Armenians seeking asylum in Europe use Azeri documents – daily

Ekho, Baku
5 Mar 05

Text of political analyst R. Orucov’s report by Azerbaijani newspaper
Ekho on 5 March headlined “Armenians or Azeris?” and subheaded “This
is not a matter of principle when political asylum is granted in
Europe”

A letter recently sent to Azerbaijan from a Dutch refugee camp and
obtained by Ekho contains very interesting information on how a safe
status can be received in Europe if a person passes himself for an
Azerbaijani citizen.

The author says that of the families that live next to him in the
refugee camp, 27 are Armenians and only four are Azerbaijanis. But
the Armenians are registered by the authorities as Azerbaijani
citizens. “However, none of them has ever visited Azerbaijan,” the
author writes. He reports that at present, there are three to four
groups of natives of Azerbaijan that operate in Europe and help
Armenians “receive Azerbaijani citizenship”.

Human rights advocate Eldar Zeynalov has told Ekho that there are
indeed many Armenians who are trying to receive political asylum in
European countries and pass themselves as natives of Azerbaijan. “I
believe that there are criminal groups that help Armenians get
Azerbaijani documents,” said the director of the Centre for Human
Rights. “There were several alarming signals when Armenians visited,
almost illegally, our Justice Ministry and brought some authenticated
documents. And these cases were disclosed. But there are a few
unexposed groups for every exposed one. Many people from Armenia flee
to Europe precisely as Azerbaijani Armenians.”

Zeynalov said that he knew cases when people in Baku obtained
documents with Armenian names. “It is a fact that getting a birth
certificate with an Armenian name is very cheap in Baku. I have even
heard rumours that it is possible to get a sealed blank certificate
for as little as 300 US dollars.”

Zeynalov also said that at the time when Armenians occupied districts
around Karabakh, original official Azerbaijani blank forms were left
behind in many places. “So now Armenians have made ‘good’ use of
them.”

The head of the press service of the state committee for work with
the Azerbaijanis living abroad, Elsad Miralam, said for his part that
all the aforementioned cases are well known to the committee. “We
have received many reports that Armenians pass themselves as Azeris
in Europe, and some of them have even received refugee status. We are
raising awareness of this problem through Azerbaijani communities in
different European countries and resort to the services of the
embassies. There have been numerous cases of this kind. I want to say
that with the help of our committee, the struggle against attempts by
Armenians to use the name of our country abroad has become more
intense of late.”