That's how long it may take for Azerbaijan's oil reserves to grease the wheels of reform. Some have lived there three years. Others have been there as long as six. But the more than 30,000 people who spend their days, nights, and years in refugee camps on the barren Azerbaijani plain around Agjabedi refuse to call it home. Groups like the New York-based International Rescue Committee are striving to improve conditions for the refugees, many of whom came from mountains barely 20 miles away.
Aid workers help build greenhouses and start car repair shops and other businesses.
They also construct refugee housing. As a result, most refugees now occupy prefabricated shelters or huts made of mud bricks. But many still remain in tents. And a few hundred families reside in boxcars abandoned by the old Soviet Union. When a truce came in 1994, Azerbaijan was left with an overwhelming proportion of internal refugees.