Committee for IDP Affair familiarizes with IDP conditions
By Sara Rajabova
Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the State Committee for Refugee and IDP Affairs, Ali Hasanov got acquainted with the construction of settlements for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Mingachevir and Aghdam regions.
Hasanov paid a visit to the towns and quarters under construction for the IDPs and got familiar with the construction process there, the committee said on June 9.
He also held a meeting with the heads of construction companies.
Hasanov said thanks to the attention and care paid by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, living conditions of thousands of displaced families have improved year by year.
The construction of communities and quarters for them is carried out in accordance with the decrees of the president under the State Program on improvement of living conditions of refugees and IDPs .
The program envisages the construction of 11 nine-storey buildings as well as schools, kindergartens, medical centers in a residential area in Mingachevir city.
The construction of the settlements and quarters for IDPs in Mingachevir, Barda, Agdam, Goygol, Garadagh, Beylagan, Saatli and Hajigabul regions is underway under the state program.
Hasanov also visited the new settlement for 632 IDP families in Aghdam.
It was noted that the construction of some buildings have been completed. A school with 440 seats, a kindergarten with 55 seats, an administrative building, a community center, a medical center and post office will start their activities soon.
Azerbaijani government has spent $5.4 billion to tackle the social problems of refugees in the past 20 years. As a result of that, the living conditions of 180,000 refugees and IDPs have been improved.
In 2013, the poverty rate declined from 49 percent to five percent in the country, and from 75 percent to 15 percent among refugees and IDPs.
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 and the regions adjoining it, as well as the regions bordering with Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh without homes.
They are temporarily settled in more than 1,600 settlements across 62 cities and regions of 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 with Azerbaijan.
The Azerbaijanis who had 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 UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.