Following a fruitless meeting with the authorities and a small number of protesters, Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians halted their sit-in protest on Monday, which was launched with a main demand for ‘the solution to the urgent problems’ of the refugees.
Earlier on Monday, the representatives of the protest, initiated by the Artsakh Residents’ Rights Protection Council, were received by Arman Adilkhanyan, Chief of Staff to Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatryan, and Davit Khachatryan, Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Affairs.
‘The meeting lasted a long time, but no agreement was reached, especially on the issue of continuing rental support. For them, people staying outside is not a valid reason’, CivilNet quoted Nagorno-Karabakh’s last Human Rights Defender Gegham Stepanyan as saying.
Earlier, admitting that the government has amended the state housing programme, Stepanyan noted many complaints still stand, especially among small families who would be unable to buy an apartment with the allocated amount.
It takes time to obtain Armenian citizenship, which is required in order to be eligible for the state housing programme. In addition, finding property that is available for purchase can also take time.
‘At the moment, 1,900 certificates have been issued, we are talking about 25,000 beneficiary families, [...] of which 300–400 have been realised. It takes time for people to find the place where they will live their whole lives, where will people live during that entire period?’, Stepanyan said on Saturday.
Monday’s meeting came as the refugees protested in front of the government building to hand over a petition to Deputy Prime Minister Khachatryan.
The action followed a sit-in protest at Yerevan’s Freedom Square, launched after a rally on Saturday where they demanded protection of their rights.
The rally was attended by over 2,000 people, a significantly small number compared to their first major rally at the end of March which saw roughly 10,000 protesters.
Following their sit-in protest launched on Saturday, the demonstrators later moved near the government building, explaining that their protest was directed at the authorities.
‘The council’s position is that we are currently ending the street struggle phase’, council member Apres Margaryan said following the Monday meeting. He noted that it was impossible to reach a result with a small number of protesters.
Margaryan additionally criticised former MPs and officials of Nagorno-Karabakh for not standing with the protesters. He additionally noted that a small number of Armenian opposition figures attended the rally.
At the same time, Margaryan noted that the council would continue its activities, leaving the territory of the Nagorno-Karabakh representation, where they were stationed following their sit-in protests earlier this year.
In April, protesters agreed to remove their protest tent from Yerevan’s Freedom Square after the government postponed cuts to assistance provided to refugees to cover rental costs.
The decision to make cuts to the aid programme was adopted by the government in November 2024. The changes cut the number of people eligible to receive support, mainly excluding working-age people.
At the same time, the government launched a new programme targeting vulnerable groups. It envisages that the families whose income per person would be lower than ֏55,000 ($140) will be provided with ֏40,000 ($105) for the first family member, and an additional ֏10,000 ($26) for each subsequent family member.
The assistance programme launched in October 2023, immediately after the exodus of virtually the entire Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh. The population fled after Azerbaijan’s final offensive into the region, which occurred after it was placed under a nine-month blockade.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
