During his meeting with Azerbaijan authorities on May 17, 2024, Aleksandr Lukashenko proposed the construction of an agro-town with 420 households in Nagorno-Karabakh, including housing, roads, and social facilities.
Alexey Dzermant mentioned this news on the pro-goverment media outlet Alfa Radio on May 18, 2024. He stated that only Belarus has received such an order, thanks to the close personal relationship between Azerbaijani Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Lukashenko.
“Look at Türkey, whose construction industry is huge. However, despite the very close relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey, Belarus is allowed to participate in those projects. This means that they trust us, they know that we work at a high level of quality. And they respect us. And, of course, there is personal chemistry, friendship and a relationship that has been tested over the years between the two presidents. Without this, without the personal role of our president, no one would have entrusted us with such a scale of business,” the political scientist said.
Ilham Aliyev sent Belarus a proposal to participate in the restoration of Nagorno-Karabakh territories back in 2021. However, not only Belarus was on this list. According to open-source data, Azerbaijan has sent official invitations to many other countries to participate in the reconstruction of Nagorno-Karabakh, including South Korea, Pakistan, Kuwait, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Türkey, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Romania.
Romanian and Hungarian companies were also invited to contribute to the rebuilding of Karabakh, and some of them have already completed projects. However, Türkiye has been the most significant contributor to the reconstruction, with a substantial number of projects completed. Over the past three years, Türkish companies received half of the $7 billion from the Azerbaijani state budget allocated for reconstruction work in Karabakh. More than a hundred Türkish companies are willing to invest in Karabakh.