Once the scene of fierce fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the district of Fuzuli on the outskirts of Nagorno-Karabakh won by Azerbaijani forces lies deserted following a recent ceasefire deal brokered by Moscow.
Throughout the district are the scars of war: minefields, abandoned munitions, deserted army posts and unexploded bombs by the roadsides. But some of these date back to 1993 when the ethnic Armenians took Fuzuli district to create a military buffer zone. Thousands of locals were forced to flee their homes.
Three decades later, these residents have returned to find their former homes in ruins.
Among them, teacher Ramila Sahinkizi has vowed to return to Fuzuli to build a new life.
“My father’s house used to be here,” she told FRANCE 24. “Now there’s nothing.”
“We will tell future generations about all the bad things the Armenians have done. We will never forget.”
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