Azerbaijan continues to take measures to provide social support to families of martyrs who lost their lives in the second Karabakh war.

In a session held on February 2, the country’s parliament amended the law “on employment” that will create new opportunities for members of martyrs’ families, Azernews reports. 

According to the amendment, members of martyrs’ families have been included in the list of citizens who need social support or have difficulty finding a job. This means that from now on, preference will be given to martyrs’ families members and other vulnerable groups in vocational training, self-employment programs and the organization of social work.

Moreover, a five percent quota for extraordinary recruitment will also be applied for martyrs’ families members, as a group in need of social support.

The amendment that was adopted in the first reading today, aims to further improve social security for martyrs’ families.

In the post-war period, the Labor and Social Protection Ministry has involved more than 1,700 citizens of these categories in the part-time self-employment program. Some 900 of them were members of martyrs’ families. Moreover, as part of social support measures, over 7,000 family members of 2,783 martyrs have received social payments so far. In addition, around 9,100 apartments and private houses and 7,150 cars have been given to this category of citizens.

Azerbaijan has allocated over AZN 9 million ($5m) to compensate damages to its citizens who suffered from Armenia's aggression during the six-week war over Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Earlier, the government introduced a complex social security system for families of martyrs who died in the battles for Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity as well as disabled war veterans.

The social security system includes payment in the amount of AZN 11,000 ($6,470) for heirs of the martyr; as well as insurance payments ranging from AZN 8,800 ($5,176) to AZN 4,400 ($2,588) for disabled war veterans with various disabilities.

Members of martyrs' families and disabled war veterans will also be paid a pension or allowance, depending on the length of service (on average AZN 400 ($235)); labour pension (AZN 55-110 ($32-64)); a monthly Presidential Stipend (AZN 210-300 ($123-176)).

The social security system also includes exemption from school fees for children from the families of martyrs and disabled war veterans, as well as themselves, and other healthcare-related fees.