Azerbaijan unveils amount of damage caused to Western Azerbaijanis

Chairman of the Western Azerbaijani Community MP Aziz Alakbarli has said that there are documents and witness testimonies regarding the crimes committed against compatriots on the Armenian territory during the last deportation.

Alakbarli made these remarks during a public hearing on “Return to Western Azerbaijan: Legal aspects”, organised by the parliamentary committee for law policy and state building in the Azerbaijani parliament, APA reports.

He noted that in general, during the deportations, Armenia had caused damage to private facilities in the amount of $2.5 billion, and to public facilities in the amount of $17.5 billion.

“The last deportation in 1987-1991 was as cruel and inhuman as the previous ones. All our compatriots were expelled from their ancestral lands in Western Azerbaijan upon the same barbaric methods characteristic of the Armenians. During that period, more than 200 compatriots were brutally killed by the Armenians, more than 400 compatriots were wounded. Azerbaijanis were expelled from approximately 300 settlements,” the chairman of the Western Azerbaijan Community said.

He noted that the work is being carried out at the level of the Prosecutor General's Office.

“We once again declare that the Western Azerbaijan Community will continue trying until all our compatriots return to their historical homeland,” Alakbarli added.

Alakbarli said that a separate law on the status of refugees from Western Azerbaijan should be adopted.

The community’s head recalled that the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On the Status of Refugees and IDPs" was signed by national leader Heydar Aliyev on May 21, 1999.

Alakbarli added that today the concept of "IDP" has been sent to the archives of history: "For this reason and from the point of view of adapting to the concept of return to West Azerbaijan, I believe that this law should be revised, a separate law on the status of refugees from West Azerbaijan should be adopted".