Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

The European Parliament hosted a conference "Ethnic minorities in Azerbaijan", eunews.az web portal reported on October 16.

The conference was co-organized by MEP George Shepflin and international organization "Human Rights without Frontiers."

The main purpose of the event was presentation of this organization's report on living conditions of ethnic minorities in Azerbaijan.

The opening of conference by political adviser to the organization Mark Barwick and MEP Shepflin was followed by speeches by "Human Rights without Frontiers" Head Willy Fautre.

Fautre said Azerbaijan has more than 15,000 representatives of national minorities, but intermarriage between ethnic groups has led ad to erasing of boundaries.

He noted that there are no obstacles in Azerbaijan for the protection of social integration and ethnic values, culture and language of the representatives of national minorities.

"Azerbaijan is home to 120,000 Russians, who first arrived in Azerbaijan in 1800. The second wave of Russians arrived in Azerbaijan after the Russian-Persian war. Since then, first relationship between Orthodox Christians and Muslims began to take shape. The third wave of Russians came after the capture of the Azerbaijani territories by USSR," Fautre said.

He said there is an opportunity in Azerbaijan to receive education in secondary schools and universities in Russian.

Fautre also added that Azerbaijan is home to three different groups of Jews and six synagogues are operating there.