Japanese company ends humanitarian mission in Azerbaijan
By Sara Rajabova
Fuji Optical has completed its optometric services to IDPs, refugees, and vulnerable people in Azerbaijan for 2014.
Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the State Committee for Refugee and IDP Affairs Ali Hasanov met Akio Kanai, well-known ophthalmologist, President of Fuji Optical, and winner of the 2006 Nansen Refugee Award by UNHCR for his outstanding service to refugees, on April 29.
Hasanov thanked Kanai for the Japanese company's free optometric services provided in Azerbaijan.
He hailed Fuji Optical`s "10-year-long noble mission" as a sign of "excellent bilateral ties between the Azerbaijani and Japanese governments.
Hasanov highlighted Azerbaijan`s development under President Ilham Aliyev, saying that the country has dramatically improved and strengthened its international image and position.
He also spoke about Armenia's military aggressions against Azerbaijan, expressing regret that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict had not been solved yet.
Kanai, in turn, hailed the reconstruction work carried out in Azerbaijan and the government`s efforts to ensure favorable conditions for refugees and IDPs.
He also lauded the assistance of the Azerbaijani government, the Republican Commission on International Humanitarian Aid, and local executives in carrying out his mission.
Initiated and organized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) with the support of the Azerbaijani government, representatives of the Fuji Optical have visited Azerbaijan every year to render ophthalmologic service to IDPs and refugees, as well as vulnerable people in the country, since 2005.
Done with the organizational support of the UNHCR's Azerbaijan Office, the humanitarian aid was aimed at providing IDPs, refugees, and vulnerable people in the country with ophthalmologic service.
Fuji Optical has spent more than $1.8 million to accomplish its humanitarian activity in Azerbaijan in the last ten years. About 39,000 pairs of high quality optic eyeglasses and other items have been brought to the country as in-kind donation to the UNHCR operations. In total, more than 18,000 refugees, IDPs, and other vulnerable people have benefited from the free vision screening services.
Kanai and his team of six optometrists have already visited Imishli, Beylagan, and Fuzuli regions on April 22-26, and the UNHCR's Refugee Women and Youth Centre in Baku on April 28 for eye screening and provision of eye glasses to persons of concern to UNHCR, i. e., refugees, internally displaced persons, and other vulnerable people this year.
Fuji Optical handed out more than 2,000 pairs of eye-glasses in Azerbaijan and provided 2,400 IDPs, refugees, and other vulnerable people with eye screening service this year.
The bloody war which flared up in the late 1980s due to Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor left 700,000 civilians of Nagorno-Karabakh, the regions adjoining it, and the regions bordering Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh without homes.
They are temporarily settled in more than 1,600 settlements across 62 cities and regions in Azerbaijan. Moreover, 250,000 Azerbaijanis were expelled from Armenia and became refugees due to Armenia's ethnic cleansing policy after the emergence of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The Azerbaijanis who were displaced from their homes were forced to live in refugee camps, tents, and wagons in very difficult conditions.
As a result of Armenia's military aggression, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported missing, almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.
The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.