Azernews.Az

The draft resolution on the situation of refugees in the OSCE region was discussed during the 23rd session of OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) in Baku.

Following the discussions, the resolution was put to the vote and adopted.

The draft resolution was proposed by the head of the OSCE PA Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions, Isabel Santos.

Santos said that the number of refugees exceeds 51 million in the world and stressed the importance of pursuing a common policy by all countries for preventing this problem.

Expressing support to the draft resolution, head of the Azerbaijani delegation to OSCE PA, Bahar Muradova stressed with regret that over one million of the total number of refugees falls to Azerbaijan.

"These people got into a very difficult situation as a result of the conflict [Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict] and were deprived of many rights," she noted.

Muradova pointed out that the Azerbaijani government does great work to improve the social position and solve the problems of refugees and IDPs.

Stressing that the number of refugees and IDPs has exceeded 1.2 million people, Muradova said that it is important to resolve conflicts in order to prevent this problem.

"It is necessary to reveal the causes of problems and prevent them, rather than discussing their consequences," she added.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the U.S. are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.