Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva attended a ceremony to present new apartments to IDP families living in unusable buildings in Masazir settlement, Absheron district on June 27.

Mehriban Aliyeva addressed the event saying that as a result of the continuing occupation of Armenia for more than 20 years, there is a million of refugees and internally displaced persons in our country. Solving the problems of these people, improving their living conditions, providing jobs, education, medical and other services are constantly in the focus of attention of the Azerbaijani state, she noted.

“Despite the fact that in the first years of independence our country encountered great difficulties, the Azerbaijani government in a short time eliminated all tent cities in our country. About 100 modern residential complexes were built for families of IDPs in Azerbaijan,” she said. “More than 400,000 displaced people have been provided with jobs. State programs in the field of employment of our compatriots are still being implemented.”

The First Vice-President noted that this is the most difficult and the most important problem for the Azerbaijani state.

“In my activity, I approach with special attention the solution of social problems, in particular, problems and difficulties of families of refugees and internally displaced persons. My first meeting in the capacity of the First Vice President was aimed at resolving precisely these problems. Our goal is to provide at the initial stage 4,000 IDPs settled in unfit, emergency and unfinished buildings in Baku and Sumgayit with new apartments,” Mehriban Aliyeva said.

In order to implement these measures, the Azerbaijani state allocated funds totaling more than 6 billion manat ($3.5 billion). Today, the funds allocated by the state in Azerbaijan to refugees and internally displaced persons are among the highest in the world.

“The successes achieved by the Azerbaijani state in this direction and our experience are already perceived in the world as a model,” she underlined.

She said that today 214 families settled in an unfit building in the Shuvalan settlement of the Khazar district and in an unfinished building in the Khatai district are resettled in new fully renovated apartments in the villages of Masazir and Mehdiabad.

A total of 164 IDP families have been provided with new apartments in the “Yeni Baki” complex in Masazir. Fifty IDP families have been provided with new apartments in the Binagadi Youth Town in Mehdiabad settlement.

Mehriban Aliyeva said that it is with the help of entrepreneurs today that the living conditions of 214 families will improve.

“I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to these companies. I think that this fact deserves approval. I hope that in the future other entrepreneurs, other business structures operating in our country, will join this initiative. This is an indicator of the unity of our society. At the same time, it is a continuation of one of the beautiful traditions of Azerbaijan - the tradition of charity,” she said.

Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan laying territorial claims on its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.

Due to the ethnic cleansing policy carried out by Armenia and the Armenian occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions of Azerbaijan, the number of refugees and internally displaced persons hit more than 1.2 million. 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.

With the growing economic and political situation of the country, the state pays much attention to the most difficult problems once concerning the refugees and IDPs. The state improves the living conditions of refugees and IDPs and it has adopted relevant state programs and legislative acts.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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