Families of perished Azerbaijani soldiers demand compensation from authorities

Participants of a march held in Baku have expressed their dissatisfaction with the fact that officials had refused to pay compensations for deaths of their relatives during the Karabakh conflict.

In spring 2018, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev signed an order, prescribing to pay one-time compensations to families of those killed or went missing during the warfare in 1991-1997. The amount of the compensation was determined at 11,000 manats (about 6450 US dollars).

Payments began on October 9, but a number of families were denied compensations. Officials explained that these families had already received compensations earlier. The protesters expressed their outrage about these refusals.

Family members of those perished, mostly women, tried to march down the main street of the capital to the building of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan, but they were stopped by the police. Law enforcers suggested, instead of a march, to send two or three persons to the Administration.

"We regard this as a violation of our rights, disrespect for the families of shahids (the perished soldiers, – note of the "Caucasian Knot"). We want a compensation of 11,000 manats," said one of the women-participants of the action.

Despite the opposition of the police, the protesters continued their march, the "Turan" News Agency has reported today.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 6, 2018 at 05:29 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.