As reported previously, chairman of the board of the Heritage opposition party and deputy of Armenian National Assembly Anait Bakhshyan announced that "Armenian refugees must return to Baku to sell their flats".

In turn, spokesman for Heritage Ovsep Khurshudyan noted that when the refugees from Baku, Ganja and Sumgayit are implied, it does not mean that the interests of the Armenian population of Shaomyan region or the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, who were obliged to flee their homes, can be violated.

"Moreover, why a peacekeeping contingent will be deployed to ensure security of Azerbaijani refugees in the Armenian territory, while no similar steps will be taken to ensure physical security of the Armenian refugees", asks Khurshudyan.

The Day.Az publishing house will now clarify the situation for Anait Bakhshyan and answer the question, concerning Ovsep Khurshudyan.

Armenian refugees left Azerbaijan in the result of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, incited by Karabakh and Krunk organization and after the whole Azerbaijani population was expelled from Armenia.

Chronology is important in this issue. The format day of the start of the conflict is considered February 19 of 1988 when the NKAO oblast council adopted an anti-constitutional decision to separate from Azerbaijani SSR (the illegality of such a decision was confirmed by the presidium of the USSR Supreme Council in July of 1988), yet the first refugees appeared long before the start of the conflict in Autumn of 1987. These were Azerbaijani refugees from several regions of the Armenian SSR. The chain reaction of violence, launched in Armenia, caused response acts of violence in Azerbaijan - the famous events in Sumgayit, which resulted in appearance of first Armenian refugees, occurred several months after the first wave of Azerbaijani refugees. They involved mostly the Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia. The further waves of deportation of Azerbaijanis from Armenia caused similar events in Azerbaijan. In the result, two countries "exchanged" refugees, but at the same time it was Armenia that first expelled its citizens, while the victims burst their outrage on Armenians of Baku, Sumgayit and Ganja. In this connection, the ethnic cleansing, deportations and refugees are inventions of the Armenian side, while Azerbaijan was always the second that is a responding side. The same is applied to lethal cases - first victims were again Azerbaijanis, while events in Sumgayit, which, by the way, involved two ethnic Armenians Edward Grigoryan and Arcadi Aganov, occurred later.

As for the claims of Anait Bashkhyan for the right of Armenian refugees to return to Baku and to sell their flats, Day.Az is ready to discuss this topic in the context of the return of 212.000 Azerbaijani refugees to Armenia and restitution of property, left there, including immovable property, lands, pastures and repayment of compensation for the lost and stolen property. To Bakhshyan information, the territory of agricultural fams, where Azerbaijanis of Armenia resided, exceeded the whole territory of the former NKAO. Now who suppressed Armenians, if they were even presented a territorial autonomy. In case Armenia rejects to return Azerbaijani refugees, who will allow Armenian refugees to return to Baku and start selling their flats? Perhaps, we must also let them sell our oil and then transfer this money to the fund of any "krunk" or for the purchase of arms by Dashnaks, like it once occurred in 1918?

While answering Khurshudyan's question, it is primarily necessary to clarify for him that former Shaomyan region of Azerbaijan has never been part of NKAO, it is not an administrative part of the Nagorno Karabakh province of Azerbaijan and it would hardly be annexed to it in the future. The status of the former Shaomyan region towards Azerbaijan is similar to the status of any region of Armenia towards Armenia, while the status of Armenian refugees from this former region is similar to the status of Azerbaijani refugees from Gafan or Amasiya.

Moreover, Khushudyan's concern regarding "return of Azerbaijani refugees to Armenian lands" is groundless - Azerbaijani refugees return not to Armenia (at least, this issue is not raised in the negotiation process in the OSCE MG frames) but to the temporarily occupied Nagorno Karabakh, as the internationally-recognized Azerbaijani lands. Thus, they should be called not refugees but internally displaced persons of Azerbaijani nationality. So, no need for panic.

In case of the real return of Azerbaijani refugees to Armenian lands around Yerevan and provision of their security by international peacekeepers, Day.Az will be first to initiate ensuring the security of Armenian refugees, returning to Azerbaijan.

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