REPORT ON PROBLEM OF REFUGEES IN SOUTH CAUCASUS PUBLICIZED IN PACE

STRASBOURG, APRIL 14, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. “The negotiations
on the Nagorno Karabakh problem have reached a deadlock, I call on
both sides to activize their efforts in this direction,” Boris
Tsilevich, the author of the report on refugees of Armenia, Georgia
and Azerbaijan, declared late in the April 13 evening in PACE. The
Latvian parliamentarian mentioned that this problem hampers the
development of these three countries and called on the South Caucasian
authorities to strain maximum efforts for improving the life of
hundreds of thousands of people and for returning them to their native
houses.

According to radio “Liberty”, the report also calls on the
country-members of the Council of Europe to provide assistance to
people who have remained without a shelter as a result of
conflicts. “The report is of great importance: it not only offers
exact steps aimed at solving the issue but also presents the objective
situation in the region based on the data of UN,” Tigran Torosian, the
head of the Armenian parliamentary delegation, declared. “The myth
about millions of refugees speculated by Azerbaijan for dozens of
years burst before your eyes. The report mentions that the number of
these people has never exceeded 800 thousand and in late 2004 there
were 8 thousand 606 refugees in Azerbaijan,” the RA National Assembly
Vice-Speaker emphasized. Member of Azerbaijani delegation Gyultekin
Hajiyeva managed to introduce some changes into the document, in
particular, to change the clause, according to which refugees can
return to their houses only after the final settlement of the
conflict. “You know that the occupied territory around Karabakh is
twice larger than Karabakh itself. And I consider that this is a very
important issue in the political aspect,” Hajieyva mentioned. “If we
did not introduce these changes, this would mean that we give up for
lost the stage-by-stage variant of the conflict settlement,” one of
the members of the Azerbaijani delegation explained in his interview
to the Trend agency after the voting.