On June 23, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov visited the city of Shusha to inspect the bullet-ridden busts of prominent Azerbaijani cultural figures—Khurshidbanu Natavan, Bulbul, and Uzeyir Hajibayli—which were damaged during the period of occupation.
According to the "Operative Information Center-OMM", the President of Turkmenistan was briefed on the history of these monuments. During the occupation of Shusha, these busts were looted and transported to Armenia, where attempts were made to melt them down as scrap metal. It was through the direct intervention of National Leader Heydar Aliyev that the monuments were saved and returned to Azerbaijan. After being kept for a time in the courtyard of the National Art Museum of Azerbaijan in Baku, the busts were restored to their original locations in Shusha following the city's liberation in 2020.
Shusha, often referred to as the cultural capital of Azerbaijan, holds immense historical and symbolic significance for the nation. Since its liberation during the 44-day Patriotic War, the Azerbaijani government has launched extensive restoration projects to revive the city's architectural heritage and cultural infrastructure, which had been systematically destroyed or neglected during nearly three decades of Armenian occupation.
