Baku calls for more attention to rights of Azerbaijani refugees
By Sara Rajabova
Azerbaijani officials called on the US to pay more attention to the occupation of Azerbaijan’s territories and violation of rights of Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs.
The U.S. officials frequently express concern over the human rights situation in Azerbaijan without highlighting the fate of the Azerbaijanis, who were expelled from their native lands because of Armenia’s military aggression against Azerbaijan.
Azay Guliyev, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Political Affairs and Security of the OSCE PA and MP said the U.S. State Department is not interested in the fate of Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs.
He made the remark in a press statement on December 5 in connection with the 21st meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Basel.
Guliyev said the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking on the theme of human rights protection and the Ukrainian crisis at the meeting, mentioned neither the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, nor the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and the violated rights of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis expelled from their native lands by the Armenians.
He noted that a senior representative of the U.S., the co-chair country of the Minsk Group, could have expressed his attitude on the issue of the occupation of Azerbaijani territories for many years, and gave a political assessment of Armenia's aggressive policy.
“International analysts expressed hope that Kerry would touch upon the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in his speech. Unfortunately, the hopes once again were dashed,” Guliyev said.
He went on to say that Kerry did not mention the occupation policy of Armenia and even didn’t touch upon the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at all, stressing that he might not have considered it important.
Guliyev said the situation raises many questions. “Why is the U.S. harshly reacts immediately to the crash of the Armenian military helicopter in Azerbaijan’s air space and what it calls human rights violations in Azerbaijan but when it comes to the tragic fate of the Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons, it decides to remain silent?” he said.
Guliyev further added that “analyzing all of the above mentioned issues we can make sure that once again John Kerry and the U.S. State Department are not interested in the fate of the Azerbaijani citizens, deprived of their most basic rights as a result of the Armenian aggression.”
“They use the concept of "human rights violations" only in their own interests, as a means of exerting pressure. Unfortunately, some NGOs and political parties either do not fully understand it, or implicitly obey their orders,” said Guliyev.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan’s foreign policy head highlighted the importance of paying attention to the restoration of the rights of more than one million Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons.
Elmar Mammadyarov made the remarks at a meeting with Thomas Melia, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor on the sidelines of the 21st OSCE Ministerial Council in Basel, Switzerland on December 4.
Mammadyarov said the international community should pay necessary attention to restore the rights of Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs, who were forced to leave their native lands and subjected to ethnic cleansing as a result of Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan.
Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that caused a brutal war in the early 1990s. Long-standing efforts by U.S, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.
Mammadyarov stressed that the fundamental rights of one million Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs must be observed.
More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994.
Noting that the international community should adopt a proactive stance on this issue, Mammmadyarov said Washington’s decisions can contribute to resolving the current problems.