THE BITTER WORD – REFUGEE
Evika Babayan
Azat Artsakh Daily
09 Feb 09
Republic of Nagorno Karabakh [NKR]
Everything started in February 1988 when peaceful demands of the
Armenian population of NKAO for self-determination were opposed
with brute force and unwillingness even to discuss the problem by
Azerbaijan. In addition, on 26-29 February 1988, in Sumgait, a bloody
butchery and exile of the multi-thousand local Armenian population,
who not only lived in this town but also had taken part in its
construction, was organized. With these criminal actions Azerbaijan
entered a new stage of realization of its policy, which qualified by
the international society as a policy of ethnic cleansing. Really
barbaric actions began against more than 500-thousand Armenian
population around the territory of Azerbaijan. On January 13 1990,
mass killings of Armenians started in the capital of Azerbaijan
followed by banishing them from Baku. Remembering Baku of those days,
I see the stage of the sea port guarded by a small group of young
Russin soldiers, a crowd of people shrinking from fierce wind and the
column of thousands of refugees climbing up the gang-board of a sea
ferry sailing to Krasnovodsk, getting aboard in a complete silence
and without any luggage. A suitcase in a hand of a person hurrying
toward the sea port or the airport could cost him his life. For
most of them it was a trip to nowhere. B y conducting combined
operations of Azeri OMON and USSR armed forces units the authorities
managed to isolate NKAO from the rest of the world and banish the
indigenous Armenian population from their homeland in many regions
of Azerbaijan, including Kirovabad, Khanlar, Getashen, Shahumyan and
other regions. This is how a new layer of population, named refugees,
was created, in our case the Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan. On
the occasion of anniversary of the tragic events in Baku, we met the
President of the NKR Refugee NGO Sarasar Saryan. "Mr. Saryan, what
is the number of refugees in the republic and who is eligible to be
granted the status of a refugee?" "Anybody who flees his country and
seeks sanctuary in a foreign country considered a refugee. The status
of refugees is defined in the UN Convention Relating to the Status of
Refugees, adopted in 1951. The convention stipulates that a refugee can
be a person who leaves his country because of a war or experiencing
"well-founded fear" of being persecuted for reasons of his race,
religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or
for his political opinion. Now the Convention Relating to the Status
of Refugees is ratified by the overwhelming majority of countries,
including Armenia and Azerbaijan. As for the number of refugees,
there are up to 25 thousand of refugees and almost the same amount of
internally displaced persons around the coun try." "Tell us briefly
how your organization was founded."
"The Refugee Non-Governmental Organization was founded in 1988-89, i.e.
in the very beginning of Karabakh movement, when the first refugees
appeared from Sumgait, then from Baku, Kirovabad and so on. At the
time, we assumed the mission of allocation of the refugees, supplying
them with living essentials etc. The organization itself was created
spontaneously, based on the requirements of the time. What helped
us a lot was that the most of the refugees, who fled to Karabakh,
had Karabakh roots, so they had relatives here. Officially we were
registered as the NKR Refugee NGO in August 2004." "If I am not
mistaking, in the same year, the NKR Refugee Law was adopted. Tell us,
what the adoption of the low gave to the refugees." "The law protects
the rights of refugees fled from Azerbaijan. The adoption of the low
allowed the government to issue to the refugees some compensation
for the transportation of their property, moral and psychological
losses etc. To be honest, the amount was not significant, but at
least it was something. Unfortunately, the aid did not apply to the
internally displaced persons." "What category of people could be
considered as internally displaced persons?" "It’s the refugees from
Martakert, from the south of the Hadrout region, people from Shoushi,
who came back to their destroyed houses, but did not receive the
compensation. Taking the opportunity, I’d like to speak about their
rights too. I think it is necessary to extend their social privileges
to some level. Especially some of them had been wounded during the
war and became disabled. It’s also The Great Patriotic War veterans
and pensioners to whom especially the medical privileges are of high
importance." "What is the main problem for refugees today?"
"The main problem for the refugees from Azerbaijan is the absence of
an international status. Actually, the refugees of Karabakh deprived
of the status that others have, particularly those of Azerbaijan
which gives them high advantages. For about 20 years the Azerbaijani
authorities have been presenting to the international society a "show
of tent camps" to make them believe in the terrible plight of the
refugees and displaced people. In fact there was no need to build those
camps. During 1988-1992 360 thousand Armenians had been deported from
Azerbaijan to Armenia. 92 thousand apartments and houses left by the
Armenian families were more than enough to solve the housing problem of
the Azeri families. But as the houses of Armenians of Azerbaijan, who
mostly lived in urban areas, had a definite market value, they became
a source of personal enrichment for Azeri officials. In other words,
the housi ng problem arose because of the avidity of the Azerbaijani
authorities and the people became a victim of gutter politics of the
official Baku and an instrument for achieving its goals. Another vital
problem for us is the housing problem. Almost all the population
of Karabakh have social problems, however the refugees are in a
worse position." "And the last question: What plans do you have for
the future?" "The Refugee Organization intends to continue seeking
compensation from Azerbaijan for the refugees settled in Karabakh
for their moral and material losses. In 1988 Armenian authorities
unilaterally paid 110 million US dollars to 14.5 thousand Azeri
families to compensate the houses and property they had left.
Nevertheless, unlike Armenia, Azerbaijan is not willing to take any
steps to compensate moral and material damage of its ex-residents."