Azerbaijani Refugees Long for Return
Refugees from Shusha look back with bitterness and longing on their homeland.
Azerbaijani Refugees Long for Return
Refugees from Shusha look back with bitterness and longing on their homeland.
A month ago in the village of Ramani, 20 kilometres from the Azerbaijani capital Baku, a new housing complex was opened for refugees.
There is not a single tree growing around the neat white buildings, so there is no shade when the sun stands high in the sky. Despite the heat, there are so many children out playing football that you could be forgiven for thinking that no adults live here. Inside the houses, however, women are going about their household duties.
Of the 450 Azerbaijani families who have been housed in this new settlement, 400 are from the city of Shusha in Nagorny Karabakh. Expelled from their homes in 1992 by the Armenians, they initially lived in a sanatorium at Zagulba, near Baku.
A middle-aged woman sat on the steps of House No. 96 – nothing here has been given proper name yet – and looks into the distance. The possessions scattered around outside suggest that the owners have not yet moved in properly.
Every refugee family here has been given a one-, two- or three-room house with a plot of land. They have water, gas and electricity and the new village will have a school, a music school, a medical clinic, a post office and a municipal building.
The head of the household at No. 96, Niyaz Mamedov, came out to greet us and was happy to talk to visiting journalists. Mamedov comes from the village of Malibeyli near Shusha - which the Armenians call Shushi – and says he cannot call this new house home.
An old chest in the corner of the room attracted the IWPR contributors’ attention. Without putting down her granddaughter, Garanfil Mamedova said that it was the only possession they were able to rescue from Malibeyli.
“We don’t need permanent accommodation in Baku,” said Mamedov. “As soon as our lands are liberated, we will leave these houses behind and return to our own Shusha. And we won’t take anything with us. Just as we left Shusha without a thing, we will return. We simply need to set foot on that land again.”
Mamedov and his family left Malibeyli, an Azerbaijani village of 4,500 people, in February 1992. Under heavy fire from the attacking Armenian forces, they escaped through the woods.
“People walked for a long time along the forest paths, with nothing to eat,” he said. “We just ate snow. Some people died from bullet wounds, others from cold and hunger. And we had to leave the dead behind us.”
Most of these refugees or internally displaced persons, IDPs, do not have jobs. Those who do tend to work as traders. Niyaz Mamedov earns money by doing carpentry. Otherwise, each person gets an allowance of nine manats (10.50 US dollars) a month “for bread”.
Mamedov does not believe that Shusha can be recovered by peaceful means, and doubts that the Armenians will give up such a beautiful city and its fertile lands so easily. But he insists that he is ready to live alongside his Armenian neighbours, just as they did before.
“I think that when we return, the security of the population will be guaranteed,” he said.
Rima Mursalova, the head teacher of Malibeyli’s old secondary school which has been resurrected in the new settlement, also has memories of good relationships with the Armenians.
“We trusted them, like close neighbours,” she said. “From the balcony of our house you could see Khankendi [which the Armenians call Stepanakert, the capital of Karabakh] as if it were in the palm of your hand.”
Mursalova sees no prospect of that kind of friendship again – although she says she does not want to see another war and more bloodshed.
“We have a saying that you can’t wash away blood with blood,” she said. “But it’s also very hard to forget what happened. The Armenians wiped out several families from our village, from adults to children. Whole families, do you understand? How can we forget that?”
Some of those who fled Shusha in 1992 have never recovered from the disaster.
Sixty-four-year-old Vesilia Salimova lives in one room in a hostel belonging to Baku’s Oil Academy, together with her son and his family. Her husband died three years ago.
She cannot hold back the tears as she recalls the day she had to leave Shusha. “I know it won’t be easy to live as neighbours with the Armenians again, but if we can have our lands back I am prepared to put up with that,” she said.
The town and surrounding region of Shusha, which had an Azerbaijani majority population in Soviet times, will be one of the most contentious issues when presidents Ilham Aliev and Robert Kocharian discuss Karabakh at their forthcoming talks in St Petersburg.
It is virtually accepted that almost all of the Azerbaijani territories around Nagorny Karabakh which are currently under Armenian control will be returned to Azerbaijani rule under any peace agreement. But the fate of Shusha, right in the heart of Karabakh, will be much more problematic.
According to Elhan Alekperov, who is deputy mayor of Shusha’s city administration in exile, there are now 27,200 IDPs from Shusha region – 3,000 more than when the town was taken by the Armenians in 1992.
Alekperov said that none of them live in makeshift accommodation - they are mainly housed in hostels, sanatoria or hotels.
He said that it was hard to tackle the problem of high unemployment, but his administration did what it could to find jobs for Shusha exiles.
Alekperov argued that under any final deal, Nagorny Karabakh should be granted the status of an autonomous region only as part of a unified Azerbaijan.
“If they would just return our lands to us, then we could live as neighbours alongside the Armenians,” he said. “If they submit to the laws and constitution of Azerbaijan, why wouldn’t we live in peace with them?”
But he warned, “If they don’t agree to that, then they should leave Karabakh. We are not planning to give up the lands of our fathers and grandfathers to the Armenians.”
Tabib Husseinov, a political scientist who comes from Shusha, said that the public either side of the conflict lines was not being kept informed about the details of the peace process.
He was doubtful about a proposal to hold a referendum in five or ten years’ time – an option being discussed in the peace talks - to determine the status of Nagorny Karabakh, saying this could be a mechanism by which the territory’s Armenian majority dictated terms to the Azerbaijani minority.
“Under those circumstances, the Azerbaijanis would not want to return to Karabakh,” Husseinov said. “It could become a time-bomb for the peace process. In the run-up to the referendum, each side could begin fighting to change the demographics in its own favour. This would do no good at all for a peaceful resolution of the problem.”
He said the question of Karabakh’s final status must be resolved by both sides through consensus, otherwise there will be no chance of a long-lasting peace.
That suggest that the IDPs who fled from Shusha 15 years ago will have to wait for a long time.
“In the morning when I wake up, I can still smell Malibeyli,” said Rima Mursalova. “It’s a very strange feeling. However much support they give us, the spiritual emptiness inside never gets filled.
“We pray to God to prolong our lives so that we see Shusha again.”
Joshqun Eldaroglu is a journalist with the Azadliq newspaper, and Aynur Haqverdiyeva works for the Merkez paper, both in Baku. They are members of IWPR’s Cross-Caucasus Journalism Network project. Editor’s note: the terminology used in this article to describe the Nagorny Karabakh conflict was chosen by IWPR and not by the authors.
There is not a single tree growing around the neat white buildings, so there is no shade when the sun stands high in the sky. Despite the heat, there are so many children out playing football that you could be forgiven for thinking that no adults live here. Inside the houses, however, women are going about their household duties.
Of the 450 Azerbaijani families who have been housed in this new settlement, 400 are from the city of Shusha in Nagorny Karabakh. Expelled from their homes in 1992 by the Armenians, they initially lived in a sanatorium at Zagulba, near Baku.
A middle-aged woman sat on the steps of House No. 96 – nothing here has been given proper name yet – and looks into the distance. The possessions scattered around outside suggest that the owners have not yet moved in properly.
Every refugee family here has been given a one-, two- or three-room house with a plot of land. They have water, gas and electricity and the new village will have a school, a music school, a medical clinic, a post office and a municipal building.
The head of the household at No. 96, Niyaz Mamedov, came out to greet us and was happy to talk to visiting journalists. Mamedov comes from the village of Malibeyli near Shusha - which the Armenians call Shushi – and says he cannot call this new house home.
An old chest in the corner of the room attracted the IWPR contributors’ attention. Without putting down her granddaughter, Garanfil Mamedova said that it was the only possession they were able to rescue from Malibeyli.
“We don’t need permanent accommodation in Baku,” said Mamedov. “As soon as our lands are liberated, we will leave these houses behind and return to our own Shusha. And we won’t take anything with us. Just as we left Shusha without a thing, we will return. We simply need to set foot on that land again.”
Mamedov and his family left Malibeyli, an Azerbaijani village of 4,500 people, in February 1992. Under heavy fire from the attacking Armenian forces, they escaped through the woods.
“People walked for a long time along the forest paths, with nothing to eat,” he said. “We just ate snow. Some people died from bullet wounds, others from cold and hunger. And we had to leave the dead behind us.”
Most of these refugees or internally displaced persons, IDPs, do not have jobs. Those who do tend to work as traders. Niyaz Mamedov earns money by doing carpentry. Otherwise, each person gets an allowance of nine manats (10.50 US dollars) a month “for bread”.
Mamedov does not believe that Shusha can be recovered by peaceful means, and doubts that the Armenians will give up such a beautiful city and its fertile lands so easily. But he insists that he is ready to live alongside his Armenian neighbours, just as they did before.
“I think that when we return, the security of the population will be guaranteed,” he said.
Rima Mursalova, the head teacher of Malibeyli’s old secondary school which has been resurrected in the new settlement, also has memories of good relationships with the Armenians.
“We trusted them, like close neighbours,” she said. “From the balcony of our house you could see Khankendi [which the Armenians call Stepanakert, the capital of Karabakh] as if it were in the palm of your hand.”
Mursalova sees no prospect of that kind of friendship again – although she says she does not want to see another war and more bloodshed.
“We have a saying that you can’t wash away blood with blood,” she said. “But it’s also very hard to forget what happened. The Armenians wiped out several families from our village, from adults to children. Whole families, do you understand? How can we forget that?”
Some of those who fled Shusha in 1992 have never recovered from the disaster.
Sixty-four-year-old Vesilia Salimova lives in one room in a hostel belonging to Baku’s Oil Academy, together with her son and his family. Her husband died three years ago.
She cannot hold back the tears as she recalls the day she had to leave Shusha. “I know it won’t be easy to live as neighbours with the Armenians again, but if we can have our lands back I am prepared to put up with that,” she said.
The town and surrounding region of Shusha, which had an Azerbaijani majority population in Soviet times, will be one of the most contentious issues when presidents Ilham Aliev and Robert Kocharian discuss Karabakh at their forthcoming talks in St Petersburg.
It is virtually accepted that almost all of the Azerbaijani territories around Nagorny Karabakh which are currently under Armenian control will be returned to Azerbaijani rule under any peace agreement. But the fate of Shusha, right in the heart of Karabakh, will be much more problematic.
According to Elhan Alekperov, who is deputy mayor of Shusha’s city administration in exile, there are now 27,200 IDPs from Shusha region – 3,000 more than when the town was taken by the Armenians in 1992.
Alekperov said that none of them live in makeshift accommodation - they are mainly housed in hostels, sanatoria or hotels.
He said that it was hard to tackle the problem of high unemployment, but his administration did what it could to find jobs for Shusha exiles.
Alekperov argued that under any final deal, Nagorny Karabakh should be granted the status of an autonomous region only as part of a unified Azerbaijan.
“If they would just return our lands to us, then we could live as neighbours alongside the Armenians,” he said. “If they submit to the laws and constitution of Azerbaijan, why wouldn’t we live in peace with them?”
But he warned, “If they don’t agree to that, then they should leave Karabakh. We are not planning to give up the lands of our fathers and grandfathers to the Armenians.”
Tabib Husseinov, a political scientist who comes from Shusha, said that the public either side of the conflict lines was not being kept informed about the details of the peace process.
He was doubtful about a proposal to hold a referendum in five or ten years’ time – an option being discussed in the peace talks - to determine the status of Nagorny Karabakh, saying this could be a mechanism by which the territory’s Armenian majority dictated terms to the Azerbaijani minority.
“Under those circumstances, the Azerbaijanis would not want to return to Karabakh,” Husseinov said. “It could become a time-bomb for the peace process. In the run-up to the referendum, each side could begin fighting to change the demographics in its own favour. This would do no good at all for a peaceful resolution of the problem.”
He said the question of Karabakh’s final status must be resolved by both sides through consensus, otherwise there will be no chance of a long-lasting peace.
That suggest that the IDPs who fled from Shusha 15 years ago will have to wait for a long time.
“In the morning when I wake up, I can still smell Malibeyli,” said Rima Mursalova. “It’s a very strange feeling. However much support they give us, the spiritual emptiness inside never gets filled.
“We pray to God to prolong our lives so that we see Shusha again.”
Joshqun Eldaroglu is a journalist with the Azadliq newspaper, and Aynur Haqverdiyeva works for the Merkez paper, both in Baku. They are members of IWPR’s Cross-Caucasus Journalism Network project. Editor’s note: the terminology used in this article to describe the Nagorny Karabakh conflict was chosen by IWPR and not by the authors.
