Azerbaijani MP urges PACE to respond to Pope Francis’ call

By Azernews

By Gunay Hasanova

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and its Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland were urged to pay attention to Pope Francis` concern about Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs that the Pontiff expressed during his recent Baku visit.

Azerbaijani MP Rafael Huseynov has voiced the call during his speech at the PACE meeting.

 “A week ago His Holiness Pope Francis visited Azerbaijan. He underlined Azerbaijan`s achievements and tolerance. The Pontiff also expressed his solidarity with more than one million Azerbaijanis, who became refugees and IDPs as a result of the Armenian occupation. He offered his sympathies to the suffering people, who were expelled from their homes,” said Huseynov.

“Pope Francis called on those involved to do their utmost to ensure peace and stability in the region,” he added.

“This call of Pope Francis is addressed to you too, Secretary General and members of the Council of Europe. Will you use all your resources to press Armenia, which you called an aggressor in your resolutions? Or will you retreat as always using the Minsk Group as a pretext?” said Huseynov.

Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan laying territorial claims on its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

Due to the ethnic cleansing policy carried out by Armenia and the Armenian occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions of Azerbaijan, the number of refugees and internally displaced persons hit more than 1.2 million.

With a population of over 9.6 million, Azerbaijan is among the countries carrying the highest IDP caseload in the world in per capita terms.