New residential complex for IDPs opens

By Azernews

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

The solution of the problems of refugees and IDPs is the focus of attention of the Azerbaijani government. A new residential complex for 306 IDP (internally displaces persons) families was inaugurated in the Pirallahi district of Baku on July 5.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva attended the opening ceremony.

Improving the living conditions of refugees and IDPs remains one of the priorities of the social policy of Azerbaijan. The problem of refugees and IDPs has deep roots: it arose as a result of the Armenian policy of expulsion of Azerbaijanis from the places of their original residence in 1905, 1918, and in the period after Second World War. Later, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenians ethnically cleansed Azerbaijanis living in Armenia and Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region.

As a result of this aggression, which has been continuing for more than two decades, about 250,000 Azerbaijanis were expelled from the lands of their ancestors in present-day Armenia, about 60,000 – from Nagorno-Karabakh, and more than 700,000 citizens – from other occupied Azerbaijani regions.

With the growth of the country's economic and political power, Azerbaijan has long been solving the problems of refugees and IDPs at a high level. President Ilham Aliyev adopted the State Program to Address the Problems of Refugees and IDPs and two additions to it.

In total, President signed 45 relevant decrees and orders, the Cabinet of Ministers - 141 decrees and orders, and the Parliament adopted 9 bills.

Presently, Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs have such social benefits as free travel to the place of temporary residence and transportation of property there, undergoing a medical examination and receive the necessary medical supplies free of charge, placement of single pensioners and disabled people in relevant social security institutions, etc.