Armenia`s vice-premier on pensions for forcibly displaced Armenians 

ArmInfo. Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Khachatryan, on the air of RA Public TV, touched upon the demand of the people of Artsakh to hand over their pension savings, giving them the right to manage them at their own  discretion.

According to Khachatryan, the idea of the funded pension system is  that the funds accumulated in pension accounts can be used after  reaching retirement age. Having spent them today, they  will lose their pension payments.

In addition, the Deputy Prime Minister pointed out, the legislative  field of the Republic of Armenia does not provide for such  regulations, and the approaches should be uniform - both for citizens  of the Republic of Armenia and for the people of Artsakh. Thus, he  believes, long-term planning provides greater confidence in the  future.

In early November 2024, it was reported that, at the request of  Artsakh Ombudsman Gegham Stepanyan, a number of MPs from the  opposition factions of the Armenian Parliament (Hayastan and I Have  the Honor) appealed to the Constitutional Court on the issue of funds  in the pension accounts of those internally displaced from Karabakh.  The required number of MP signatures (1/5 of the total number) was  collected to appeal to the Constitutional Court. They are going to  appeal the amendment adopted by the parliament to the law "On funded  pensions" in June 2024, according to which the savings of Karabakh  residents, without taking into account their opinion, are  automatically transferred to the funded system of the Republic of  Armenia. The MPs demand to check the constitutionality of Article 8.1  of the law "On additional guarantees for the protection of the rights  and legitimate interests of participants in the funded component of  the pension system". This article was supplemented to the law by the  decision of the National Assembly in June 2024.

The funded pension system was introduced in Karabakh shortly after  the RA, in June 2019, under identical conditions. It included  citizens born in 1974 and later, and half of the pension  contributions were made by the government. Following Azerbaijan's  aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh and the forced displacement of  its population, the Armenian parliament adopted amendments to the  law, according to which their savings accounts automatically (not at  their discretion) continued to operate in the RA.

As Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia Armen Nurbekyan  stated in a conversation with journalists in the National Assembly on  November 25, the pension savings of Artsakh residents are safe and  sound.