YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 19, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has repeated that his government wouldn’t want to see the forcibly displaced persons of Nagorno-Karabakh leave Armenia in case they don’t have a desire or opportunity to return to their homes.

Pashinyan has also unveiled a new housing program for the forcibly displaced persons.

More than 100,000 forcibly displaced persons of Nagorno-Karabakh found shelter in Armenia after the September 2023 Azeri attack.

Pashinyan was asked on the matter during his meeting with the Armenian community in Germany where he was on a visit for the Munich Security Conference.

He was asked on the government’s plans regarding the refugees, and whether the forcibly displaced persons would return to Nagorno-Karabakh or stay in Armenia.

“Our vision is as follows: if they don’t have a realistic opportunity to return to Nagorno-Karabakh, it is our policy to do everything for them to stay in Armenia. Our Western, foreign partners strongly encourage the fact that the government of Armenia was able to take in over one hundred thousand people within a week, and take them in without refugee camps. Secondly, we can say that most of the children now go to school. As of December 31, 2023, 10,000 forcibly displaced persons of Nagorno-Karabakh had already found employment in Armenia. This is good, but this isn’t all, because this is perhaps thirty percent of the total number of employable people [displaced from NK]. All pensioners receive their pensions, and we are planning to launch a housing program soon, and we’ve made two important conclusions during its debates: first, this project must be accessible also for the citizens of Armenia, second, our brothers and sisters who were forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh, who would want to use this program, would have to obtain citizenship of Armenia [as a mandatory requirement of the program],” Pashinyan said.