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Karabakh Refugees: A Bilateral Problem With No Solution In Sight

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  • Karabakh Refugees: A Bilateral Problem With No Solution In Sight

    KARABAKH REFUGEES: A BILATERAL PROBLEM WITH NO SOLUTION IN SIGHT

    Transitions online, Czech Rep.

    Nov 20 2013

    Azerbaijan devotes more state funds to the needs of internal
    refugees than any other country, EurasiaNet.org writes, citing the
    International Crisis Group. In 2012 the government channeled 3 percent
    of the budget to rehousing some of the hundreds of thousands who fled
    Nagorno-Karabakh more than 20 years ago as Armenian forces occupied
    the territory.

    Last year, more than 10,000 refugees moved into new housing, the
    Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) reports.

    Yet these new homes "come with a catch," EurasiaNet.org writes. The
    recipients "cannot sell, give as a gift, or transfer the apartments;
    they are deemed temporary shelters and the government retains sole
    ownership."

    Meanwhile, Baku's official position, unchanged since the 1994
    cease-fire, is that Armenia must withdraw from Nagorno-Karabakh,
    which remains Azerbaijani territory under international law. Foreign
    Minister Elmar Mammadyarov restated this demand this week, adding
    that the "almost 1 million refugees and internally displaced people
    should return to their place of origin."

    Citing "observers", EurasiaNet.org writes that that position could
    encourage the government to keep ownership of the properties so
    that it can evict the refugees if they are ever able to return to
    Nagorno-Karabakh.

    Yet if that should happen, observers also wonder how many of these
    people would want to return to the remote territory. Many of the
    displaced have been rehoused in or around Baku, a city that has been
    transformed by oil wealth.

    The $4.4 billion Baku spent on refugees in the past decade, according
    to the IDMC, far outweighs the amount the Armenian government can
    devote to its own displaced people.

    Armenian State Migration Service Director Gagik Yeganian recently
    told EurasiaNet.org that $25 million is needed to provide housing for
    refugees forced out of Azerbaijan during the conflict over Karabakh.

    But his service has no budget to assist them, the website reports.

    And even in comparatively wealthy Azerbaijan, most internal refugees
    "are yet to benefit from government housing assistance," the IDMC
    states. "More than 400,000 continue to live in dilapidated, crowded,
    and unsanitary collective centers such as former hostels, schools,
    kindergartens, and sanatoriums."

    http://www.tol.org/client/article/24055-big-corruption-bust-in-poland-suspicious-activity-closes-a-russian-bank.html




    From: A. Papazian
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