Tuesday, October 17 2023 12:27

ArmInfo.The Artsakh authorities must begin registering all their citizens in order to resolve relevant social and humanitarian issues with the RA authorities and, more importantly, preserve the subjectivity of Nagorno-Karabakh, using the figure of 150 thousand refugees in official circulation, stated Anushavan Danielyan, the former premier of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR). 

The politician found it understandable when foreign or Azerbaijani  media write about 100 thousand refugees from Artsakh. According to  him, it is clear that some of them do this on the basis of the latest  (passed the checkpoints and registered in the Republic of Armenia)  data, and some, especially Azerbaijani sources, deliberately.

"But, it is incomprehensible to me when the figure of 100 thousand is  repeated by our journalists, experts, especially representatives of  the RA government, especially at various European platforms, thus  making it possible to legitimize the figure of 100 thousand by  various European officials, the relevant UN department and other  organizations for the provision of humanitarian assistance , for  calculations and other purposes.

In fact, according to the latest census, before the 2020 war, 150  thousand people lived in Artsakh. As a result of the 44-day war,  Azerbaijan occupied the Shusha, Karavachar and Kashatagh regions of  Artsakh, more than 100 villages, 4 cities (Shushi, Hadrut,  Karavachar, Berdzor) of the above regions, as well as several dozen  villages in the Askeran, Mardakert, Martun regions. As a result, more  than 40 thousand refugees were evacuated to Armenia. If we add to  this number about 10 thousand citizens of Artsakh (students, citizens  of Artsakh, who were repeatedly in the Republic of Armenia and other  countries before the blockade), then we will get population census  data, about 150 thousand people," he noted, calling for the use of  this figure.