PROBLEM OF REFUGEES IN ARMENIA EXISTS AND IT MUST BE SOLVED

Jun 20, 2007
DeFacto Agency, Armenia

On the occasion of the World Refugee Day celebrated June 20 a Network of Civil Society "Refugees and International Law" has circulated a statement. The statement’s full text is provided below:

"The World Refugee Day is to be celebrated in the whole world June 20. It has been 19 years since hundreds of thousands of people were ousted from Azerbaijani SSR after atrocities, murders and pogroms committed by Azeri authorities and criminals against Soumgait’s Armenian population. Over half a million Armenians lost their families, personal and immovable property, were deprived of their right to Motherland. The losses they sustained are irreplaceable; however, today we want to draw our public’s attention to a circumstance, which is quite important in our opinion – for the last years corresponding officials did their best to prove their own nation and the whole world that the problem of refugees does not exist in Armenia, while for the same period the quantity of refugees and IDPs incomprehensibly doubled in Azerbaijan by the authorities’ efforts and currently the refugees in Azerbaijan "numbers" to a million. In both cases the targets have been "achieved" with the active participation of U. N., OSCE and some NGOs’ local officials. It should be noted that irresponsibility of U. N. officials in RA arouses regret. They do everything to avoid real problems. At the same time main responsibility for failed policy on refugees in Armenia rests with corresponding state structures.

Do not believe high-sounding statements that the problem of refugees has been mainly solved in Armenia. The problem of refugees in Armenia exists and it must be resolved".

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.