Azerbaijan urges the International Organization for Migration to put an end to the policy of deployment of the Syrian Armenians on the occupied Azerbaijani territories pursued by Armenia, the head of the ministry of foreign affairs of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov said Sept.3.
He made the remarks at a meeting with the Director General of the International Organization for Migration William Lacy Swing.
He said that the implementation of deployment policy on the occupied territories and attempts to deliberately change the demographic composition are prohibited by international humanitarian law.
Azerbaijani foreign minister informed the director general of the International Organization for Migration about the presence of more than one million Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons expelled from their native lands as a result of Armenian aggression. The return of this category of people to their native lands is now the subject of negotiations within the framework of the conflict settlement process, he said.
The minister went on to add that while during the first years after gaining its independence Azerbaijan was of interest more as a transit point for illegal immigration because of its favorable geographical location, now the republic, thanks to its economic and social development, has become an attractive country for potential illegal migration.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council’s four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
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