During the forced deportation of Azerbaijanis, Armenia caused material damage amounting to $2.5 billion to private households and $17.5 billion to public ones, Aziz Alekberli, Chairman of the Western Azerbaijan Community, said on Monday.

He made the remarks while speaking during a public hearing on the topic “Return to Western Azerbaijan: Legal Aspects”, hosted by the Milli Majlis (parliament), News.Az reports.

The community chairman recalled that although all the people and nations who were subjected to repression and deportation on the territory of the former USSR in the 1930s–1940s were acquitted by the decisions of the republican courts after the death of Stalin, Western Azerbaijanis who suffered from the deportations of 1948–1953 were not rehabilitated legally, and their rights to return to their ancestral lands were not recognized.

“The last deportation, which took place in 1987–1991, was not much different from the previous ones in its mercilessness and cruelty. Our compatriots were expelled from their homes in Western Azerbaijan using the same cruel methods characteristic of the Armenians. During this process, more than 200 of our compatriots were brutally killed by the Armenians, more than 400 Azerbaijanis were injured, and Azerbaijanis were expelled from about 300 settlements. Then our compatriots suffered damage in the amount of 2.5 billion US dollars to private households and 17.5 billion US dollars to public ones,” he said.

“If we add to this the damage caused to underground and above-ground resources, historical and cultural monuments, the amount is likely to increase several times. And moral damage cannot be compensated by any amount,” Alekberli added.

News.Az