Azernews.Az

Chairman of the State Committee for Refugees and IDPs Rovshan Rzayev met on 2 August with a group of journalists and media experts working in the United States and accredited at the UN headquarters, Azernews reports.

The State Committee reported that at the meeting the guests were provided with detailed information on the heavy consequences of the deportation and occupation policy of Armenia, the deprivation faced by more than one million Azerbaijanis expelled from their homelands, organization of their social protection, directions of activity of the State Committee, as well as the situation after the 44-day Patriotic War and works on the Great Return.

It was noted that refugees and IDPs are constantly surrounded by the attention and care of the state, and solution to their problems is defined by President Ilham Aliyev as one of the priority directions of social policy. First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva pays special attention to IDPs. Purposeful work is carried out on the return of IDPs in conditions of safety and dignity. Necessary measures are taken in the territories liberated from occupation to resettle IDPs and ensure their employment. Already 86 families (420 persons) have been resettled in the village of Agali in Zangilan district, which has been rebuilt on the basis of the "Smart Village" concept, 20 families (94 persons) in the village of Talish in Tarter district, and 180 families (700 persons) in the town of Lachin.

The guests were also informed about the committee's ties with international organizations and jointly implemented projects.

Then, the chairman and authorized officers of the State Committee answered the journalists' questions.

The initiator of the trip of foreign media representatives to our country - the employee of the American Bureau of the Report news agency, journalist Vusala Abbasova, who continues her studies at Yale University, noted that the purpose of the visit was to inform the world about the atrocities committed by the Armenians in our historical lands, the works carried out for the restoration and improvement of the liberated territories, as well as the situation in the region in the post-war period.

The guests visited Fizuli and Zangilan districts and saw with their own eyes the destruction committed during the occupation and the creative works being carried out at present.

The delegation of foreign journalists included Afram Kosafi, the head of the United Nations Arab News Bureau, a war journalist of world-renowned media (Fox TV, CNN, Al Jazeera) who has worked in conflict zones in Afghanistan, Iraq, and South Lebanon, and a correspondent of the influential Colombian television network (Caracol TV and Canal 1) in New York and Washington, renowned blogger Paola Vargas, founder and editor-in-chief of Schirach Report Paolo von Schirach, a photojournalist at the US Bureau of Anadolu Agency, founder of Turkish Journal Selcuk Ajar and president of RC Communications, renowned journalist and political commentator Calvin Darke.

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