On World Refugee Day
World Refugee Day falls each year on June 20 and is dedicated to refugees around the globe. At present unprecedentedly, More than 80 million people around the world have been forced from home by conflict and persecution. Among the over half of whom are under the age of 18.
One in ten people is a refugee or IDP, in Azerbaijan
From 1987 to 1989, more than 250,000 Azerbaijanis were expelled from their historical lands in Armenia, with 216 of them brutally murdered, and 1,154 wounded.
As a result of the expansion of the military aggression against Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh, which is an integral part of our country and seven adjacent regions – Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Gubadli, and Zangilan were occupied. As a result of Armenia’s ethnic cleansing policy, 20,000 Azerbaijani citizens were killed and 20% of our lands were occupied, over one million and two hundred thousand people had to leave their homes, hundreds of people were captured and taken hostages.
Steps have been taken to ensure peace and stability in the region by the Azerbaijan government. The legal and political steps in the settlement of the conflict are based on the norms and principles of international law, resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, relevant documents and decisions of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and other international organizations.
The resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council in response to the occupation of Azerbaijani territories in 1993 once again reaffirmed the respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and inviolability of international borders of the Republic of Azerbaijan and other states in the region. The UN Security Council demanded immediate cessation of hostilities, immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of invasive troops from all occupied territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan, calling for the return of refugees and displaced persons to the restoration of economic, transport and energy relations in the region. The UN Security Council has welcomed efforts by the OSCE Minsk Group for the peaceful settlement of the conflict and urged the OSCE to seek ways to settle the conflict within the framework of the Minsk process. None of these resolutions have been fulfilled by Armenia.
NUSHABA MAMMADOVA
The chairwoman of the International
Dialogue and Development Alliance,
vice-president NGO Forum of Azerbaijan,
Ph.D. In History
