UN COMMISSION CALLS FOR BAKU TO COMPENSATE ILLEGAL APPROPRIATION OF ARMENIAN PROPERTY

Azerbaijan Level Inhabits Occupied Armenian Villages on State

Azg/arm
7 Dec 04

The UN Commission of Economic, Social and Cultural Issues
(ECOSOC) expressed concern about the fact of “using the property
of Armenians and other ethnic minorities by the refugees and the
internal inhabitants in Azerbaijan”. According to Mediamax, the
conclusion of the commissionâ~@~Ys November 26 sitting states that. The
conclusion was adopted after the hearing of the second regular report
on Azerbaijanâ~@~Ys implementation of the international agreement on
the economic, social and cultural rights.

“The Commission advises Azerbaijan to take relevant measures or secure
compensation or suggest alternative settlements to the Armenians and
other ethnic minorities, as their property has been illegally used
by the refugees and the internal inhabitants,” the conclusion of the
commission says.

It is worth mentioning that the issue on “the situation in the
occupied Azerbaijani Territories” was included in the agenda of the
November 23 sitting of the UN General Assembly at the initiative
of Baku. As Azg Daily thoroughly informed in its previous issues,
the issue wasnâ~@~Yt discussed because Azerbaijan failed to find
the required ally-countries though Elmar Mamediarov, Azeri foreign
minister left for New York for that very purpose. Particularly,
OSCE Minsk Group was against Azerbaijanâ~@~Ys initiative.

Baku insisted that Yerevan inhabits the territories controlled by RA
armed forced. The official Yerevan denies this information, stating
that there are rare inhabitants living in those territories. These
people had to leave their homes in Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh.

Azerbaijan is the very state inhabiting the occupied Armenian villages
on state level. Particularly, in the September of 2002 former Azeri
president Heidar Aliyev participated in the official ceremony of
inhabiting Shahumian and Verin Shen Armenian villages belonging
to Nagorno Karabakh by a thousand of Azeri families. After that
Shahumian and Verin Shen were renamed Ashaghe Aghjaqend and Yukhare
Aghjaqend. Bakuâ~@~Ys Ekho newspaper highlighted this event in its
September 10 and 14 issues, 2002.

According to Azertaj agency, before that, in 2001, by the August
22 decree, Heidar Aliyev ordered the State Committee on Refugee
Affairs to restore the ruined 1400 houses “in Ashaghe Aghjaqend and
Yukhare Aghjaqend villages of Gyulistan region” and inhabit them with
Azeris. In the August of the same year the State Oil Fund allocated
$18 million for inhabiting Azeris in Shahumian and Verin Shen.

The Armenian side insists that no territories under control of RA
armed forces were inhabited on state level. Unfortunately, these
are true statements. Armenia, taking into account its and Nagorno
Karabakhâ~@~Ys security, should have initiated inhabiting the native
Armenian territories between the Republic of Armenia and Nagorno
Karabakh. These territories, as well as Nagorno Karabakh Autonomic
Region, passed under Azerbaijanâ~@~Ys control in 1923-1930. Thus,
the todayâ~@~Y s Qelbajar (Qarvachar), Lachin (Qashatagh) and Kubatlu
(Qashuniq) regions and a part of Jebrail region were included in
“Red Kurdistan” established in 1923, while after its collapse in 1929
these regions were forcibly given to Azerbaijan.

So, Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh, taking into account their security,
should have tried to inhabit these territories. In 1988 and 1992,
when the Armenian and Karabakh forces havenâ~@~Yt liberated Lachin
region yet and opened “the road of life,” Lachin, Qelbajar and Kubatlu
were bases for the Azeri armed forces. Is it right to consider the
Azeri population (in fact, the Kurds that assimilated to the locals
during decades) refugees, when at least a part of them participated
in the armed attacks against Karabakh and Armeniaâ~@~Ys Goris region
and the massacre of hundreds of Armenians.

As for the document published by the UN ECOSOC, we shall state that
there is at least one extremely unacceptable point for Armenia in
that, as well. Thus, in the article N11 says that “the great number of
refugees in Azerbaijan is the result of Armeniaâ~@~Ys conflict.” That
means that the UN Commission considers Armenia and Azerbaijan the
conflicting sides.

By Tatoul Hakobian

–Boundary_(ID_7kNAYHJ/4dp8+9IuQ430cA)–