President Ilham Aliyev has reviewed a neighborhood of high-rise apartment buildings built for 502 internally displaced families in Mingachevir.

The head of state reviewed the layout of the new neighborhood and the stands with photos describing the living conditions of the internally displaced persons temporarily settled in schools and kindergartens of Mingachevir.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the State Committee for Refugees and IDPs, Ali Hasanov, said that the improvement of the living conditions of refugees and IDPs is always in the focus of the Azerbaijani Government. This is one of the basic principles of the policy pursued by President Ilham Aliyev. Thanks to the measures aimed at improving the living conditions of the internally displaced persons, there is not a single tent-camp in the country now and all of these people have been settled in modern settlements.

In order to improve the material well-being of the IDPs, government programs have been adopted and important measures taken to increase the social benefits for refugees and IDPs. Further evidence of this is the conditions created at the new neighborhood for 502 IDP families in Mingachevir, which has been set up in accordance with a decree of President Ilham Aliyev.

It was noted that as a result of the attention and care about the people of this category, from 1993great leader Heydar Aliyev had signed 81 decrees and orders, the Cabinet of Ministers issued 307 resolutions and the Milli Majlis adopted 24 laws. In the 2003-2012 period, President Ilham Aliyev signed 49 decrees and orders regarding this area. Over the past period, two state programs and dozens of add-ons that have approved and successfully implemented.

In the 2001-2012 period, 77 settlements, high-rise neighborhoods and private homes for 31,000 families or more than 140,000 displaced people were built from the State Oil Fund and other sources. Over this period, 134 schools, five music schools, 48 kindergartens, 51 medical institutions, two Olympic sports complex, 37 communication centers, thousands of kilometers of water, electricity and gas lines were built and commissioned. A total of $5.4 billion was spent on the solution of social problems of the internally displaced people in 1993-2012. In 2012, 300 million manats were allocated from the State Oil Fund for these ends, which is 2.2 times more than in 2011. These funds will be spent on the establishment of eight settlements and neighborhoods with a total area of 260,000 square meters for 4,000 IDP families, i.e. for 20,000 displaced people.

President Ilham Aliyev visited the apartment of IDP from Agdam District Saida Ibrahimova.

It was noted that the apartment of Saida Ibrahimova, whose family consists of five people, has four rooms. There are all the conditions for the family here.

Expressing her gratitude to the President of Azerbaijan for the excellent facilities created for the IDPs, Saida Ibrahimova said:

- Dear Mr. President, you have made us such a gift that our joy is boundless. We always support you. Let the day come when you will build such homes in Karabakh. We always support you.

May Allah may bestow good health upon you and your family. We are grateful to you. You are paying a lot of attention to refugees, displaced persons and families of martyrs and veterans.

President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you, congratulations! It is a beautiful apartment. You can live here in comfort. In the last three months alone we have opened three large settlements in Azerbaijan - in Mushfigabad, Masazir and Mingachevir.

Each of them is home to 2,000-3,000 IDPs. Of course, as I always say, it is a temporary place of residence, but a comfortable one. The main issue will be resolved when we build even more beautiful homes than these on the lands that are now under occupation. And this day will come. This year 20,000 IDPs will be resettled to new homes. That is, on average, we build a city in Azerbaijan each year on average.

There are all the possibilities here, the conditions are good and the rooms are spacious. There is a school, a kindergarten and a medical center here.

You can live comfortably here. But, of course, we will try to return you to your native lands, to Agdam, soon.
Saida Ibrahimova: Thanks to you.

President Ilham Aliyev: I am trying to speech this up. Congratulations again, and I wish you good health.

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It was emphasized that this neighborhood has been built on the basis of relevant amendments to the "State Program on the improvement of living conditions and employment opportunities for refugees and the internally displaced persons" approved by a decree of the President of Azerbaijan from 2007. The Program proper had been approved by a decree of President Ilham Aliyev in 2004. A total of 502 families, or 2,006 IDPs, will be relocated here. Of these, 471 families are from Agdam, 25 from Kalbajar, three from Fizuli and Shusha. The area of the neighborhood is 9 hectares. The buildings have 36 one-room, 261 two-room, 180 two-room and 27 four-room apartments. The neighborhood also has a community center, an office building, a first aid station and a post office. Water, electricity and gas lines are connected to the Mingachevir city infrastructure. The new neighborhood has been built by order of the Social Development Fund of the IDPs. The construction began in April 2012 and was completed in March this year.

President Ilham Aliyev also toured the Agdam district secondary school No 52 for 480 pupils.

In the lobby of the school there are photo stands reflecting the care of nationwide leader Heydar Aliyev about education and his meetings with the displaced persons from Agdam. There are also photo stands describing new settlements for the internally displaced persons built in the country so far.

It was noted that that this educational institution, fitted with modern equipment, has all the conditions for an effective educational process. The care and attention of President Ilham Aliyev to the development of education are further evidence that this area is one of the top priorities of the state policy. This process is not limited to the capital city and covers the districts as well. Tremendous support for the implementation of programs implemented at state level has been provided by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation. This neighborhood is the 79th settlement built for refugees and IDPs in the country thus far.

The President praised the work done.