Government reports Azerbaijan spent $3.5 billion in 2024 to ‘reconstruct’ Nagorno-Karabakh

In 2024, ₼6 billion ($3.5 billion) of the Azerbaijani state budget went towards construction and installation works in Nagorno-Karabakh following Azerbaijan’s takeover of the region in September 2023.

The largest amount of funds were allocated to Kalbajar at ₼1.4 billion ($810 million), Lachin at ₼890 million ($530 million), and Aghdam at ₼810 million ($480 million).

Azerbaijan spent a similar amount on reconstructing Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023.

Azerbaijan fully took control over the region in September 2023, following a final assault on Nagorno-Karabakh, leading to its surrender and dissolution and the eventual exodus of the region’s entire Armenian population to Armenia.

The region has since been largely deserted as Azerbaijan pushes for efforts to settle and ‘reconstruct’ it amidst widespread reports of the destruction of Armenian cultural heritage sites in the region.

In 2021, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev confessed that his family members and others close to him were a part of organising the reconstruction in Nagorno-Karabakh.

‘It is no secret in Azerbaijan that my relatives and family members are involved in business, charity, and many other things that are currently being done in Karabakh. For example, the foundation [the Karabakh Revival Fund] I created is now investing in the restoration of all mosques in Karabakh — in Aghdam, Shusha, and Zangelan. These works are financed by the foundation. We financed the construction of houses for refugees. We have done this work for more than 5,000 families. We are doing a lot of work in Azerbaijan’, Aliyev told the Italian daily La Repubblica that year.

According to AbzasMedia, in 2023, Azerbaijan’s Chamber of Accounts disclosed that the Karabakh Revival Fund had eight contracts with the government worth ₼1.6 million ($940,000).

Previously, in November 2022, Aliyev signed legislation ‘On approval of the First State Programme for the Great Return to the Liberated Territories of the of Azerbaijan’, which more concretely organised reconstruction works in Nagorno-Karabakh.

High prices yet poor quality

State media has mainly focused on the resettling of Azerbaijani citizens to Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts in their coverage of the region’s reconstruction. In particular, they have extolled the new houses that the government has been building — what they have left out of their coverage, however, are the high prices and poor construction quality.

According to Toplum TV, the cost of one house in the villages of Lachin and Jabrail fluctuates between ₼170,000–₼240,000 ($100,000–$140,000).

To compare, a house in the northwest district of Gazakh costs on average ₼105,000 ($62,000).

Yet, as the government announced the ongoing rebuilding and reconstruction projects, many social media accounts have shared footage highlighting the poor quality of the buildings.

For example, in June 2024, houses in the villages of Zabukh and Sus flooded — the flood also destroyed the villages’ new roads. Local residents shared the effects of the flood on social media, while also complaining that the state agencies were not interested in helping them.

According to the Committee on Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, currently in Nagorno-Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur, in addition to the former IDPs resettled there, more than 30,000 people are working on the implementation of projects carried out in this region.

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