Azernews.Az

Walter Kaelin, the United Nations official in charge of the rights of internally displaced persons, who is in Azerbaijan, on Friday visited the temporary settlements of the country’s citizens who were displaced during a war with Armenia in the early 1990s.
First, Kaelin viewed from the air the Zobuchug settlements built for the IDPs in the Fuzuli region. The five settlements, where 4,179 IDP homes are located, houses people who once lived in the residential areas that are presently under Armenian occupation.
Further, Kaelin met with the IDPs living in a settlement of the Beylagan region, who come from Khojavand. The settlement was opened in October 2008 in a ceremony attended by President Ilham Aliyev.
The Khojavand residents said that though the Azerbaijani government was providing suitable conditions for IDPs, they long for returning to their native land. They expressed disappointment that after nearly two decades since the Garabagh conflict emerged, representatives of some international organizations visiting the region appear to be poorly informed about the issue and even attempt to equalize the invaders with the victims of occupation.
Kaelin also visited the home of a mother whose two sons perished in the Garabagh war, and then visited a school, a kindergarten and a hospital in the settlement.
Up to one million Azerbaijanis were displaced by a war waged with Armenia over the mountainous region of Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh in the early 1990s, including 250,000 people who were ousted from their historical lands in Armenia. The refugees and IDPs are currently settled in 62 cities and regions across Azerbaijan.
Armenia’s troops have been occupying over 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory since the lengthy war, despite four UN resolutions on unconditional pullout of its armed forces and condemnation by a number of other international groups. The ceasefire accord was signed in 1994, but the OSCE-brokered peace talks have been largely fruitless so far.*