The Azerbaijani government has sent more assistance to Turkey to aid victims of Sunday’s deadly earthquake, according to Azerbaijan’s emergencies ministry.
The ministry on Wednesday dispatched a convoy of cars to the Turkish Van region on President Ilham Aliyev’s orders. The vehicles carried 1,000 tents, 40 power generators, 40 kitchenware kits and over 2,000 blankets.
The Azerbaijani government earlier sent three planes to Turkey carrying rescue workers and first aid items.
Azerbaijan’s emergencies ministry has sent three planes to Turkey to assist the neighboring country in eliminating the aftermath of Sunday’s devastating earthquake.
About 270 people were killed and at least 1,140 wounded in the 7.2 magnitude quake in eastern Turkey, which left many buildings cracked or collapsed. The death toll was expected to rise as rescue officials feared for the many who remained trapped under rubble.
BAKU – The African Union has thanked Azerbaijan for its financial aid worth $100,000 provided to Somali to help eliminate the humanitarian crisis there.
African Union Commission chairperson Jean Ping expressed the gratitude to the Azerbaijani president, government and people in a letter sent to Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry told AssA-Irada.
BAKU – Torrential rains that occurred in past days have caused floods in several Azerbaijani regions, damaging homes and infrastructure.
The floods inflicted considerable damage to the northern and northwestern regions, with heavy rainfall reported in Guba, as well as in Gabala and Ismayilli.
Several villages were inundated, with dams ruined and bridges becoming unsafe, and damage was inflicted to private homes and the rural economy.
The Azerbaijani government has allocated about 60 million manat for reconstruction after the floodling of the Kur and Araz rivers, head of Irrigation and Water Management Ahmad Ahmadzade told media.
He said this amount will be used for operations to strengthen dams.
He said tabout 1-1.5 million manat were allocated for reconstruction over the past 10 years.
"The state operates to prevent floods," he said. "This activity depends on the economic and financial opportunities in the country."
BAKU – 3.7 billion manats (over $4.6 billion) was spent in 1993-2011 in assistance to the Azerbaijanis displaced from their homes during the war with Armenia in the early 1990s, a senior official has said.
KIEV – Azerbaijan has allocated $1 million to Ukraine, joining world powers in their efforts to remove the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster, the world's worst nuclear accident, Ukrainian media reported.
BAKU - An Azerbaijani civilian was severely
wounded by Armenian armed forces on Tuesday afternoon.
The 58-year-old woman, a resident of
a village in Azerbaijan's frontline Aghdam region, received two bullet
wounds outside her home.
A fragile ceasefire has been in place
between the two countries since a brutal war in the 1990s that claimed
some 30,000 lives and displaced about one million Azerbaijanis. OSCE-brokered
peace talks have been largely fruitless so far and sporadic clashes on
the frontline continue.
BAKU - Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov has called on the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) members
to increase their support for a swift resolution of the long-standing Nagorno
Karabakh conflict with Armenia.
"The occupation of 20% of the territory
of Azerbaijan by neighboring Armenia and the existence of 1 million refugees
and IDPs in our country remains one of the major impediments for the stability,
development and prosperity of the ECO region. In this regard, the organization
and its member states should extend their resolute and consistent support
BAKU - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
on Wednesday attended a ceremony to inaugurate a complex of houses for
IDPs in Yevlakh.
Accompanied by first lady Mehriban Aliyeva,
the president toured the complex.
10 five-storied buildings have a total
of 612 apartments. The complex has its own 50-seat kindergarten and schools
with the total capacity of 440 students.
The President also attended the opening
of a secondary school in the settlement
BAKU - The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk
Group brokering settlement to the Upper (Nagorno) Karabakh conflict have
issued a statement assessing their visit to the Armenia-occupied territories
surrounding Azerbaijan's Nagorno Karabakh region.
The Field Assessment Mission took place
October 7-13. The mission was supported by OSCE Personal Representative
of the Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk and his staff. On the mediators'
invitation, three technical experts, including two from the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), assisted them in their tasks, said
NEW YORK - UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon has supported the initiative to remove snipers from the contact
line between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops.
Speaking following a meeting with Armenian
Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian in New York, he said this would reinforce
the ceasefire accord signed by the two countries in 1994.
Armenia and Azerbaijan waged a war in
the early 1990s, which claimed some 30,000 lives and displaced about a
million Azerbaijanis. Armenia still occupies 20 percent of Azerbaijan's
BAKU - The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs
brokering settlement to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper (Nagorno)
Karabakh are due to arrive in Baku on October 4.
Igor Popov, the Russian co-chair, told
the press that talks will be held with Azerbaijani leaders October 4-5
about the upcoming visit by an international fact-finding mission to the
Armenia-occupied territories around Nagorno Karabakh.
The personal representative of the OSCE
Chairman-in-Office, Andrzej Kasprzyk, will take part in the talks, along
BAKU - The issue of displaced persons
is a major obstacle to the developments in the South Caucasus region, the
European Union special envoy visiting Baku has said.
Peter Semneby said in a meeting with
the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno Karabakh, a region occupied by Armenian
troops since a war in the early 1990s, that he had studied the situation
facing the IDPs in Azerbaijan.
Semneby said that two issues should be
particularly taken into account in signing a peace accord in the future.
"These are Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and ensuring a return
BAKU - OSCE mediators brokering settlement
to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Karabakh are working
on additional measures needed to strengthen the cease-fire between the
two South Caucasus foes.
The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group
- Igor Popov of Russia, Bernard Fassier of France, and Robert Bradtke of
the United States - began their visit in Baku on Monday. They will further
hold talks in Yerevan and Nagorno Karabakh until September 10 to discuss
"additional actions necessary to strengthen the cease-fire, to promote
BAKU - Azerbaijan will allocate aid worth
$1 million to Pakistan to assist the people affected by recent floods and
eliminate the aftermath of the disaster, the Foreign Ministry said.
1,600 people have been killed and 14
million people suffered the consequences of the devastating floods in the
past two weeks. Along with human casualties, torrential rains have damaged
thousands of homes and water torrents have swept away villages in some
Pakistani regions.
Several million people are in a dire
need of food supplies. Moreover, doctors beware that shortages of pure
The European Union's foreign policy chief,
Catherine Ashton, has expressed concern over the recent deadly clash between
Azerbaijani and Armenian troops on the frontline.
"The High Representative [High Representative
of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy] regrets the armed
incident resulting in the loss of human life that took place during the
night between 18-19 June along the Line of Contact in the context of the
Nagorno Garabagh conflict," Ashton said in a statement
President Ilham Aliyev met Tuesday with
the residents of the Sabirabad region who were temporarily moved to tent-camps
following devastating floods that have swept across Azerbaijan, damaging
homes and arable land, AzerTAj state news agency reported.
President Aliyev also held a meeting
in the town of Shirvan to discuss ways of eliminating the consequences
of the disaster, which was caused by the rising level of the Kura river.
Torrential rains that occured in the
last few days have caused Kura to overflow, flooding 40 Azerbaijani regions.
The French mediator brokering settlement
to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict has said any solution of the long-standing
dispute is to cover granting an interim status and ensuring the security
of Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh and the return of Azerbaijanis displaced during
the 1990s hostilities to their homes, Armenian media reported.
Bernard Fassier, who co-chairs the OSCE
Minsk Group mediating the peace process, detailed the content of the updated
Madrid principles for a conflict settlement while addressing the NATO Parliamentary
The Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents
both expressed their commitment to continue pursuing a peaceful settlement
to the Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict and reaffirmed the seriousness
of their side in the negotiations, international mediators have said after
meeting with the two leaders.
On Wednesday, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs
- Yuri Merzlyakov of Russia, Bernard Fassier of France and Robert Bradtke
of the United States - met with Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian in Yerevan.
