Restoration of the Basitchay State Nature Reserve

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, and their daughter Leyla Aliyeva visited the Basitchay State Nature Reserve in the Zangilan district on February 14.

Armenian invaders committed environmental terror during the occupation in the Basitchay Reserve, as they did across other areas. The hateful enemy destroyed almost half of the forest area of the reserve and scorched the roots and firewood. The environmental balance of a natural ecosystem formed here over the years has been gravely undermined due to Armenian vandalism.

President Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, and their daughter Leyla Aliyeva planted plane trees in the Basitchay Reserve and released fish into the Basitchay.

President Ilham Aliyev: We have planted plane trees in the Basitchay State Nature Reserve. The Basitchay Reserve was established in 1974 with the order of national leader Heydar Aliyev. The state protected rare plane trees on more than 100 hectares of the Reserve. It was a forest of rare plane trees. After the occupation, the hateful enemy cut, chopped, looted, and burned most of the plane trees. This is another sign of Armenian vandalism. The restoration of the Basitchay nature reserve has started today. We will restore this Reserve. Of course, the age of the trees felled here was about 200-300 years, but at least we have fulfilled our duty. We also released fish into the Basitchay. The Basitchay is also a beautiful river. In general, this is a region with abundant rivers. The Tartarchay, the Khachinchay, the Basitchay, the Bazarchay, the Hakari, and other rivers will now serve the people of Azerbaijan. During the occupation, the hateful enemy cut off the water of the Tartar River, and more than a hundred thousand hectares of land in several of our districts were left without water. Environmental terror has been committed against us.