The replacement of Azerbaijani toponymes by Armenian one (in 213 villages and districts) and other kinds of pressures against the Azerbaijanis in Western Azerbaijan, the area of now days Republic of Armenia, being implemented to change demografic structure since the establishment of the Armenian SSR (in 1920-30) reached its apogee in 1988.

In the year of 1988 some 49928 families (250000 Azerbaijanis) were forced to flee their places of origin in 172 Azerbaijani inhabited villages, 89 villages with mixed ethnic population and 6 cities. During the deportation 226 Azerbaijanis got killed by Armenians (shot to death, fell victim to the deliberatly caused car accidents, frozen to death in mountains) more than 400 got pshisically injured. Their houses and properties got burned as well.

The period of deportation in 1988 coincided with the months of October and November. So the annual salary of Azerbaijanis in collective-farms remained for Armenians. Many could not even pull out their savings from the state banks and were forced to exchange their large houses and orchards with the Armenian apartments (2-3 rooms) in Azerbaijan.

According to the collected documents, the financial damage inflicted to internally displaced people has been calculated up to 2.5 billion USD, including different properties and cattle.

The cattle in collective-farms belonging to Azerbaijanis-43,789 cattle, 454660 shorthorned cattle, many types of poultry, pigs, bee families, 170 centres of culture, 274 school buildings, 119 libraries, kindergartens, medical facilities, mosques, 1381 farmbuildings, 2169 automobiles, 1976 tractors, 3132 agricultural techniques, thousand hectars of grape gardens and orchards remained in Armenia. The total amount according to calculations is 17.5 billion USD.

So, the total material damage inflicted to internally displaced people constitutes 20 billion USD. The moral damage to Azerbaijanis is out of the measure. The above named facts are based on the documents bearing actual signatures and stamps of the Prosecutor’s Office of the USSR,  Prosecutor’s Office of the Armenian SSR, prosecutor’s offices of the various districts in the Armenian SSR and other state agencies. These documents are available at the Refugee Society of Azerbaijan.

So far hundreds of internally displaced people from Armenia have died of abrupt changes in climate, water and weather condition.

From the book “Lies and truths” written by Yusif Qaziyev