Baku. 1 November. REPORT.AZ/ "There is no accurate information on the number of Azerbaijanis living in Kazakhstan without documents. Personally during the year, hundreds of Azerbaijani citizens addressed me in relation to the problem of their documents. The process initiated by the government of Azerbaijan regarding the legalization of the status of its citizens living in Turkey has given hope to our compatriots who faced the same problem in Kazakhstan," Chairman of the Heydarchi Youth Organization, one of the Azerbaijani diaspora organizations in Kazakhstan, Bahruz Akhundov told Report
According to him, thousands of our compatriots, who left for Kazakhstan in early 1990s for earning money have turned into illegal migrants for various reasons. Especially, the expiration of the validity period of the identity documents and the problems with registration issues created difficulties for them. "Our compatriots have suffered since the 1990s. The Embassy of Azerbaijan in Kazakhstan supports us greatly on this issue. Our appeals to the embassy are responded and necessary assistance is provided."
Akhundov highly appreciates the work of the Azerbaijani government in Turkey in solving the problems of our compatriots living illegally in Kazakhstan. "In this regard, the activeness of the State Committee on Work with Diaspora has created confidence in our compatriots living in the same situation in other countries. Azerbaijani citizens illegally residing in Kazakhstan prepare a complaint to the State Committee on the settlement of the problem. In the near future, we will publicize the issue and to achieve the discussion of the problem on the level of governments of both countries."
The chairman of the organization believes that it is praiseworthy that the State Committee for Work with Diaspora has recently increased the attention of our compatriots living abroad on both this issue or other problems, and this will give an impetus to the close cooperation of our compatriots, as well as Diaspora organizations with the State Committee: "Our compatriots who were not satisfied with the organization before are inspired by the appointment to the committee. We believe that we will achieve the cooperation with the State Committee and its leadership and this cooperation will be strengthened. It is worth mentioning that our organization, which has been operating for 23 years, is the place where our compatriots address with different problems which they face. We do not say "no" to our compatriots on any issue, we do our best and the reforms carried out in the Diaspora Committee, the attitude of the new leadership to our compatriots motivates us to further our activities, and increases our commitment to the historic homeland."