Pashinian said that the government will therefore grant the more than 100,000 Karabakh Armenians, who fled their homeland after last month’s Azerbaijani military offensive, “temporary protection” formalizing their status of refugees. This, he said, will increase “the possibilities of protecting their rights in the local and international arenas.”
“Right after that decision, our sisters and brothers from Nagorno-Karabakh will have an opportunity to apply for Armenian citizenship and we will solve that issue in the fastest possible way,” he added during the government’s question-and-answer session in the parliament.
An Armenian law on refugees stipulates that only foreign nationals and stateless persons are eligible for the “temporary protection status.”
Many of some 20,000 other Karabakh residents who took refuge in Armenia prior to the September mass exodus have sought such a status for almost three years in hopes of receiving regular government aid. They say government officials in Yerevan have repeatedly told them that they do qualify because of being citizens of Armenia.
“If they have Armenian passports, it means they are citizens of Armenia,” the head of the government’s Migration Service insisted recently.
Ara Ghazarian, an international law expert, made the same point when he spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service hours before Pashinian’s announcement. Ghazarian said that under the law in question, the displaced Karabakh Armenians are formally not refugees.
Pashinian’s government sparked controversy earlier this month when it refused to pay Karabakh’s public sector salaries, pensions and other benefits. The decision caused discontent among civil servants, teachers, military and security personnel, pensioners and other socially vulnerable people who made up a large part of Karabakh’s population. They will not be even paid for September.
Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatrian said on Monday that these and other refugees will instead receive 50,000 drams ($125) each in November and December in addition to 100,000 drams given to them this month.
“I had a monthly salary of 150,000 drams, plus my pension,” complained Seda Sargsian, who worked as an accountant in Karabakh’s northern Martakert district before fleeing to Armenia with her family.
“We don’t want alms,” said another Karabakh woman. “My family has lost a member during each war [with Azerbaijan.]”
