PLUNDERED LAND

Agricultural work is now in full swing in the regions of Azerbaijan - farm workers are sowing, ploughing and doing everything possible to achieve a good harvest, while cattle-breeders are putting their cattle out to pasture. In a word, work is going apace across the whole country. Everything is being done to maintain the rate of development in the agrarian sector, which has now reached 10 per cent a year, in order to reap a sufficient quantity of grain (it totalled 2.5 million tonnes last year) and to supply the country with fruit and vegetables…

But 20 per cent of Azerbaijani land has not had the fortune of "interaction" with its owners, while the Azerbaijani people have been deprived of the opportunity to benefit from the beneficence of their own land. Today we can calculate roughly what the Azerbaijani economy would be like had it not been for the occupation of its districts by the armed forces of Armenia.

Theft of 60 billion dollars

According to the Azerbaijani Ministry of Agriculture, more than one million hectares of land are under occupation at the moment, and the total area of fertile land is more than 180,000 ha. "The economies of all these districts have always been dominated by the agrarian sector," said Qurbanali Huseynov, chief farming expert at the country's Ministry of Agriculture.

According to sources in non-governmental organizations, direct and indirect losses from the occupation of Azerbaijani lands exceed 60 billion US dollars. Along with the mass destruction and plunder of cultural centres, museums and historical monuments, the aggressor is mercilessly exploiting mineral resources in the occupied territories - more than 30 tonnes of gold reserves from deposits in Kalbacar, 340,000 cubic metres of water reserves in Susa and so on. Hundreds of thousands of hectares have been eroded.

The fish reserves of the Sarsang water reservoir and seven ancient lakes have been plundered as well, while dozens of rivers are being used and polluted with waste. The flora and fauna of the occupied lands are being barbarically plundered and destroyed. These are 200-280-year-old plane trees and rare and decorative trees in the nature reserves of Lacin, Qubadli, Dasalti and Basitcay.

Destroyed economy

The list of enterprises, equipment and hardware which had been established in the mountainous part of Karabakh is enough to counter all the fantasies of the Armenian side about the alleged socio-economic backwardness of the region, against a backdrop of statistics for the republic from Soviet times. Long before the conflict, the then leadership of Azerbaijan decided to develop the mountainous districts of the republic, including the Nagornyy Karabakh Autonomous Region (NKAR). Thus construction work was begun in the NKAR and the territories currently under Armenian occupation. High-capacity construction organizations with good equipment were set up here. Leading enterprises manufacturing building materials, including the marble factory in the NKAR, were quickly opened up. During the hostilities, the whole material-technical base of these enterprises was destroyed, while planned projects were never fated to become reality.

The industries which operated in the occupied territories played an important role in the republic's economy. Food and light industries, as well as enterprises manufacturing construction materials, were developed here.

High-capacity agriculture, raw materials and local natural reserves had a positive impact on the development of these industries. The most developed sectors in the occupied territories were butter and cheese dairies, wine-growing and sections of light industry which provided the local population with essential products. By level of development and industry, the NKAR was fourth of the economic districts of the former Azerbaijani SSR (after Abseron, Ganca-Qazax and the Naxcivan Autonomous Republic).

The priority spheres in agriculture were the grain, fodder, vine, tobacco, potato and cotton crops and cattle-breeding, especially sheep-rearing. Large state farms and wineries were built for the development of vine-growing and wine-making in the region. Tobacco was a new crop to the region.

In the past, 14.3 per cent of the grain produced in the Azerbaijan Republic, 31.5 per cent of the grapes, 14.5 per cent of the meat, 17.1 per cent of the milk, 19.3 per cent of the wool and 17 per cent of the silk were produced in the occupied districts. This territory grew the cleanest and most eco-friendly agricultural produce.

If we turn to the language of figures, the occupied districts of the region had 645,500 ha of farmland, including 185,500 ha under crops and 40,000 ha of young grape plantations. The districts produced, annually, about 80,000 tonnes of grain, 20,500 tonnes of cotton, 324,300 tonnes of grapes and 23,500 tonnes of potatoes.

As mentioned above, cattle-growing was one of the priority sectors of the region's agriculture. Flocks of sheep and goats from 21 of the republic's districts were put out to pasture here. Widely distributed cattle-breeding prevented the various diseases now affecting sheep and goats. Private farms in the Kalbacar District alone had 11,840 head of cattle, 103,480 sheep and goats and 1,550 bee hives. The lists for other occupied districts are also quite lengthy.

The sudden seizure of one district after another deprived people of the chance to move their flocks of sheep and cattle out of the conflict zone. The animals that were moved out of these territories in small groups died of hunger and thirst on the way. We only have to mention that, according to rough calculations, the Armenians misappropriated 313,100 head of cattle, including 111,200 cows and buffalo and 1.098 million goats and sheep. As a result, the region lost about 20,000 tonnes of meat, 75,500 tonnes of milk and 846 tonnes of cattle-breeding products annually.

Life goes on, but…

For 16 years already, thousands of persons displaced from the Armenian-occupied districts have had no chance to grow agricultural produce on their own land. Their current places of residence have different soils, climatic and agro-technical conditions. At the same time, the state has helped refugees and displaced persons to set up 760 farms in their temporary places of residence. The farms employ 45,000 people. There are more than 800,000 head of cattle on refugees' farms.

Of the occupied districts, constructive labour is taking place in only two of them - Agdam and Fuzuli - and only on the liberated part of their territory.

More than 77 per cent of Agdam land is under occupation. Only on a tiny part of it do labourers sow and grow agricultural produce. The Armenians destroyed and razed 87 villages to the ground. Only the Pambiq open joint-stock company, the Sarab open joint-stock company and the Araz farm survive as comparatively large enterprises in Agdam. A cotton factory has been built in the village of Guzanli. In other villages there are mills, bakeries, confectionery factories, shops and public catering businesses. In 2008, grain production exceeded 30,000 tonnes, potato production - 10,000 tonnes and vegetables - 40,000 tonnes. In the cattle-breeding sector, there are more than 31,000 cattle and more than 108,000 sheep and goats. Meat and milk production have increased, while poultry-breeding is also developing quickly. Private farms have more than one million head of poultry and produce 79 million eggs. In the first quarter of 2009 alone, there was 1.2 million manats' worth of produce, while the turnover of goods reached 4.4 million manats. The total area under crops increased to 19,000 ha.

There are 13 settlements and 22 villages in the liberated part of Fuzuli District. Following a decree issued by the Azerbaijani president, refugee settlements have been built in the liberated part of the district. More than 54,000 people are living here today. There are about 18,000 head of cattle and 70,000 sheep and goats. The town of Fuzuli and another 58 villages are still under occupation.

Times goes on and Azerbaijan's losses from the Armenian occupation of the country's territory are growing. The Armenians themselves derive no economic benefit from the continuing occupation. Foreign investors, apart from adventurers, are not coming to the region, while Armenia itself, which lives off handouts from abroad, is not in a position to implement any economic programmes here. Only the separatist regime of Nagornyy Karabakh, which has usurped power in Armenia itself, is plundering the riches of Azerbaijani lands for personal enrichment.