Azerbaijani rights defenders reproach officials for indifference to the problems of dead soldiers' families

In some cases, in order to bring their problems to the authorities, family members of perished soldiers have to resort to protest actions, Azerbaijani human rights defenders have noted.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 3, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Labour reported about the appointment of payments to family members of the militaries who perished during the last autumn aggravation of the Karabakh conflict. More than 7000 family members will receive payments, the ministry has explained.

For a long time, the situation with payments to families of the killed military personnel remained unresolved, said Telman Abilov, the head of the NGO "Military Lawyers". "For many years we had been seeking for one-time social payments to the families of the shaheeds (martyrs) of the First Karabakh War," Mr Abilov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

In order for the casualties' families to receive payments, the intervention of the country's president was needed, he said. "After protest actions, the president ordered that everyone be given money. We have such a practice – in order to draw attention to a problem, we have to go out to streets," the human rights defender has complained.

He explained that today, authorities are showing attention to families of perished militaries because of the increased control by the public. "On the wave of patriotic upsurge, the society itself takes care of martyrs. <...> The main thing is to preserve this trend so that officials feel public control," Mr Abilov has concluded.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 6, 2021 at 09:55 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.