Azeris who left Armenia not refugees

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Azeris who left Armenia in late 1980s cannot be viewed as refugees as they do not meet refugee criteria under international law, political scientist, YSU Professor Alexander Manasyan finds.



"We cannot put an equal sign between the Armenians deported from Azerbaijan and the Azeris who left Armenia in peaceful conditions. It's unacceptable," he told a news conference in Yerevan.



At that, he noted that over 200 Armenian deportees have not so far received material or moral compensation.



"It is necessary to elaborate a package of legal documents on compensating Azerbaijani Armenians, with RA Government sparing no effort to assist in the process," he stressed.



Twenty years ago today the Azerbaijani authorities perpetrated the Armenian pogroms of Baku. Some 400 Armenians were killed and 200 thousand were exiled in the period of January 13-19. The exact number of those killed was never determined, as no investigation was carried out into the crimes.



On January 13, 1990 a crowd numbering 50 thousand people divided into groups and started "cleaning" the city of Armenians. On January 17, the European Parliament called on EU Council of Foreign Ministers and European Council to protect Armenians and render assistance to Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. On January 18, a group of U.S. Senators sent a letter to Mikhail Gorbachev to express concerns over the violence against the Armenian population in Azerbaijan and called for unification of Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia.