A meeting of the Coordinating Council of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Committee on Internationalist Fighters started in Baku on Friday, Trend reports.
“Azerbaijan is a secular state based on the rule of law, which successfully integrates into the international organizations,” Abbas Abbasov, the Azerbaijani First Prime Minister told the gathering. An only problem on the way of Azerbaijan is the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict which has lasted for over 15 years and the state aggressions that the country was exposed by Armenia. “You the internationalist fighters are well familiar with the notions like the military conflict, smell of gunpowder, millions of refugees,” Abbasov stressed. The long-lasting conflict evolves imbalance in the region.
Ruslan Aushov, the chairman of the Coordinating Council of CIS Committee on Internationalist Fighters, informed the participants in the gathering with the activities of the Committee in the modern stage. The key importance was attached to draft Concept on development of social and medical bases of improvement of life qualities and prophylactics on loss of ability of the war veterans, participants of the local conflicts, peace-making operations and victims of terror in CIS countries in 2006-2010. Aushov said that in many CIS countries the privileges of internationalist veterans were replaced with the benefits, which comprises no more than 1/3 of former privileges. He called on the countries to strengthen the attention and assistance in the resolution of internationalist fighters’ problems.
The Coordinating Council is to consider issues on organizational consolidation of the links among the regional veteran unions, social security of people referred to this category, mechanisms for attracting attention of CIS countries on the resolution of fighters’ problems.
The meeting with the participation of delegates from CIS countries, except Armenia, is to complete on Friday evening. There are around 10,000 fighters-internationalists in Azerbaijan.
