Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

There is no such care about refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in any conflict area in the world as in Azerbaijan, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the State Committee for Refugees and IDPs, Ali Hasanov said on May 30.

He made the remarks while addressing the ceremony of laying the foundation for a residential complex for IDP families in Garadagh district of Baku.

Hasanov recalled that Mehriban Aliyeva, after appointment as the First Vice-President, devoted her first meeting to the improvement of living conditions of 4,000 IDP families, who live in difficult conditions in unsafe buildings in Baku and Sumgait.

“Immediately after the meeting, we began a large-scale work in this direction. Today’s ceremony of laying of the foundation for a residential complex for 1,026 IDP families is a continuation of this work,” Hasanov said.

He added that following the address of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, private organizations have allocated 210 apartments for IDPs, where finishing work is currently ongoing.

Moreover, the State Committee for Refugees and IDPs continues the construction of four residential buildings for 260 families, and the construction will be completed in July.

The official went on to say that over the past 13 years, 95 settlements were constructed for Azerbaijani IDPs, who were expelled from their historical places of residence, and 250,000 people were provided with apartments. Currently, a new settlement for 1,170 IDP families is being built in Tartar region.

The Deputy Prime Minister also spoke about the ongoing work in Jojug Marjanli village, which was liberated by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces from the Armenian occupation in April 2016.

“After the Azerbaijani army liberated the Leletepe height during the April fighting in 2016, it became possible to restore the Jojug Marjanli of Jabrayil region,” noted Hasanov, adding that President Ilham Aliyev signed orders on construction of 50 private houses, a school building, relevant infrastructure and construction of the road at the first stage.

At the same time, it was instructed to construct the mosque identical to the Shusha mosque.

Hasanov noted that all the construction work were completed and residents of Jojug Marjanli will return to their homes in the coming days, after the opening ceremony of the village.

“This is the beginning of the Great Return, and the April victory is a glorious page in the military history of the Azerbaijani army,” the Deputy Prime Minister stressed.

Azerbaijan and Armenia for over two decades have been locked in conflict, which emerged over Armenian territorial claims to Azerbaijan. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, characterized by violence against Azerbaijani civilians and ethnic cleansing, resulted in the injury, death, and disappearance of thousands of people, and the occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions.

As a result, all ethnic Azerbaijanis were expelled from their native lands. Official figures show that Azerbaijan hosted more than 1 million Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs from 1988 to 1993. That was a staggering figure for the small country experiencing economic and political problems, when to consider that the country's population was about 7 million people at the time.

Today, with a population of over 9.8 million, Azerbaijan is among the countries carrying the highest IDP caseload in the world in per capita terms.

All the problems of more than 1 million of people became the subject of daily care and the number one issue for the country, and the amount of funds allocated to address the problems of refugees and IDPs has increased in dozens of times.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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