Azerbaijan to file a claim against Armenia on damage brought by military operations

By AzerNews

Azerbaijan is conducting an evaluation of material and cultural losses inflicted by the military operations of the Armenian armed forces.

The evaluation is done in accordance with international standards at current market prices, Azerbaijani MP and head of the designated working group told Trend news agency.

The working group was established for this purpose in October 2013 according to the Cabinet of Ministers' decree.

Professor Khanhuseyn Kazimli said 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories have been occupied by the Armenian armed forces for more than 20 years and 560 kilometers of Azerbaijan's borders are not under control, stressing that this area is beyond the control of not only Azerbaijan, but also the UN.

Kazimli said that Azerbaijan was subjected to 373 cases of terror acts by Armenia from 1987 to 1994.

According to him, Azerbaijan has to cope with the socio-economic problems of more than a million refugees expelled from their homes, including those who have become internally displaced during the occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and its surrounding areas and the difficulties of living in a state of war since 1988.

He said that the Azerbaijani government intends to appeal to international courts in connection with the evaluation and payment of the total damage inflicted on Azerbaijan by Armenia's occupation of its territory.

Kazimli said that the corresponding work is carried out and near completion in this regard.

"Starting the process of damage evaluation should be a serious signal for Armenia, and Yerevan should learn a lesson. If 15-16 years ago, the amount of the damage was $110-$120 billion, according to today's estimation it has grown five-fold. In this regard, a serious investigation will be carried out and the exact amount of the damages will be announced," Kazimli said.

A working group consisting of 15 people operates under the state commission for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

The Presidential Administration, as well as Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the State Committee on Refugees and IDPs Ali Hasanov, and a number of ministries and committees assist in the activity of the group.

The goal of the group is the evaluation of the damage with the participation of international organizations and in accordance with international standards.

Moreover, the working group has started the process of estimating the damage inflicted to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic by Armenia.

As a result of the Armenian aggression and separatism in the early 1990s, overland communications between the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and the rest of Azerbaijan were completely broken off.

Ali Hasanov said earlier that the damage caused to Azerbaijan by the Armenian aggression is estimated at $300 billion. He noted that if Armenia fails to relinquish its non-constructive position, Azerbaijan will demand payment of these funds as compensation.

For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict which emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place since 1994, but long-standing efforts by US, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far. Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on its pullout from the neighboring country's territories.