"I imagined Xocali as a city of ghosts, where ghosts of people who had been killed there were flying in the sky," says one Karabakh resident

On September 19, 2023 , Azerbaijan launched an offensive to recapture Nagorno-Karabakh , the territory it had lost to Armenian forces in the 1990s .

Nearly the entire population of the territory, virtually all ethnic Armenians , fled.

It was the second time the territory had been completely emptied of one ethnic group since the collapse of the Soviet Union .

One year on, Azerbaijan is trying to rebuild and resettle the territories it retook.

As of the end of July , close to 8,000 former residents had moved back to the territories that Azerbaijan retook since 2020 .

The reconstruction process has been plagued by criticisms of corruption, inefficiency, and a failure to take into account what residents want.

Over 10,000 refugees from Karabakh have already left Armenia , with many heading for Russia .

Armenian government disavows right of return to Karabakh Armenians .

Human rights ombudsman: "They have completely closed this topic" Azerbaijan is trying to stamp out any remaining embers of Armenian ambition to take back the region.

"I don't know a single Armenian who would say they are ready to live in Artsakh " under those conditions, he says.