International seminar on “Population displacement in South Caucasus” started its work in Baku

The refugees and internally displaced people problem occurred in the result of the conflicts in the region, their social demands and the questions on returning them back were discussed in the seminar on population displacement in the South Caucasus. The chairperson of the sub-committee lady Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold said that she has been to the places where the Azerbaijani internally displaced persons live and the infrastructure were created there for meeting the minimum demands of the people.

“However, though good conditions are created there for them, they want to return back to their native lands. I consider that the process of retuning back will not be easy, the people must return back to their previous settlements on a voluntary basis and the Council of Europe will not deny its assistance to this”.

The head of the delegation of Azerbaijan in PACE making speech in the measure Samad Seyidov said that great change is observed in the situation of the refugees and displaced people during the last 15 years and spoke about integration of these people to the society. S.Seyidov considers that the Council of Europe can render more assistance in the question of returning the refugees back.

The deputy of the prime-minister, chairman of the State Commission on Refugees of Azerbaijan Ali Hasanov informed the participants of the seminar about Armenia’s disregarding the demand on freeing the occupied territories in the documents adopted by UNO, OSCE, CE, and the USA State Department. The deputy of the prime-minister said that hot spots increased and the problems are not solved in Europe and considers that these conflicts are prepared in the same kitchen. He said that 17 million refugees live in the world and 1 million of them fall to share of Azerbaijan. Ali Hasanov expressing his relation to the opinion “Donors are tired” reminded that the problem has not been solved yet and informed that while the conflict is not solved the international organizations should continue rendering help. We should note that the representatives from PACE, Russia, Georgia and Armenia joined the seminar.

/APA/