Switzerland intends to give impetus to the settlement process of Armenian-Azerbaijani, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

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Mətbuat xidmətinin məlumatı 07 March, 2014

The Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Republic, the chairman of the State Committee for Deals of Refugees and IDPs Ali Hasanov met with Swiss OSCE Chairmanship’s Special Representative for the South Caucasus Angelo Gnedinger on March 7. The Deputy Prime Minister Ali Hasanov provided information about the Armenian-Azerbaijani, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the history of the problem and the situation of refugees and internally displaced persons in our country for the Swiss diplomat. It was noted that as a result of complicated political processes in the South Caucasus region in the last 200, Azerbaijanis were forcibly expelled from their native land a couple of times, were subjected to ethnic cleansing and deportation. Ali Hasanov emphasized that Armenia was condemned to live in the neighborhood with Azerbaijan and mentioned that the aggressive state had not achieved anything by keeping our lands under occupation over the last 20 years. During this period, Armenia's economy has fallen into even more difficult situation, people quickly started to leave the country and remained outside the international regional projects realized with the participation of Azerbaijan. Noting that Azerbaijan was interested in peaceful fair settlement of the conflict, the Deputy Prime Minister stated that the Azerbaijani Government does a great job in legal, as well as socio-economic spheres to meet the needs of refugees and internally displaced persons. Azerbaijani Government expended money in the amount of 5.4 billion USD dollars in order to solve the social problems of refugees and internally displaced persons in the last 20 years. 180 thousand refugees and internally displaced people were resettled in new settlements thanks to funding from the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan Republic and this process continues. It was noted that in 2003 the poverty rate was 49 percent in the country and 75 percent among the refugees and internally displaced persons. However, today poverty rate has fallen to 5 percent in the country and 15 percent among the refugees and internally displaced persons due to the measures taken. Swiss OSCE Chairmanship’s Special Representative Angelo Gnedinger highlighted that the international community should demonstrate resoluteness to ensure solution of the conflict and that ensuring security and stability in the South Caucasus was among key priorities during Switzerland’s chairmanship of the OSCE. Unfortunately, no serious steps have been taken on this direction in the past 20 years. Swiss diplomat stated that they wish to implement it in 3 directions. These directions are supporting the OSCE Minsk Group and Switzerland’s special representative, encouraging other members of the OSCE Minsk Group who have been involved in finding a solution to Armenian-Azerbaijani, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and involving general public in both nations, which suffer from the conflict, in ensuring peaceful settlement of the conflict. Switzerland intends to play the role of a bridge in this process. Swiss diplomat emphasized that he did not know the second country to help its refugees and internally displaced persons as much as Azerbaijan did and stressed that the country’s development and progress was obvious. The views on prospects for the development of Swiss-Azerbaijani relations were exchanged at the meeting as well.