Reintegration plan provides for solution of package of social and humanitarian tasks - experts

Baku/25.09.23/Turan: A state plan for the reintegration of the Armenian population of the Karabakh Economic Region (KER) was announced in Baku on 21 September. The plan prepared by the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration was handed over to Armenian representatives at a meeting in Yevlakh. Hikmet Hajiyev, assistant to the President of Azerbaijan and head of the foreign policy department of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan, called the document "a plan for reintegration of the Armenian population of Karabakh into Azerbaijani society". No content of the plan has been published in the official press.

It may be supposed that the events taking place after September 21 are the implementation of the reintegration plan. Khankiandi is disconnected from the Armenian power system and connected to the Azerbaijani power system, disarmed militants are withdrawn from Karabakh economic region, the State Security Service of Azerbaijan appealed to the Armenian population of the Karabakh region to surrender their weapons. 

Aside from this, the population is provided with food, fuel and medicines in special tents set up for this purpose by the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Azerbaijan.

Turan asked available experts to disclose the content of the Plan to the press, but no one, not even the MPs of the Milli Mejlis have read the document. MP Rasim Musabekov is sure that the reintegration plan is designed for a long period of time and implies a lot of activities in various directions. 

In his conversation with Turan he named the tasks to be fulfilled first and in a short period of time with the help of RPC: surrender of weapons available to the population, delivery of food to people, dissolution of illegal military formations, withdrawal of Armenian army units from Azerbaijan; patrolling of the territory by the military to prevent looting. The electricity grid of the Karabakh economic region is integrated into the electricity system of Azerbaijan; other utility systems will be further integrated with simultaneous disconnection from Armenia. Telephone, gas, internet, water supply will be controlled from Baku," Musabekov predicted.

The reintegration plan includes the local adoption of Azerbaijani symbols of constitutional authority and the elimination of symbols of the past regime - flag, coat of arms, anthem, including the decoration of settlements with state symbols.

The next stage may include the introduction of an Azerbaijani financial and tax system. Transition of education, health care systems, etc. may be in the future," the MP added. A complex package of works can also be entrusted to local elected (municipal) authorities, but Azerbaijan cannot co-operate with the executive authorities in the Armenian-populated part of the Karabakh economic region," he added.

According to MP Arzu Nagiyev, the reintegration plan includes disarming illegal military formations, surrendering weapons, counting and registering military equipment. Special commissions should be set up for this purpose," Nagiyev told Turan.

He believes that the reintegration plan is primarily a social package, which includes providing the population with food; schools, hospitals, kindergartens with necessary means and goods. "It is necessary to issue pensions to Karabakh Armenians, it is possible to issue all pensions for 30 years of occupation," MP Arzu Nagiyev told Turan. 

Head of the Centre for Political Innovation and Technology (CPIT) Mubariz Ahmedoglu, speaking to Turan, described the plan as a package of proposals for informal cultural autonomy for Armenians in Azerbaijan's Karabakh economic region.

According to Ahmedoglu, "the document from the Presidential Administration lists the rights of Azerbaijani Armenians on freedom of use of language, religion, culture and social issues. They can create media in their own language, govern their region through municipal governments elected by the local population. The population will get the same rights that all citizens of the country have, with due regard for their ethnic characteristics," Ahmedoglu said.-0-