In just one week, from September 24 to October 2, 2023, about 100 thousand Artsakh residents moved from Nagorno Karabakh to the Republic of Armenia. A situation was created, in which there is no Artsakh, but there are people of Artsakh with their various social, psychological and household problems.
According to the data provided by the Migration and Citizenship Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of RA, there are more than 108,000 forcibly displaced Artsakh residents in the Republic of Armenia. The service reports that the numbers are being adjusted, the data in the registration databases are being revised and cleaned.
Where did the people of Artsakh settle in Armenia?
The Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures presented the following figures in response to Forrights.am’s inquiry. 4 thousand 313 displaced Artsakh residents settled in Aragatsotn region [all reagions here are Armenia’s regions], most of them in 3 thousand 136 Ashtarak city. 14 thousand 653 people have settled in Ararat, about half of them – 7 thousand 250 people – are in Masis. There are 9 thousand 405 people in Armavir, most of them live in Vagharshapat. 4,019 forcibly displaced people took shelter in Gegharkunik, 1,719 of them in Sevan. 6 thousand 290 people are in Lori region, half of them live in Vanadzor. Most of the displaced people settled in the Kotayk region – in the cities of Hrazdan and Abovyan, in total 22 thousand 480 people. Shirak region’s numbers are more modest: 4 thousand 111, half of them are in Gyumri. 3 thousand 740 people live in Syunik region, the leader is Goris with 1341 displaced people. 1,566 people live in Vayots Dzor, 2,963 in Tavush, of which 1,272 live in Dilijan. In sum, according to Ministry’s data, 73 thousand 540 people currently live in the regions of Armenia, excluding the capital Yerevan, 49 thousand 598 of them were accommodated with the support of the state. Out of 108,000 registered in RA, 34,460 people live in Yerevan or have emigrated.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan says that emigration among the people of Artsakh has stopped
On November 23, during the government session, the Prime Minister announced: “I must report with satisfaction that we analyze and see that there is no flow of our brothers and sisters who were forcibly displaced from Nagorno Karabakh as such, that is, there are no phenomena of emigration. Because in the first days there was quite a disturbing number of people who went, but it was assumed that in most cases people just visit their relatives and come back.
Ashot H., who recently settled in Russia, born in Martakert, dreams of building a big house in Krasnodar and living there with his family of 8 and 6 other relatives.
“Then, as soon as there is an opportunity, I will demolish my father’s grave, bring it from Martakert and bury it in Krasnodar,” he says in a conversation with Forrights.am.
Ashot had a large carwash business in the city of Martakert, Republic of Artsakh, and 5 cars. He says that his family was the last to leave Martakert, when they said that the city was given to them {to Azeeris].
“We didn’t find a house in Armenia. We, 14 people, came to Russia with two cars. Now I have opened a hardware store. There are many Karabakh people here, thousands of people came to Russia. There are more Armenians than Russians in the villages near Krasnodar, and there are many from Artsakh. Most of them cannot live. They have to collect a lot of different papers to be registered for a year, and for that they need money.”
The NSS and the border guard troops deal with official statistics on emigration among Artsakh residents. In other words, the emigration figures are closed.
How do the people of Artsakh live in Armenia; how do they survive in conditions of high prices and high rents?
Forrights.am interlocutor Anka Avanesyan, who lives in Yerevan, says that after coming from Artsakh, she never received any help from the government, except monetary support.
“We received financial support of 40+10 thousand, also, they gave 100 thousand drams, but the house rents are expensive, it has already ended. And in our family, only my younger brother works. He is 19 years old, he is construction worker,” says Anka.
The family pays 250 thousand drams for a small two-room apartment. She says that she would gladly move to a village, but she cannot, because she has to take his brother, who is recovering from his injury, to the hospital regularly for medical examination and dressing. Anka’s brother lost his leg, has many wounds and injuries, for the recovery of which he has to live a long rehabilitation period and have new operations.
The other brother, Arman Avanesyan, a conscript soldier, died in Talish during the 44-Day War. More than the lack of aid, Anka Avanesyan is hurt by the indifferent attitude of the government towards her family.
“No official, neither from the Ministry of Defense, nor from the Ministry of Social Affairs, nor from the Ministry of Health, from anywhere has ever visited us. Only, when I wrote a letter to the Prime Minister saying that we need a house, they came with a long delay from social services. They said that they were closing the year and they had to answer my letter. They did a needs assessment and left. All this is offensive. As if it should be like that, that our family should have such losses. But for what?” says the young woman.
Anka’s wounded and disabled brother is tormented by this question the most: for what [were all the sacrifices], if they had to hand over Artsakh? And Anka has no answer.
We asked him to evaluate our holiday, the Armenian New Year
“I don’t know what they were celebrating: the loss of the homeland, the depatriation of this many people? They should not have celebrated like this. It was possible to be a little reserved. For example, my child used to jump up from the sounds of these fireworks, he thought that a war was about to start. It started like this on September 27, 2020, and on September 19, 2023. There were no fireworks in Artsakh after 20 years, and the sounds of fireworks took me to war. My child, who heard those sounds, said, “Mom, there’s an explosion, shush!” That’s what I told him, on September 19, when we heard explosions, I said, “Shush, there’s an explosion.” And now he is telling me the same: the child is scared,” said the girl.
After 2020, the years for her, as she says, change only “by the calendar”.
Syuzan Simonyan