The return of internally displaced persons should be stimulated

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- On January 6, at a meeting dedicated to the results of 2020, the President said that polls should be conducted among internally displaced persons. They should be asked if they want to return home or not? How should this issue be resolved? Is it the right step to determine the return of IDPs on a voluntary basis?

-Perhaps such a survey is important for planning, scaling, allocating funds for the upcoming work, but socializing this issue also has its shortcoming. First, during the occupation, there were those in society who formed the opinion that “the refugees will never return,” and a bad attitude was formed towards the people of these regions. Most of the elderly settlers died, and all of their children may perceive the beginning of a new life as a difficulty and refuse to return to their homes. I do not believe that this will be a large percentage. Most importantly, mistrust may appear among the Azerbaijani migrants who are to return to 51 settlements in Upper Karabakh, which may become the subject of counter-propaganda from the Armenian side.

That is why the return of immigrants to their homeland should be started from the Upper Karabakh, in order to take into account the voluntariness when returning to other liberated places.  Those who have housing and other property here should be deprived of his once lost property in the liberated territories - that is, the actual land plot. The Cabinet of Ministers has to prepare rules regulating the return, and the questions raised must be clarified. My personal opinion is that it would be more strategically useful for the state if, at the initial stage, resettlement were based not on the principle of voluntariness, but on administrative methods.

- But if the opinion of the internally displaced persons is not taken into account in this issue, does it violate the rights of citizens?

-After the completion of the restoration and construction work in the occupied territories and the creation of normal living conditions, there will be no need for coercion. Some of the settlers who see the ruins are reluctant to return because of the hard living conditions in the area. Tomorrow the Karabakh region will become one of the most promising places for life, people from other regions will also flock there. Once again, I declare that no one can be forced to live somewhere, but, taking into account the fundamental aspects of the issue, the state can create such rules and incentive plans that there will be no need for any coercion. In general, I consider it wrong to publish the answer to the question "are you coming back or not." Secondly, let the settlers themselves think more deeply about the fact that in the case of a compact settlement of people in their small homeland, life will be interesting, and their strength as a society will then be felt.

- A question that worries internally displaced persons is the condition for safe living there with the Armenians. That is, for many years these two nations have looked at each other as enemies. True, we understand that these Armenians are our citizens. However, the coexistence of two nations warring for more than 30 years will not go without incidents. We are currently seeing examples of this in Hadrut, in Tuga. Even in the videos, which are distributed, we see that the Armenians living in Khankendi are concerned about the presence of Azerbaijani soldiers in Shusha. How should this issue be regulated? Will cohabitation be possible?

- I have said many times, and I repeat again: this is not our problem; this is the problem of Armenians. We will live on our land; let the Armenians think about how they will live together with the Azerbaijanis. This problem will force the Armenians, who are more inclined to migrate, to leave gradually Karabakh. Security issues in the initial period should be carried out by both Azerbaijani state structures and Russian peacekeepers. State structures responsible for security on both sides must punish by law those who disturb the order, pose a threat to prevent this from happening again. However, today all Armenians declare that if they join Azerbaijan, they will move to Russia or Armenia. We affirm that if the issue of status is discussed in the future, the territories not under our control today will be under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Azerbaijan. There is no alternative to this. If the Armenians want, let them live, if not, then let them go to the territory of the Russian state, which once resettled them here.

- Another problem also worries people. They believe that they should not suffer all their lives because they are Karabakh residents. There are internally displaced persons who have lived in carriages and tents for many years. For many years, they tried to create conditions for their children, to build a house. Is it now fair to doom them again to live in places where conditions for normal life are completely absent? Probably, most people had houses there, where, in their opinion, there were normal conditions for life. Now the restoration of these houses to their previous form does not seem plausible. How to solve the question whether these people move back to the place without any conditions?

- I have told already that the reason to think so is the absence of restoration and construction work and normal living conditions. Naturally, no one should move to destroyed places. There are also such displaced persons who, without expecting anything, unequivocally declare that they will return to their native lands and restore everything at their own expense. The state creates normal living conditions for them, provides  them with housing provided to him here, allocates normal funds for the construction of a private house, property, but if the refugee does not want to transfer an apartment, land plot acquired in Baku or elsewhere, and does not return, the state must demand the privatization of this property. That is, both incentives should be created and administrative methods should be used. When the resettlement is completed, then let people live wherever they want on the planet, let him migrate there.

Now both the state and the migrants should conduct propaganda under the slogan “Should everyone return?”, and not conduct a poll “Who wants to return?”

-Another question is jobs. How to solve the issue with internally displaced persons who make a business here and do not want to return to the liberated territories?

- For the return of the population, along with the standard state jobs of each district the state should open additional facilities, jobs, create broad conditions for the private sector, prevent monopolization, and use profitable benefits to attract foreign investment. The main thing is that, as is customary in legal states, foreign business should feel a guarantee.

The local population is also quite capable, and if conditions are created for this, and Agdam is declared a free economic zone, rapid development is inevitable.

In addition, by transferring some organizations of republican significance to Karabakh, it is possible to revive these places, and at the same time solve the problem of jobs. At one time, Karabakh was built by the population itself, and now the main burden will fall on the local population. Where there is love for the Motherland, everything will be fine.