Internally displaced Azerbaijanis prepare for "Great Return"

Liberation of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions of Azerbaijan from Armenia’s occupation in 2020 facilitates the solution to one of the longstanding and large-scale internal displacement situations in the world.  Forced displacement in Azerbaijan is a consequence of the military aggression by Armenia and ethnic cleansing conducted in the territories of Azerbaijan in the beginning of the 1990s.

A as a result of the conflict more than a million Azerbaijanis were forcefully displaced from their native lands, among them, hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijani refugees fled from Armenia who was subsequently granted citizenship of Azerbaijan. All forcefully displaced people in Azerbaijan were temporarily settled in more than 1600 heavily populated settlements in 12 tent camps, villages consisting of railroad cargo vans, half-constructed buildings, public facilities and etc. 

Armenia’s next aggression attempt last year yet again severely affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in Azerbaijan. 84 thousand persons were forced to temporarily leave their places of habitual residence, among them the IDPs who repetitively suffered the tragedy of forced displacement. Though most of these people have returned home with the rapid and effective response from the Government to their recent displacement, 85 displaced families in the Tartar region of Azerbaijan who suffered tremendously from deliberate artillery shelling of civilian objects are still in shelters.

 The situation of the displaced persons in Azerbaijan is notable for several reasons.

The first is that, in a country of a little over 10 million citizens (7 million during the displacement), Azerbaijan hosts one of the largest per capita displaced populations in the world.

Furthermore, unlike many situations of internal displacement, in Azerbaijan, the displaced persons enjoy the same rights as other citizens and do not experience discrimination.

The other important distinction is that the Government of Azerbaijan, since undergoing from the beginning of the 2000s substantial economic growth, has assumed full responsibility for improving the living conditions of the IDPs while encouraging the continued engagement of international organizations. Azerbaijan is one of the prodigious countries in the world having pursued prudent economic policy transformed itself from a recipient of humanitarian aid to a donor country.

Since 1998 the Government of Azerbaijan has been implementing the strategy for the amelioration of living conditions of the forcefully displaced population, providing them with social assistance and benefits, and construction of more than a hundred new, compact and modern residential areas for their temporary settlement. The national authorities managed to achieve significant progress in improving living conditions of the forcefully displaced population by eliminating all tent camps and cargo-van villages and providing 315,000 people living in dire conditions with temporarily homes in the newly established settlements without prejudice to their right to voluntary, safe and dignified return which has been sought for more than 25 years through diplomatic negotiations for the peaceful resolution of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The right of the unconditional and safe return of the Azerbaijani displaced population was confirmed in dozens of resolutions and decisions of the UN General Assembly, Security Council, OIC, PACE, OSCE, European Court of Human Rights and etc.

The main priorities of the Government of Azerbaijan after the liberation of its territories in 2020 from the three-decades-long occupation are to clear these territories from mines and other unexploded ordnances, to restore the cities and other settlements totally destroyed during the conflict and create necessary conditions for voluntary, safe and dignified return of the IDPs to their native lands. Unfortunately, this process is still hindered by Armenia’s refusal to submit the maps of mined areas (formularies) in the recently liberated territories to the Azerbaijani side. This is an absolute necessity to save human lives and accelerate post-conflict rehabilitation and reconstruction processes. In the period following the signing of the trilateral statement on the cession of the military activities between Armenia and Azerbaijan last November, more than a hundred citizens of Azerbaijan became victims of mine explosions, among them, also IDPs who were impatient and couldn’t resist the rapture of visiting their liberated lands after three decades of forceful separation and longing, despite the warnings on the perilous mine-risk situation in these territories. In overall, thousands of people in Azerbaijan died and seriously injured as a result of mine explosions since the beginning of the conflict.  

Taking into account the huge scale of the Great Return to the liberated lands, currently, the process is realized through several pilot projects.

Ruined Agdam

“The first step” experimental project has been implemented for the collection of the necessary information for the return and reintegration in 10 villages of the Aghdam region. The aim of the project is to examine the operational mechanism for return and reintegration in liberated lands, to draw necessary results and to use this pilot project as a model for the future step-by-step return process in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, core human rights conventions and applicable best practices, as well as with the involvement of the population of concern. Currently, the initial surveys are also being conducted to estimate the number of people who are willing to return to their former places of residence. The successful experience of rehabilitation and return to Jojug Marjanly village that was secured from Armenia’s direct military targeting after the liberation of strategic heights from the occupation in April 2016 will also be applied. Jojug Marjanly was a unique return project implemented for the first time in Azerbaijan, where the enabling environment was created for 150 families to return to their native lands after 23 years. 

The people of Azerbaijan expect the international community to support their country’s efforts for sustainable peace and a prosperous future in the region.