Chairman of the Council of the Center for the Analysis of International Relations of Azerbaijan, former ambassador of Azerbaijan to Canada and the Czech Republic, Farid Shafiyev, tweeted yesterday, writing: "According to a leader of Karabakh Armenians, in 2021 35,000 Armenians lived in Karabakh." By "the leader of the Armenians of Karabakh", the Azerbaijani diplomat means the President of the Republic of Artsakh, Arayik Harutyunyan.

Shafiyev also published a screenshot from the transcript of Araik Harutyunyan's speech, where he underligned  Harutyunyan's direct speech. "How do you imagine solving the social and household problems of 35.000 citizens without cooperation with Armenia?" Because of such problems, we have deprived tens of thousands of our citizens of Martakert and Shahumyan from the opportunity to live in our country."

This screenshot is from armeniasputnik.am's June 22, 2021 publication. The quote is from the speech of the President of Artsakh in Renaissance Square (you can listen to the full speech here). During the speech, in the context of the relations with the Armenian authorities, Harutyunyan did talk about solving the social and household problems of 35․000 citizens, but his speech does not refer to all residents of the Artsakh Republic as of 2021.

After the 44-day war, when some territories of Artsakh came under the control of Azerbaijan, the inhabitants of those territories were displaced from their homes.

In November 2020, the RA government approved a measure to support citizens registered in the communities that came under the control of Azerbaijan. At that time, the government announced that according to the preliminary assessment, 30-35 thousand Artsakh citizens will receive 300․000 drams each under this program.

During one of the sessions of the National Assembly of Artsakh in February 2021, the Minister of Labour, Social Affairs, and Migration of Artsakh, Mane Tandilyan, spoke about the support of 300․000 drams for 35 thousand displaced people.

Thus, we see that Arayik Harutyunyan, speaking about the solution of the social and household problems of 35.000 citizens, meant the displaced Artsakh residents from the settlements that came under the control of Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani diplomat is spreading an obvious lie, saying that according to Arayik Harutyunyan, 35 thousand of Armenians lived in Artsakh in 2021. According to the latest data, 120.000 Armenians live in the Republic of Artsakh, and this is despite the fact that not all Artsakh citizens displaced after the war have returned there.

Main photo - Farid Shafiyev

Anna Sahakyan