President Ilham Aliyev said in an address to the nation on December 1 on the liberation of Lachin district that the territories once controlled by the Armenian armed forces have been exploited.
“I was told that Armenia harvested 90,000 tons of wheat a year in the occupied territories. Together with these occupied lands, the total wheat production of Armenia was 190,000 tons. It [Armenia] took half of it [wheat] from our lands,” Ilham Aliyev said.
Fakt Yoxla examined whether the President's claim was true.
According to the Statistical Committee of Armenia, in 2019, wheat crops were planted on 121,000 hectares of arable land.
According to the Statistics Office of the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, in 2013-2017, wheat crops were planted on an average of 60,000 hectares in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. After 2016, there was a significant decline in wheat production in Armenia, and the volume of wheat harvested from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan increased.
Thus, in 2019, a total of 292,000 tons of wheat was harvested from Armenia and the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. Of this, 180,000 tons (62%) fell to Armenia and 112,000 tons (38%) to Karabakh.
Fakt Yoxla concludes that Ilham Aliyev’s claim is Mostly True.
Note: The figure for 2018 in the occupied territories was calculated based on the data released by Armenia on the growth rate of wheat production.
