On May 4, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev attended opening ceremony of a new settlement for internally displaced persons (IDP) constructed near Ramana village in Sabunchi district of Baku.

The President and first lady Mrs. Mehriban Aliyeva were warmly greeted here by Ramana residents.

Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan, Chairman of the State Committee for Refugee and IDP Affairs Ali Hasanov informed the Head of State that 450 IDP families - 400 from Shusha and 50 from Agdam, Lachin, Khojaly and Khojavend - had been moved to the settlement from their temporary habitations in Zagulba health centre, and buildings, which he said were absolutely unfit to live in.

He advised that construction of the settlement started last December finished on April 10. Covering an area of 80 hectares, the settlement contains 450 houses, 360-seat secondary school, music school, outpatient medical room, post office and its administrative building. Its facilities also include 16 km long asphalt-paved road, 21 km long water pipe, 19 km long power transmission lines, 27 km long gas pipe and 34 km long sewerage pipeline, as well as ten 400 and 250 KW and one 10 MW transformers, two 500 cbm water reservoirs and pumping station. The construction worth 37.4 million manats was funded by the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan.

President Ilham Aliyev visited children’s music school, where he listened to performances by chorus, viewed photos depicting great leader Heydar Aliyev’s visit to Shuha in 1982, and had his picture taken together with students. He also was a guest of Jafarov family from Malibeyli village of Susha. The President said the internally displaced people will continue to be a focus of the government’s attention, and that not a single camp will remain by the end of the year. He also expressed confidence in liberation of the occupied lands of Azerbaijan. On behalf of the President, the family was presented with a refrigerator and TV set.

The Head of State also visited a 360-seat secondary school, where he toured its gym, computer room and English classroom.

President Ilham Aliyev made a speech at the ceremony.

He highly valued the quality of the work done. “There are all necessary conditions for normal habitation, work and education. This is yet another manifestation of the work carried out in Azerbaijan over the past years,” the President said.

He expressed confidence that the last refugee camp will be removed until the end of this year. “It is the main direction of our policy… We must temporarily provide normal living conditions to our compatriots ousted form their homes as a result of Armenia’s policy of ethnic cleansing.” he said.

Speaking of the Azerbaijan’s economic capabilities, the President noted that today they allow the country to solve all the tasks set. “It is for the third year in a row that we are leading the world in economic growth rate. It manifests itself in life of every citizen including refugees, internally displaced people, teachers, doctors, those working in both state-owned organizations and private sector,” he said.

Liberation of Azerbaijani lands from occupation forces and return of refugees and internally displaced people to their homes is what the President described as the most important problem to be solved. “We do not have more important tasks to solve since solution to all others are found and will be found,” he said.

President Ilham Aliyev dwelt on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. He expressed concern that it remains unresolved despite over 10 years of talks. “How much longer should we adhere to these talks? We repeatedly confirmed our peace loving policy yet the whole world is aware of injustice towards us. Armenian armed forces occupied our lands, carried out policy of ethnic cleansing, killed innocent people, ruined our cities, razed our mosques to the ground and destroyed graves of our ancestors. Nevertheless, we are trying and we will try for some time to solve the problem through negotiations because we do not want more blood to be shed, and our young people to become shahids. At the same time, we must be ready at any time to liberate our lands by military way, with the strength of arms. To this end we are creating a powerful army,” he said.

The President stressed that territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is recognized and supported by the whole world. “Nagorno-Karabakh is an integral part of Azerbaijan,” he said.

The Azerbaijani leader qualified as political victory the fact that not only seven regions of Azerbaijan but also Nagorno-Karabakh are now internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory occupied by Armenia. “It is our great victory because in previous years, important structures and organizations dealing directly with this issue did not use such wording,” he said.

“I repeatedly stated that the problem can be solved only in the framework of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. Armenian nation has already self-determined. It has its own state, the state of Armenia. Should they self-determine one more time let the people living in Karabakh move to Armenia and self-determine there,” President Aliyev said.

“Our demand is that all occupied territories must be unconditionally liberated. At the current stage of negotiations, we have agreed on liberation of seven regions from occupation forces and their return to Azerbaijan. Of course, we realize that we can achieve it stage by stage, but this stage should not be long-lasting. We demand that after a peace treaty signed, seven regions be returned in a few years, with Azerbaijanis who lived in Nagorno-Karabakh returning homes. This is our principled condition,” he said.

The President noted than Nagorno-Karabakh may be given a status but only in the framework of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. “This is a main condition. We will not take a single step back from this position. It is gratifying that international organizations including OSCE, which is directly dealing with this problem, share our position as well.

The President did not rule out temporary deployment of peacekeeping forces in the conflict zone.

He called not to believe rumors and insinuations on the course of negotiations that he said pursues political objectives. “I want to assure you once again that the Azerbaijani government will never take a step contradicting our national interests. We will defend our homeland and restore our territorial integrity,” he said.