STEPANAKERT. - Humanitarian issues cannot be solved without the regulation of political ones.

Spokesperson for the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR/Artsakh) President, Davit Babayan, stated the aforementioned at a press-conference on Saturday, commenting upon the request of Armenian News – NEWS.am on the subsequent statement of the Azerbaijani MFA regarding refugees.

“We have repeatedly stated that the issues of humanitarian nature should be solved at the last stage of the settlement. Nevertheless, the issue concerns refugees and internally displaced persons, who have already suffered once. We can’t put people’s fates at risk for the second time,” Babayan said.

According to Babayan, the data presented by the Azerbaijani side “regarding over 1 mln refugees” are strongly exaggerated. “Unless political prisoners and people who fled Azerbaijan as a result of the deteriorating economic situation and pressure from the authorities are [also] considered refugees,” Babayan stressed, adding that according to certain sources, during the recent years over 2 mln Azerbaijani citizens have left the country for the aforementioned reasons.

The Spokesperson also recalled that the Azerbaijani side obstinately ignores the issue of Armenian refugees: “Making statements on the presence of the Azerbaijani refugees and keeping silence on the issue of Armenian refugees is a discrimination and gross violation of international law. One category of refugees cannot be presented as victims, forgetting about the other category.”

In Babayan’s words, such a conduct shows that neither Aliyev nor his clan, and not even the Azerbaijani authorities are ready to take specific steps aimed at the [conflict] settlement, the mention about the refugees being nothing but an attempt to deflect attention.