"Agdam city to grow from ashes"

The reconstruction process has began already in Azerbaijani city of Aghdam, liberated from Armenian occupation and the city is unrecognizable, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan, Head of the Foreign Policy Department Hikmat Hajiyev said during the visit of representatives of the foreign diplomatic corps to Azerbaijan’s Aghdam district.

He noted that this is the second time diplomatic corps are visiting Aghdam since it was liberated.

"We can see that the reconstruction process has already started in Aghdam. I myself couldn’t recognize many things, a lot of things have changed," he said, stressing that Aghdam is known as the Hiroshima of the Caucasus.

"However it is the strategy of Azerbaijan, President Ilham Aliyev to make the Aghdam city into one of the most beautiful cities of the region and most importantly to provide for safe return of IDPs and inhabitants of Aghdam back after nearly 30 years," Hajiyev said.

Agdam city will grow from ashes, from nothing, but it will be beautiful and one of the the largest cities in Azerbaijan Assistant to the First Vice President of Azerbaijan Emin Huseynov said.

According to him, during Armenian occupation there was nothing left. Everything was demolished and destroyed, there was left not a single building, except the mosque.

Huseynov added that there will be a road leading to Shah Bulaq Castle, which has very big historical meaning to all people of Agdam and Karabakh.

He noted that the mentioned castle was the first place where Panah-Ali Khan [ the founder and first ruler of the Karabakh Khanate in 18th century] was staying when he arrived in Agdam. During the occupation this historical place was used as a restaurant.

The representatives of the foreign diplomatic corps accredited in Azerbaijan reviewed the barbarity committed by the Armenians in the Aghdam Juma Mosque. The delegation was informed about war crimes, destruction of cultural, historical and religious monuments by the Armenians.

The Armenians committed the unprecedented vandalism against Azerbaijan’s historical and cultural heritage in Aghdam, as well as in other occupied districts. Monuments, cultural centers, mosques, cemeteries in the district were destroyed, desecrated and some were changed in the Armenian style.

One of the historical and religious monuments subjected to the Armenian vandalism is the Juma Mosque in Aghdam, built in 1868-1870 by Karbalai architect Safikhan Garabagi. This mosque has been included in the list of monuments of state importance and belongs to the school of Karabakh Mosque Architecture.

The Armenians did not completely destroy the mosque, as they used its minarets for coordination and observation for military purposes. The minarets of the mosque have been destroyed inside, the ceiling has collapsed in several places while the design and inscriptions have been deliberately altered.