MEDIATORS SAY REFUGEES CANNOT RETURN TO KARABAKH PRIOR TO CONFLICT RESOLUTION

Arminfo
24 May 07

Yerevan, 24 May: "In our work we do not divide refugees and displaced
persons on the basis of their ethnicity," the Russian co-chairman
of the OSCE Minsk Group for the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict, Yuriy Merzlyakov, told a news conference in Yerevan today. He
was answering a question whether the rights of Armenian refugees from
Azerbaijan are being taken into account during the negotiations.

Merzlyakov said that in line with the co-chairmen’s proposal, it
is planned to grant the refugees and displaced persons the right to
return to their former places of residence.

French co-chairman Bernard Fassier said in his turn that the return of
refugees must be thoroughly prepared together with other programmes,
such as the reconstruction of the infrastructure and clearances
of mines.

He repeated his earlier remark that to return the refugees prior
to solving these issue is like to build a house starting from the
roof. "We are now trying to create the foundation of the house,"
Fassier said.

We have to say the issue in question is the return of Azerbaijani
refugees to Karabakh and districts around it. It is not about the
return of hundreds of thousands Armenians to Baku, or about the return
of Azerbaijanis who used to live in Armenia’s rural areas.