Asim Mollazade, leader of the Democratic Reforms Party, has said the government needs to step up the social protection of Karabakh war veterans. 

“We would want Karabakh veterans and those who were disabled during the war to enjoy a status higher than that of veterans of the Second World War,” Mollazade said in parliament today.

“During the former Soviet Union, hospitals and polyclinics used to have special units that provided war veterans with treatment and medicines. Such opportunities should be created for soldiers and officers who risked their lives in Karabakh.”

Armenia captured nearly 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally-recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts, during the war after the Soviet breakup in 1991.

Over 20,000 Azerbaijani nationals were killed and a million were displaced before a ceasefire was agreed in May 1994.