Azerbaijan, Baku, June 20 /Trend, M.Aliyev/
The State Administration Academy under the President of Azerbaijan hosted an event devoted to World Refugee Day. Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan, Chairman of the State Committee for Refugees and IDPs Ali Hasanov said at the event that today 49 million people in the world have left without the place of residence, of whom 26 million people are internally displaced persons, 10 million people - refugees, 12 million - people without citizenship.
Hasanov said Azerbaijan also has a problem of refugees and internally displaced persons. "Almost one million refugees and the occupation of 20 percent of the territories became a "gift" for Azerbaijan during the collapse of the Soviet Union," said Hasanov.
According to him, despite that the international organizations have been dealing with this issue for 20 years, there is no progress. The reason for that is non-constructive position of the Armenian government and the fact that the international organizations are turning a blind eye.
"Armenia today claims not only for the lands of Azerbaijan, but also Georgia, Turkey, even the Krasnodar territory of Russia. The international community will come to sense when the Armenians make territorial claims in France and California," said Hasanov.
He said Azerbaijan conducts all the necessary work for refugees and IDPs, but international donors should make all efforts to assist refugees IDPs living in Azerbaijan.
A letter by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres on World Refugee Day was read during the event. The letter states that the Azerbaijani government has implemented a lot of work to improve the living conditions of refugees over the past 20 years.
A photo exhibition and an exhibition of hand-work of Afghan, Chechen and Iranian women refugees living in Azerbaijan were also opened during the event at the Academy.