Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the State Committee on Refugees and IDPs, Ali Hasanov, said on August 30 that the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will be resolved in the near future.

Having noted that August 31 is the day of the occupation of Azerbaijan's Gubadli region, Hasanov said that in the near future Azerbaijan will liberate its territories occupied by Armenia.

"We are very sorry that we come together only on the days of occupation. We are fully confident that in the near future we will also gather on the day of victory under the leadership of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. We believe that a time will come when these lands will be liberated. We will surely meet with Gubadli region's community in Gubadli, one of the most beautiful places of Azerbaijan," the deputy prime minister said.

Gubadli region of Azerbaijan was captured by Armenian aggressors on August 31, 1993. The region holds rich subsoil resources and has a mysterious natural beauty, and is situated between Mount Zangazur and the Nagorno-Karabakh mountain range. It was established in 1933.

Hasanov went on to say that the conflict will be resolved soon though Armenia is delaying the problem's solution by its unconstructive position.

"The Azerbaijani president has managed in a short time to familiarize the whole world with Azerbaijan and this country's people, he turned Azerbaijan into a center of global interests, and the President will be able to solve this problem. We believe that the country has no serious problems other than the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This is our only problem and it will be solved," Hasanov said.

It is worthy of note that every 8th citizen in Azerbaijan is a refugee.

The Azerbaijani government is successfully implementing 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 President Aliyev in 2004.

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

The deputy prime minister also said President Aliyev provided 1,200,000 refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) with all the required conditions and solved all of their social problems.

"Over the past year, an average $1,350 was spent per IDP. Over the last 20 years $5.4 million has been spent on this sphere and over 80 percent of this work has been carried out during the years of President Ilham Aliyev's presidency. The number of the settlements built for the IDPs will reach 82 and some 180,000 people, or up to 35,000 families, will be resettled by late 2013 and 91 percent of this has been done in the past 10 years," Hasanov said.

He added that the Azerbaijani President will surely achieve the liberation of the occupied lands.

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 sparked the lengthy war in the early 1990s.

The UN Security Council's four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal have not been enforced to this day.

Peace talks aimed at resolving the long-standing conflict, mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. The negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.