Chairman of Council of Europe Committee of Ministers meets IDPs in Azerbaijan

Baku, April 28, AZERTAC

Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium Didier Reynders has visited an IDPs district in Masazir, Absheron, as part of his Azerbaijan trip.

Accompanied by a large delegation, he was met in the district by Azerbaijan`s Deputy Prime Minister, chairman of the State Committee for Refugee and IDP Affairs Ali Hasanov, heads of executive authorities of Absheron and Zangilan Zakir Farajov and Ramiz Hasanov.

Mr Hasanov hailed Mr Reynders` attention to the problems of Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs. “Nearly 90 such residential districts for refugees and IDPs have been built in Baku, its outskirts and across the country. This has helped us improve living conditions of 240,000 refugee and IDPs living in difficult conditions. However we still have 210,000 people who live in difficult conditions in dormitories and half-built facilities. Necessary measures are being taken by the government of Azerbaijan to improve their living conditions.”

Mr Reynders viewed Zangilan district secondary school and a kindergarten in the district. They had a tea in the house of Nuraddin Hasanov, an IDP from Zangilan.

“The Armenians destroyed everything in the Azerbaijani territories, which was confirmed by the OSCE fact-finding mission,” said Mr Hasanov. He called the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict Azerbaijan`s “number one problem”. The Deputy Prime Minister expressed regret over the fact that the Minsk Group, which mediates in the dispute, “has made no progress so far”. “The reason is that the group`s co-chair countries were not properly formed, and they are far from objectivity. One of the main factors that give grounds to draw such conclusion is that the resolutions of influential international organizations, including the United Nations Security Council, PACE, OIC, have not been fulfilled by Armenia.”

Mr Reynders and his entourage then visited IDPs at the dormitory of Azerbaijan Technical University in Yasamal.