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Every 8th citizen in Azerbaijan is a refugee: top official

20 June 2013 19:44 (UTC+04:00)
Every 8th citizen in Azerbaijan is a refugee: top official

By Sara Rajabova

Every 8th citizen in Azerbaijan is a refugee and this is a very complicated problem, chairman of the State Committee for Refugees and IDPs Ali Hasanov said in Baku on June 20, World Refugee Day.

Hasanov, who serves as Deputy Prime Minister, said that Azerbaijan currently has 1,200,000 refugees and IDPs, instead of 1 million, a figure that is always cited.

He said the figure was 1 million in 1992-1993, but over the past 20 years it has increased according to the natural growth rate of the country's population based "on a 100:1 ratio".

"Increasing by 10,000 a year, this figure has reached 1,200,000. Out of more than 9 million population 1.2 million are refugees and IDPs. That is, whereas one out of every 135 people is a refugee in the world, in Azerbaijan, every 8th citizen is," Hasanov said.

He said further that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in Azerbaijan differs from other conflicts in the world as well.

"Only two or three of all existing conflicts in the world are similar to our conflict. All the others are problems that emerged within countries. Our conflict emerged as a result of the aggression of one country against another -- due to the occupation of Azerbaijani territory by Armenia. Azerbaijani citizens became refugees and internally displaced persons in their native land," Hasanov said.

The State Committee head said the Azerbaijani government can completely take care of its refugees and IDPs. However, a number of international organizations continue to cooperate with Azerbaijan, including organizations that have recently joined in.

Hasanov also cited statistics on the social standards of refugees and IDPs.

"Whereas in 2003 the poverty rate among refugees constituted 75%, today it is 15%. Last year alone, $1,300 was spent on each of the refugees and IDPs in Azerbaijan. This is the highest amount compared to all conflict zones of the world. And this is only the amount spent per person, there are also overall expenses that are not included here. In total, spending on refugees and IDPs amounted to 300 million manats last year. This year, 600 million manats will be spent."

In the past 20 years, Hasanov added, a total of $5.4 billion has been spent on the displaced persons' issues.

Armenia's territorial claims in the late 1980s and the ensuing military aggression resulted in the occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and also seven surrounding regions. Over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and IDPs in the aftermath of the brutal 1990s war fought between the two South Caucasus republics.

In Nagorno-Karabakh, adjacent regions and the regions bordering on Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh about 700,000 people were deprived of their places of residence and turned into IDPs. They are temporarily settled in 62 cities and regions of Azerbaijan in more than 1,600 densely populated areas.

Also, one must not forget the deportation of the Azerbaijani people from Armenia. For many years Armenia committed an ethnic cleansing policy against Azerbaijanis. In 1948-1952, 150,000 Azerbaijanis were forced to leave their homes, according to the website of Azerbaijani State Committee for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons.

This was an integral part of the hostile policy of Armenia, along with historical falsifications, distortions, changing of the historical names of Azerbaijani lands, and transformation of Armenia into a mono-ethnic state.

Besides, 250,000 Azerbaijanis were expelled from their native lands and became refugees as a result of the latest ethnic cleansing perpetrated against Azerbaijanis in the territory of Armenia from 1988, as the Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan emerged, until 1992.

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.

The Azerbaijani government made the refugee and IDP problem its high priority and prepared numerous projects and programs in order to improve the living conditions of the refugees.

Currently, the Azerbaijani government successfully implements a program on improving the living conditions of refugees and IDPs displaced during the brutal war with Armenia in the early 1990s and on increasing employment, which was approved by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in 2004.

The people who held refugee status were granted compensations and benefits. Extensive measures were launched to ensure social protection of the refugees since Azerbaijan's oil strategy began to bear fruit.

Despite all the measures taken by the government, the people who had to leave their native lands and live the lives of refugees and IDPs long to return home and are waiting for the conflict to be resolved soon.

However, the international community turns a blind eye to the injustice towards the Azerbaijani people and the violation of their rights and fails to take action against Armenia to facilitate a settlement of the conflict.

Peace talks on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict brokered by OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs representing the United States, Russia and France have been largely fruitless so far.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on its pullout from Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions, though these resolutions are mandatory.

Each year on June 20 the United Nations, UN refugee agency UNHCR and countless civil groups around the world celebrate World Refugee Day to raise awareness of the situation facing refugees throughout the world.

This day is aimed to draw the public's attention to the millions of refugees and internally displaced persons worldwide who have been forced to flee their homes due to war, conflict and persecution.

Nowadays, as a result of the increase of the political and military conflicts, the refugee and IDPs problem has become more acute and it has turned into a big challenge that the world community has to deal with immediately.

In a message on World Refugee Day UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said that the number of forcibly displaced people in the world continues to rise.

He called "on the international community to intensify efforts to prevent and resolve conflicts, and to help achieve peace and security so that families can be reunited and refugees can return home."

Ahead of World Refugee Day UNHCR released a report saying more people are refugees or internally displaced than at any time since 1994.

According to the report, released on June 19, as of the end of 2012, more than 45.2 million people were in situations of displacement compared to 42.5 million at the end of 2011.

By the end of last year, the world had 15.4 million refugees, 937,000 asylum seekers and 28.8 million people who had been forced to flee within the borders of their own countries, the UNHCR report said.

The rising number of the refugees and IDPs necessitates taking more decisive actions in order to address this problem and therefore the world community should pay more attention to eliminate the negative results of the mentioned problem.

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