Soviet nations in more than a quarter- century, killing hundreds of people and possibly thousands more.

The cease- fire agreement, celebrated as a victory in Azerbaijan, has left many Armenians bitter. Mass protests erupted in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, immediately after the deal was announced last week, and many ethnic Armenians have been leaving the territories that are to be handed over to Azerbaijan, setting their houses on fire before departing.

The city of Aghdam was once home to 50,000, known for its white homes and an elaborate three- story teahouse, but it is so ruined that it’s sometimes called the “Hiroshima of the Caucasus.”

After the population was driven out in 1993 by fighting, they were followed by Armenian pillagers who stripped the city bare.

Today, the only intact building is the mosque. From the top of its elaborately patterned minarets, the view is of a vast expanse of jagged concrete and houses reduced to shells and overgrown with vegetation.

A few soldiers and a Muslim cleric held prayers within its graffiti- scarred and flaking walls on Friday.

SERGEI GRITS/ ASSOCIATED PRESS A Muslim cleric prays in an abandoned mosque in Aghdam on Friday after Azerbaijani forces reclaimed the town. In 1993, Aghdam’s residents were driven out during fighting with Armenian forces.