The Government of Azerbaijan has urged international organizations not to suspend humanitarian aid for refugees and internally displaced persons unless there is brokered a final agreement on the resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani ethnic conflict over Karabakh.
Following the announcement, deputy Prime Minister and the chairman of the State committee on refugees and internally displaced persons, Ali Hassanov said вЂ" in his speech delivered to participants of the Baku meeting of PACE’s committee on migration вЂ" that almost all international organizations had expressed their position towards the Armenian-Azerbaijani ethnic conflict over Karabakh.
“However, the problem is still left unresolved,” Hassanov said. According to him, the Armenian-Azerbaijani ethnic conflict over Karabakh is the biggest problem of Azerbaijan.
Out of 17 million refugees on a glocal scale, some one million fall to the share of Azerbaijan. “The Government (of Azerbaijan) is unable to fully address social needs of refugees. Nonetheless, the amount of Government-provided aid (for the settlement of social problems of internally displaced persons) has increased 10 times over the past ten years,” Hassanov said. Last year the Government provided 120 million U.S. dollars in aid for IDPs, with an additional relief of 36 million U.S. dollars coming from humanitarian organizations. In comparison with the corresponding figures in 1994, the amount of governmental aid has increased by 118 million U.S. dollars, with humanitarian help declining by 40 million U.S. dollars.