Rights of migrants carried out with international organizations

There is dynamic and efficient cooperation between Azerbaijan and the EU, said Head of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan. The recent Eastern Partnership Summit in Brussels is an example of this cooperation.

Kestutis Jankauskas made the remarks at an event dedicated to the International Migrants Day in Baku on December 18.

The ambassador said that the EU is implementing joint programs with the Azerbaijan State Migration Service and other state structures.

Tourist flow between Azerbaijan and the EU is of paramount importance for the further expansion of relations, he noted. Therefore, the EU would like to see more people traveling from EU member countries to Azerbaijan and in the opposite direction, Jankauskas added.

The ambassador said that the work is underway to prepare a comprehensive agreement between Azerbaijan and the EU.

Last year, the European Council adopted a mandate for the European Commission and the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy to negotiate, on behalf of the EU and its member states, a comprehensive agreement with Azerbaijan.

The new agreement should replace the 1996 partnership and cooperation agreement. This will enable better to take account of the common goals and challenges the EU and Azerbaijan face today.

Azerbaijan’s Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsman) Elmira Suleymanova, who also addressed the event, said Azerbaijan is an attractive country, so the number of arriving migrants is growing.

She added that all conditions for migrants are created in Azerbaijan in accordance with the country’s legislation, and joint work to protect the rights of migrants is carried out with international organizations.

Suleymanova also added that no migrant is subjected to violence in the country.

Parviz Musayev, deputy head of the State Migration Service, in turn, pointed out that Azerbaijan faced a major migration problem due to Armenia’s aggression. He noted that after Azerbaijan gained independence, approximately 300,000 Azerbaijanis were expelled from Armenia because of their nationality.

“As a result of Armenia’s occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani lands, about 700,000 our compatriots became IDPs,” Musayev said, adding that Azerbaijan copes with these processes with dignity.

He added that it is difficult for European countries to cope with smaller number of migrants, while Azerbaijan solves the problem of more than one million refugees and IDPs on its own. Musayev also noted that Azerbaijan will never accept the occupation of its lands.

Armenia captured NagornoKarabakh and seven surrounding regions from Azerbaijan in a war that followed the Soviet breakup in 1991. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and nearly 1 million were displaced as a result of the war.

Large-scale hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire in 1994 but Armenia continued the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal. Peace talks mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. within the OSCE Minsk Group have produced no tangible results so far.