Azerbaijani vs. Armenian Refugees: Azerbaijani-Armenians Debate the Issue

The Congress of Authorized Representatives of Azerbaijani-Armenians has written a letter to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, said Congress of Authorized Representatives of Azerbaijani-Armenians advisor Hranush Kharatyan and Assembly of Azerbaijani Armenians NGO President Grigory Ayvazyan, while meeting with journalists today.

Kharatyan noted that Armenian refugees have waited a long time, but they haven’t waited “passively,” instead occasionally appealing to Armenia as well as international bodies to turn their attention to their issues.

“Azerbaijani-Armenians understood that the issue of Armenian refugees has never been discussed in any way by either Armenia’s authorities or international bodies, while the issue of Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced peoples has always been on the agenda,” said Kharatyan.  

Speaking on the matter of Azerbaijani refugees, she said that nowhere has it been discussed why Azerbaijani-Armenians became refugees, why Azerbaijanis became refugees and when.

“Armenian refugees’ beginning essentially was in Sumgait, where a pure clean genocide and ethnic cleansing process took place,” said Kharatyan. 

“Azerbaijanis, unlike us, don’t have refugees, not a single one, so it hasn’t been rightfully noted how Azerbaijanis became refugees,” she said. 

Kharatyan also noted that everyone who has been forced or as a result of violent displacement to leave the area in which they live is a refugee.