The refugee crisis is worsening worldwide every year, becoming a tool to destroy entire civilizations, Mariam Avakian, Coordinator at the Assembly of Armenian Refugees from Azerbaijani SSR, told a press conference on Monday.

“What is going on in ISIS today, we saw in Azerbaijan during the 90s. That was a genocide that has yet to be properly characterized by the two Armenian states. Due to that Genocide, entire native Armenian settlements were stripped of their population with some 660 thousand Armenians displaced and spread all over the globe,” Avakian said.

In her words, Armenian refugees forcibly displaced in Azerbaijan visit the Embassies of foreign states every year in Armenia to restore their rights. A similar visit is planned on the upcoming Friday at the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan.

Avakian noted that the Armenian refugees have the same problems as most of Armenians added to that their refugee status and the lack of permanent place of residence.

“Karabakh” committee member, the Head of a department at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia Aleksan Hakobyan, present at the press conference, noted the issue of the refugees is not a pressing topic in Armenia which is unjustifiable.

He informed that a Gardman or Shirvan Geology Museum is planned to be opened in Nor Hachn, Abovyan, or Charentsavan towns of Armenia to feature characteristic items of historical and cultural heritage of the Armenians who used to live in those territories. In Hakobyan’s estimates, the museum will cost 5-6 million AMD annually for the state budget. The museum would register all the refugees from Baku and other cities of Azerbaijan as well as collect unique materials they managed to take with them while fleeing Azerbaijan.
Mariam Avakian went further suggesting building a town for refugees at a lowland near Vorotan river, noting most refugees living abroad would invest in the project to come into life.