Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

The plight of the Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons, who have lost their homelands as a result of Armenian aggression, was highlighted at the UNHCR meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.

A delegation led by Ali Hasanov, Azerbaijan’s deputy premier and chairman of the State Committee for Refugees and IDP affairs, as well as Firudin Nabiyev, chief of the State Migration Service represented Azerbaijan at the UNHCR 8th high meeting on Dialogue on Root Causes of Forced Displacement.

At a meeting that focused on the hard plight of the refugees and IDPs over the world, Hasanov informed the meeting participants about the continuation of 20-year long occupation of the 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia and Yerevan’s ignorance of the four resolutions of the UN Security Council.

With a population of over 9.6 million, Azerbaijan is among the countries carrying the highest IDP caseload in the world in per capita terms.

Hasanov noted that as a result of the ethnic cleansing policy carried out by Armenia and the Armenian occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions of Azerbaijan, the number of refugees and internally displaced persons hit more than 1.2 million.

He reminded that Armenia grossly violates the norms and principles of international law, changing physical, demographic and cultural names of the occupied territories, rejects the right of Azerbaijani displaced persons to return their homeland and continues efforts to strengthen existing status quo.

The official also spoke about Armenia’s illegal acts on settling Syrian refugees of Armenian origin in occupied Azerbaijani territories, abusing the migration problem in the world.

Settling Syrian refugees on occupied Azerbaijani territories constitutes an international crime, since the settlement of the refugees in disputed territories is a violation of international law. Baku has repeatedly warned that settling refugees in its occupied territories is a very dangerous process with unpredictable consequences.

Hasanov also briefed about Azerbaijan’s measures to tackle the social and other problems of refugees and IDPs and the ways of improving their living conditions.

Over 20 years, Azerbaijan has allocated $ 6 billion to resolve social problems of refugees and IDPs, as well as 250,000 refugees and IDPs were provided with apartments in 93 modern towns for temporary dwelling, according to the official.

The level of poverty among them declined from 75 percent to 12 percent. Azerbaijan’s achievements in the resolution of problems of internally displaced persons were hailed by the international organizations and countries.

However, despite Azerbaijan’s continues efforts and hard works to deal with the problem, there is still refugees and IDPs that are in need of better conditions.

Hasanov further added that more than 400, 000 internally displaced people continue to live in difficult conditions and due to the size and continuation of problem of IDPs in the country; Azerbaijan needs support of international organizations and donors.

During his Geneva visit, Hasanov also met the representatives of the number of organizations. In a meeting with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres the sides discussed Azerbaijan’s activities in tackling refugee and IDPs problem.

At the meeting with president of the International Committee of the Red Cross Peter Maurer, Hasanov hailed the current state of cooperation between Azerbaijan and the ICRC. They discussed prospects for the development of relations.

The ICRC president also praised Azerbaijan`s experience of addressing the problems of refugees and IDPs, and the country`s role in humanitarian projects in different parts of the world.

Hasanov also touched upon the issue of the people who went missing or were taken hostage during the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

President Maurer said the conditions of Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev, who are kept in captivity in Armenia, were the focus of attention.

The Azerbaijani deputy premier also met with director general of the International Organization for Migration William Lacy Swing. They hailed the level of cooperation between IOM and Azerbaijan in the field of migration.

Informing Swing on Azerbaijan`s refugee problem, Armenia`s occupation of Azerbaijan`s territories, Hasanov expressed regret over the fact that relevant resolutions of the UN and other organizations have not yet been implemented by Armenia.

--

Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz