Baku concerned about ineffectiveness of appeals for release of hostages
By Sara Rajabova
Azerbaijan is concerned about the "trial" conducted over Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev, taken hostage in Azerbaijan’s occupied Kelbajar region and the ineffectiveness of appeals to international institutions for their release.
Ali Hasanov, the deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the State Committee for Refugees and IDPs, made the remark during his recent meeting with the head of Azerbaijani representation of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Doug Sigurdson.
Armenian special forces killed Azerbaijani citizen Hasan Hasanov and took hostage Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov in the Shaplar village of the occupied Kelbajar region on July 11. The civilians were visiting the graves of their relatives.
The Armenians have put on trial on October 27 the two Azerbaijanis, who were captured in their native lands by the Armenian separatists. The trial was held while Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents were meeting in Paris to discuss the ways of resolving Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The Hasanov- Sigurdson meeting also highlighted the progress made by the country in solving the problems of refugees and IDPs.
They also discussed prospects for cooperation between the country and the organization.
The meeting noted that the UN, which is interested in constant cooperation with Azerbaijan, attaches particular importance to the experience of the country gained in improving the social conditions of refugees and IDPs.
The bloody war, which flared up in the late 1980s due to Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor, left without home over a million of civilians of Nagorno-Karabakh and the regions adjoining it, as well as the regions bordering with Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
They are temporarily settled in more than 1,600 settlements across 62 cities and regions of Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijanis who were displaced from their homes as result of the brutal war were forced to live in refugee camps, tents and wagons in very difficult conditions.
Moreover, thousands of Azerbaijanis have been expelled from Armenia and become refugees due to Armenia's ethnic cleansing policy after the emergence of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan. As a result of the military aggression of Armenia, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported missing and almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.
The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.