Ilham Aliyev: "Karkhulu, Shukurbayli village, Yukhari Maralyan, Chereken, Dashkasan, Horovlu, Decal, Mahmudlu, Jafarabad villages have been taken back"
On October 4, Azerbaijani forces regained control over the the city of Jabrayil. It was first announced by the Turkish Ministry of Defense, and then by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on his Twitter account.
In statement he later issued, Aliyev congratulated all the soldiers and officers who took an active part in the liberation of Jabrayil and other areas.
The President said that several villages of Jabrayil were liberated today. These villages are Karkhulu, Shukurbeyli, Yukhari Maralyan, Chereken, Dashkasan, Horovlu, Decal, Mahmudlu, Jafarabad.
Jabrayil had been occupied by the Armenian Armed Forces on August 23, 1993. 180 Jabrayil people were killed in the battles of that period. 14 of them were police and 60 were civilians. About 90 people were captured and went missing. About 180 people from Jabrayil received the status of invalids of the Karabakh war, 6 people were awarded the title of National Hero of Azerbaijan.
There were 72 secondary schools, 8 hospitals, 5 mosques, 2 museums, 129 historical monuments and 149 cultural centers in Jabrayil, which covers an area of 1,050 square kilometers.
The region of Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, was declared independent by ethnic Armenians living there as the Soviet Union collapsed. An estimated 30,000 were killed when the conflict turned into a full-fledged war,. A ceasefire signed in 1994 under the auspices of Moscow put a fragile end to a large-scale conflict. Peace talks mediated by France, US and Russia were unsuccessful and since then, conflict is volatile, with flare-ups sporadically occurring.
