National Geographic published a photo from the Aghdam district of Azerbaijan which was liberated from the Armenian occupation on November 20.
The National Geographic agency said that once populated by about 40,000, the recently recaptured Azerbaijani city of Agdam stands in ruins after nearly three decades of occupation by Armenian forces.
“Only the main mosque was left intact; other buildings were demolished or stripped bare in the years since the city fell in 1993 during the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, which unraveled following the collapse of Soviet Union,” the report said.
The report noted that the most recent flareup of hostilities, in September, lasted 44 days and came to an end with a peace deal brokered by Russia, which resulted in the deployment of Russian peacekeepers to the Nagorno-Karabakh region and Azerbaijan reclaiming most of its territories lost in the 1990s war.
Note, on November 10, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia signed an agreement to end six weeks of fierce fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Under the agreement, Russian peacekeepers were deployed along the front line in Nagorno-Karabakh and the corridor between the region and Armenia. A total of 1,960 Russian peacekeepers were deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh under a five-year mandate.
Also, according to the agreement, on 20 November, Armenia handed over the Aghdam region which lies to the east of Nagorno-Karabakh, to Azerbaijan. This followed on 25 November by the Kalbajar region to the northwest of Nagorno-Karabakh.