Armenia Must Take Its Refugees Issues To International Level

ARMENIA MUST TAKE ITS REFUGEES ISSUES TO INTERNATIONAL LEVEL

PanARMENIAN.Net
13.01.2010 21:20 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Almost all Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan
residing in RA have an obvious issue – absence of their own homes,
Eleonora Avanesova, an eyewitness of Armenian pogroms in Baku said.

As she told a joint news conference in Yerevan, many of refugees
still live in hostels or factory territories.

Another eyewitness of tragic events Robert Khachaturyan emphasized
in his turn that the refugees repeatedly addressed Armenia’s state
structures with a request to bring their issues to international
instances’ notice, in order to receive compensation for lost property
in Azerbaijan. "Instead, state structures advise us to receive RA
citizenship. The approach is incorrect one, not serving as a solution
to our problems," Khachaturyan noted.

"Armenia creates the impression of unwillingness to raise the refugees’
issue in international structures, while Azerbaijan has managed to
artificially stir up the so called "Khojalu problem," he added.

When asked by PanARMENIAN.Net reporter if Armenian refugees would
accept land property in liberated territories around NKR as a
compensation for property lost, Khachaturyan replied that many would
gladly agree.

Twenty years ago today the Azerbaijani authorities instigated the
pogroms of Armenian population in Baku. Some 400 Armenians were killed
and 200 thousand were exiled in the period of January 13-19. The exact
number of those killed was never determined, as no investigation was
carried out into the crimes.

On January 13, 1990 a crowd numbering 50 thousand people divided into
groups and started "cleaning" the city of Armenians. On January 17,
the European Parliament called on EU Council of Foreign Ministers
and European Council to protect Armenians and render assistance to
Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. On January 18, a group of U.S. Senators
sent a letter to Mikhail Gorbachev to express concerns over the
violence against the Armenian population in Azerbaijan and called
for unification of Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia.