President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev visited the Karkijahan settlement of the city of Khankendi on December 23.

Elchin Yusubov, the President's Special Representative in the city of Khankendi and the Aghdara and Khojaly districts, updated the head of state on the ongoing development work in the settlement.

Renovation works began in May this year. The settlement currently comprises 33 apartment buildings and 1,037 individual houses, of which 247 are uninhabitable and 790 are partially habitable. Plans include the repair of 40 houses by the end of this year and 280 houses in 2026. To date, renovation works have been completed in 30 houses. In the first phase, 30 families, comprising 115 residents, have returned to their ancestral homes after temporary displacement in other cities and districts.

A number of social infrastructure projects have also been implemented. In the individual housing area, water, electricity, and gas lines were inspected, 2 kilometers of underground optical cable and 510 meters of power lines were installed, street lighting was ensured, and internal roads were asphalted. Additionally, major repairs were carried out at the 60-seat No. 1 nursery-kindergarten and the secondary school designed for 624 students.

President Ilham Aliyev had previously visited the settlement on October 15, 2023.

Located at an altitude of 1,130 meters above sea level and covering a total area of 234 hectares, Karkijahan is a settlement within the administrative boundaries of the city of Khankendi. In the 1960s, the nationalist Armenian leadership of the former autonomous oblast removed the settlement’s name from the official list of populated areas and incorporated it into the city of Khankendi. Occupied in late 1991, Karkijahan was burned by Armenian forces in 1992. Before the occupation, 355 families, totaling 1,796 Azerbaijanis, lived in the settlement. Currently, 674 families, comprising 2,531 residents, are registered. The settlement was liberated from occupation in 2023 as a result of the anti-terror operation carried out by the Azerbaijani Army.