The Situation of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (idps) in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia

The South Caucasus is a small but diverse region, comprising the three states of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia as well as three separatist breakaway territories of Nagorny Karabakh, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The region has an official population of only around 17 million people, but also contains one of the highest concentrations of refugees and IDPs per capita in the world -- almost 1.5 million people have suffered displacement by conflict over the past 20 years. The three conflicts that plagued the South Caucasus in the years 1988-94 over Nagorny Karabakh, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, although tragic and brutal, were less bloody in their death-toll than the wars in the Balkans, costing perhaps 40,000 lives in total.