Baku, May 18, 2026 – The Europe Today: President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has said that one of the government’s key priorities at present is the large-scale reconstruction of Garabagh and East Zangezur, areas he stated had remained under Armenian occupation for three decades and were left completely destroyed.
Addressing the opening ceremony of the 13th Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) World Urban Forum 13, the Azerbaijani President emphasized the scale of devastation in the liberated territories, describing the destruction of infrastructure, historical monuments, public buildings, and residential areas over a prolonged period.
He said that international observers who visited the region had compared the city of Aghdam to Hiroshima Hiroshima, referring to it as the “Hiroshima of the Caucasus” due to the extent of destruction. He noted that, unlike Hiroshima, which was devastated in a single atomic bombing, Aghdam was reduced to ruins gradually over 30 years.
President Aliyev stressed that the ongoing reconstruction efforts aim to restore urban infrastructure, rebuild cities from the ground up, and ensure sustainable development in the affected regions.
