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.