Mikayil Jabbarov: Since 1989, Azerbaijan faced an influx of refugees
Baku, May 20, AZERTAC
"Until 1991, Azerbaijan was part of the Soviet Union, and in this sense, although informal housing and slums existed, they were never acknowledged as a subject of state policy," said Minister of Economy, Mikayil Jabbarov, at the WUF13 event titled " Transforming Informal Settlements and Slums for Housing the World."
According to him, starting back in the Soviet period in 1989, Azerbaijan faced a constant, continuous influx of ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Armenia, refugees, as well as internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the occupied territories.
"To show you the scale, in 1994, the economy of Azerbaijan was one-third of what it was in 1991. Naturally, this caused additional pressure. Last but not least, over the next decade, processes of forced social migration, driven mainly by economic hardships, were added to the overall picture. All this was happening against the backdrop of a demographic boom: while the country had a population of 7 million when it established its independence, it became a nation of 10 million over the next 25 years," the Minister added.
M. Jabbarov noted that the overall picture was such that one out of every eight citizens in the country was either a refugee or an internally displaced person.
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