Armenia providing homes for refugees from Azerbaijan

In spite of some measures taken in the previous years, refugees from Azerbaijan remain among the most indigent segments of society, so their inclusion in a strategic poverty reduction program is not accidental. This is what Ovik Abramyan, Minister of Territorial Administration and Production Infrastructure, said at a meeting of the interdepartmental commission coordinating work on the implementation of a priority housing program for people who were forcibly deported from Azerbaijan in 1988-92. Ovik Abramyan also said the most important issue for those people was that of housing. The government's May 20, 2004, decision N747 "On the priority housing program for people deported from Azerbaijan in 1988-92" approved a program for providing the 3,470 most indigent refugee families with flats, according to him. The cost of the program exceeds $16.2 million, including $5 million to be invested by the government in accordance with a medium-term spending program for 2005-07, while the remaining part will be furnished by international charitable organizations, as the commission hopes. At the meeting, members of the commission were assigned conducting negotiations with representatives of the potential donor organizations within a twenty days' period and to submit summaries of proposals received for the commission to discuss. As observers, the meeting was attended by representatives of the UN Development Programme, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, US Agency for International Development, World Bank, and a number of other international organizations.