Azerbaijan has recaptured enough land in its war with Armenia over Nagorno Karabakh to rehouse up to half a million displaced Azeris, a senior government advisor has said. Hikmet Hajiyev, the chief foreign policy aide to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliev, told the Daily Telegraph that Azeri forces had now retaken four key territories during the five-week long war. It means that up to 500,000 Azeri citizens would eventually be able to return to the area, which was seized by Armenian forces in the early 1990s when Nagorno Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijani control. “We are talking about a substantial region that has been retaken, and a potentially substantial number of people being able to return to their homes once the conflict is finally over,” Mr Hajiyev said. “For nearly 30 years we have been waiting for the return of these territories. There is a lot of building and de-mining work that will have to be done, but every village that is retaken is a success for the Azeri people.”
