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State committee: Every eighth citizen is refugee in Azerbaijan

Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict Materials 20 June 2013 20:20 (UTC +04:00)
There are 1,200 million refugees and internally displaced persons in Azerbaijan, rather than 1 million as it is always stated, chairman of the Azerbaijani State Committee for Refugees and IDPs Ali Hasanov told the media today.
State committee: Every eighth citizen is refugee in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, Baku, June 20 / Trend, E. Mehdiyev /

There are 1,200 million refugees and internally displaced persons in Azerbaijan, rather than 1 million as it is always stated, chairman of the Azerbaijani State Committee for Refugees and IDPs Ali Hasanov told the media today.

"There were one million refugees and internally displaced persons in 1992-1993," he said. "The number of refugees and internally displaced persons has increased during the last 20 years in accordance with natality at a ratio of 100:1."

"While increasing by 10,000 per year, the figure has reached 1,200 million people," he said. "Around 1,200 million people of more than 9 million people of the population are refugees and IDPs. This means that if one person of every 135 people is a refugee in the world, every eighth citizen of Azerbaijan is a refugee. This is a very difficult problem."

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in Azerbaijan differs from other conflicts in the world, Hasanov said.

"Only 2-3 of all the world's conflicts are similar to our conflict," he said. "All others are problems that have arisen within countries. Our conflict has arisen as a result of aggression of one country against another and the occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia. Azerbaijani citizens became refugees and internally displaced people in their own land."

"Azerbaijan can fully provide its refugees and IDPs with necessaties," Hasanov said.
"But despite this, a number of international organizations continue to cooperate with us," he added. "There are also the recently joined organizations. The most important thing is that the Azerbaijani President resolved all problems, including social ones himself. The only thing is to find a political solution to the conflict."

Hasanov cited the statistics on the social situation of refugees and internally displaced persons.

"The poverty rate among refugees hit 75 percent in 2003, while today - 15 percent," he stressed. "Just last year, around $ 1,300 were spent for every refugee and displaced person in Azerbaijan. This is the highest amount compared to all conflict zones worldwide. This is the amount spent on one person, but there are common costs that are not included here. In general, the expenses for refugees and internally displaced persons amounted to 300 million manat in 2012. Around 600 million will be spent this year. In general, around $5.4 billion were spent for these problems over the last 20 years."

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