Assyrians call UN to influence Baku

The United Nations should create a favorable atmosphere for problems of national minorities in Azerbaijan and other countries to be solved, representative of the Assyrian community of Armenia Razmik Khosroev told a news conference.

He noted that the Assyrian community spread all over the world faces the problem of preservation of their cultural heritage, and countries with a great number of Assyrian refugees face the danger of interethnic clashes.

Khosroev said that an Assyrian community of 6,000 people lived in Azerbaijan before the Karabakh war, but most of the Assyrians emigrated to Russia and other countries.

“Out of the 6,000, 2.5 thousand Assyrians currently live in Russia, mostly in the Krasnodar region. In most cases, local residents don’t understand the peculiarities of the Assyrian culture which can also trigger serious clashes,” Khosroev said.

He called on to create a favorable atmosphere for Assyrians to return to their former places of residence.

According to him, the Assyrian community did not undergo direct pressure by the Azerbaijani authorities but the xenophobia during the Karabakh war made Assyrians emigrate from Azerbaijan leaving their whole property.