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Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that he considers the agenda of refugees’ return and internally displaced persons to be a potential risk to peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Speaking at the Orbeli Forum 2025: Building Peace and Multilateral Cooperation, the Prime Minister emphasized that this issue is being raised in various circles in both Armenia and Azerbaijan. At the same time, these circles say that citizens of the two countries may experience certain psychological difficulties when interacting with each other’s border and customs services.
“Even 20 seconds of contact is considered problematic. Yet in Armenia, for example, people say that those displaced from Nakhchivan, Baku, and Sumgait should return,” the Prime Minister said.
On November 3, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated that the return of Azerbaijanis to what he described as “historic lands” within Armenia should “not alarm” the Armenian population. Aliyev also recalled a previous statement in which he said that they should return “not with tanks, but by car.”