Aze.Media
Who we are
Donate
No Result
View All Result
  • Opinion
  • News
    • Economy
    • Energy
    • Ecology
  • Culture
  • Diaspora
  • Interview
  • Science
  • Logistics-Transport
  • Gender
  • History
  • Defense
  • Karabakh
  • Home page
  • Culture
  • Defense
  • Diaspora
  • Gender
  • History
  • Interview
  • Karabakh
  • Logistics-Transport
  • News
    • Ecology
    • Economy
    • Energy
  • Opinion
  • Science
No Result
View All Result
Aze.Media
Home Karabakh

Azerbaijan’s plans for Nagorno-Karabakh are huge, but can Baku deliver on its promises?

Azerbaijan wants to make Nagorno-Karabakh a model of sustainability, based on the use of renewable energy and the development of what it calls “smart villages”.

Author: AzeMedia
November 11, 2021
in Karabakh
Reading Time: 4 mins read
bigstock-deserted-landscape-with-bombed-415111735-1320x742

Azerbaijan has made no secret of its plans to revitalise the economy of Nagorno-Karabakh ever since it regained control over the majority of the disputed region last year, following a 44-day war with Armenia.

Its first concern is energy.

The end of the war left Baku in control of a 36 hydropower plants in Karabakh, as well as the Kelbajar and Lachin regions. Prior to the conflict, the territory produced all of its own electricity and even exported some to Armenia. It was one of the few areas in which Karabakh’s authorities did not depend on Yerevan.

LatestNews

9235EEE6-08AA-495B-9617-673293E25CFA

The European mass graves you never knew about

August 11, 2022
Russian-peacekeeping-forces

Both Baku and Yerevan angered by Russian forces’ failures in Karabakh

August 10, 2022

Armenian humanitarian fraud in Lachin

August 8, 2022

‘Small Hiroshima’: Addressing systemic cultural heritage erasure in formerly Armenia-occupied territories

August 4, 2022

According to a report by the Electricity and Energy Efficiency Department at the Azeri Ministry of Energy, after the war ended, Armenian forces destroyed a number of power plants as they retreated. However, Armen Tovmasyan, Karabakh’s de facto Minister of Economy and Agriculture, has denied these allegations, claiming that even though some infrastructure was damaged during the fighting, the plants were not destroyed.

Green Karabakh

In February, just three months after the ceasefire agreement was reached, a medium-sized hydropower plant was reopened in the village of Gulabird in the Lachin region.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who was at the inauguration ceremony, said that the powerplant had “great significance” as “renewable energy has huge potential” for the region’s development.

In summer, other two medium-sized plants in the Terter region, Sugovushan-1 and Sugovushan-2, were put back to work. The plants used to be owned by Armenian company Artsakh HEK and operated under different names, Mataghis-1 and Mataghis-2.

Under Baku’s control, these plants are owned by the state and are operated by a state-owned energy firm, Azerenergy.

Two other power plants, Khudaferin and Maiden, are being constructed on the Araz River, which also serves as the border between Azerbaijan and Iran. The construction of these plants began under Soviet rule but was interrupted after the first Karabakh War in 1993 when the region fell into Armenian hands. Nevertheless, Iran continued with the project on its side of the river.

In 2016, Azerbaijan and Iran made a deal to continue the construction of the power plants, even though Baku at the time had no control over the territory. The power plants are now expected to start producing energy in 2024: output will be shared equally between Tehran and Baku.

Aside from hydropower plants, the Azerbaijani government is planning to build wind and solar energy facilities and transform Karabakh into what it has called a “green energy zone”. According to Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov, electricity in the Karabakh region will be produced entirely through green energy sources.

The region’s energy production is so important that the loss of the territories has negatively affected the energy security of the Yerevan-controlled part of Karabakh, and even Armenia itself.

Electricity transfers between Armenia and Karabakh have been interrupted after the Kelbajar region, which was crossed by energy transmitting lines, was ceded to Azerbaijan.

According to Murad Muradov, deputy director of Topchubashov Centre, a Baku-based think tank, Armenia’s energy vulnerability has considerably increased as a result of the de-occupation of Karabakh.

“In recent years, [Armenia] illegally imported electricity from hydropower stations in Karabakh,” he says.

“Now, clear signs of persistent supply problems which cannot be fundamentally resolved without cooperation with the Azerbaijani authorities.”

‘Smart villages’

The Azerbaijani government is also now preparing to resettle its citizens in the territory it retook during the war.

Baku has said that it wants to build “smart villages”, which will accommodate hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people. The smart village is a concept focused on holistic rural development and implies small communities aimed at maximising economic development through the use of modern technologies of automation and renewable energy.

The government has been also planning to expand the “agroparks” system: large-scale, government-subsidised agribusiness enterprises, to further accelerate the redevelopment of rural Karabakh.

While agroparks have been operating in Azerbaijan in 2012, the idea of smart villages is new, seen by Baku as a way of resettling more than 600,000 displaced Azerbaijanis.

Azerbaijani media have been hyping the smart village concept extensively, citing the government’s statement on the use of automation that will significantly reduce human labour. On October 17, Minister of Agriculture Inam Karimov stated that smart villages would be implemented using green and alternative energy and a smart management system. He added that the villages would be surrounded by smart farms.

According to President Aliyev, the first project would be implemented in the Zangilan district, where people could return “by the end of this year [2021] or early next year [2022]”. In October, he laid a foundation stone for a smart village in the district of Fuzuli.

Challenges

While Baku has planned to invest 1.3 billion US dollars in the project, there are several challenges facing the efficient implementation of the project.

“In my opinion, there are two major potential threats that could forestall the success of projects: the lack of comprehensive infrastructure and broad mismanagement (including corruption),” Muradov tells Emerging Europe. “The cost is also a challenge. That’s why the government has been so active in attracting foreign capital.”

Muradov adds that the Azerbaijani government is – at least in its declarations – keen to improve transparency and do away with corruption and unnecessary expenditure.

The Azerbaijan Investment Holding, established in August 2020, is now revising business processes and procurement of the country’s largest state-owned enterprises, including energy giants SOCAR, AZAL, Azerenerji.

“These SOEs are bound to play a key role in the reconstruction of Karabakh, so it is very important to minimise mishandling of public property and increase the management competencies,” he says.

Muradov believes that the key to the implementation of smart villages and agroparks in Karabakh is progress in Azerbaijani-Armenian negotiations and the active willingness of the two countries to avoid a restart of the conflict.

“In a positive scenario the ideas which are now mostly on paper will be convertible into reality in about four to five years,” he concludes.

Soso Dzamukashvili

Emerging Europe

Share6Tweet4SendShare

Get real time update about this post categories directly on your device, subscribe now.

Unsubscribe

Related Posts

9235EEE6-08AA-495B-9617-673293E25CFA
Karabakh

The European mass graves you never knew about

August 11, 2022
Russian-peacekeeping-forces
Karabakh

Both Baku and Yerevan angered by Russian forces’ failures in Karabakh

August 10, 2022
29865388826_9652cbb89a_b
Karabakh

Armenian humanitarian fraud in Lachin

August 8, 2022
105153
Karabakh

‘Small Hiroshima’: Addressing systemic cultural heritage erasure in formerly Armenia-occupied territories

August 4, 2022
TASS_46839842
Karabakh

What are the reasons behind the new escalation in Karabakh?

August 3, 2022
1651731392-1651730966-2021-08-16t211457z_1862476728_rc2k6p96s9ip_rtrmadp_3_afghanistan-conflict-usa
Karabakh

American-style apology: State Department acknowledges death of OSCE Minsk Group

July 27, 2022
Security-Council-of-Armenia-Secretary-Armen-Grigoryan
Karabakh

Armenia pledges to withdraw Armed Forces from Karabakh

July 23, 2022
Armenia_Azerbaijan_50477
Karabakh

Armenia’s refusal to withdraw forces from Karabakh jeopardizes peace efforts

July 21, 2022

New articles

Opinion

‘Decisive steps by Armenia critical for cooperation in South Caucasus’

August 14, 2022
Opinion

Iran continues to scheme against Azerbaijan

August 14, 2022
Energy

The burgeoning energy partnership between Azerbaijan and the EU

August 13, 2022
Opinion

Pro-Kremlin analyst: Little by little all lands in Karabakh will come under Azerbaijan’s control

August 13, 2022
Opinion

Yerevan’s “spy” campaign against Armenians seeking Azerbaijani citizenship

August 13, 2022
News

Ilham Aliyev on Operation Vengeance in Karabakh

August 12, 2022
Energy

Kazakhstan seeks to bypass Russia by selling oil through Azerbaijan

August 12, 2022
Interview

Farid Shafiyev: Burning houses in Lachin will entail military and legal accountability for Armenians

August 12, 2022
Opinion

Details of talks between Turkey and Armenia: Yerevan confirmed having no land claims against Turkey

August 12, 2022
Opinion

Russia-Kazakhstan dynamic in the context of European energy and economic security

August 12, 2022
c24a7d34-02d2-45a2-95ad-980aa8264ad5
426082d1-a9e4-4ac5-95d4-4e84024eb314
ab65ed96-2f4a-4220-91ac-f70a6daaf659
96e40a2b-5fed-4332-83c6-60e4a89fd4d0
759bde00-a375-4fa1-bedc-f8e9580ceeca
aze-media-logo-ag

Aze.Media offers an independent and strategic insight on socio-cultural, political and economic life in Azerbaijan. We are thinkers of diverse disciplines spread across countries working together as one team to provide international audiences with an alternative point of view on Azerbaijani and foreign realities.

Email: editor@aze.media


© 2021 Aze Media International Platform for Alternative Thought.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Economy
  • Ecology
  • Energy
  • Opinion
  • Culture
  • Gender
  • Interview
  • Science
  • Logistics-Transport
  • History
  • Defense
  • Karabakh
  • Diaspora
  • Who we are

© 2021 Aze Media International Platform for Alternative Thought.