By Lia Avagyan
Armenia’s new government program for 2026-2031 no longer uses the term “Nagorno-Karabakh” and contains no provision on preserving Armenian cultural and religious heritage in the region, marking a notable change from the government’s previous five-year program.
The new document refers to Armenians displaced from the region only as those “displaced from Karabakh,” dropping both “Nagorno” and the term “forcibly” used extensively by the Armenian government following Azerbaijan’s September 2023 offensive.
The new program's only specific reference to the displaced population is a pledge to continue a housing program for 10,000 families “displaced from Karabakh.”
The changes come after Azerbaijan took full control of Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023, prompting more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia. At the time, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan himself described the exodus as the result of Azerbaijan’s “policy of ethnic cleansing,” and government statements routinely referred to the population as “forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh.”
Since then, Yerevan has shifted its policy toward the long-term settlement and integration of Karabakh Armenians in Armenia rather than pursuing their return as a foreign policy objective. In December 2023, Pashinyan said that if Karabakh Armenians had no realistic opportunity or desire to return, the government’s policy was for them to remain, live and work in Armenia. He reiterated that approach in April 2024, saying the government would do its best for them to stay in Armenia if there was no realistic possibility or desire to return.
From ‘Nagorno-Karabakh’ to ‘Karabakh’
The terminology in the new program stands in contrast to both the previous five-year document and the Armenian government’s own language in the immediate aftermath of the 2023 displacement.
The 2021-2026 program repeatedly used “Nagorno-Karabakh” and “Artsakh.” It identified the rights and security of the people of Artsakh among Armenia’s foreign policy objectives and described the peaceful and comprehensive settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict under the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship as a foreign and security policy priority.
It also contained a separate section on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, describing “ensuring the security of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and the peaceful and comprehensive settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict” as one of the government’s main tasks.
The program envisaged determining Nagorno-Karabakh’s final status through negotiations, including on the basis of the right to self-determination, and said Armenia would “continue to be the guarantor of the security of the people of Artsakh.”
Much of that agenda became obsolete after the September 2023 displacement and the subsequent dissolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The government’s new policy toward Azerbaijan is instead centered on what the 2026-2031 program calls the “institutionalization of the established peace with Azerbaijan.”
The disappearance of the term “Nagorno-Karabakh” is nonetheless notable. Azerbaijan itself has stopped using the term, maintaining that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict ended after it regained control of the region and opposing international language that could imply a separate political or territorial status for it.
The Armenian government’s new five-year program similarly uses only “Karabakh” when referring to the displaced population.
The word “forcibly” is also absent from that reference. This differs from official Armenian government terminology after the 2023 exodus. Government decisions, statements and social programs repeatedly referred to “persons forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh,” including when introducing the housing support program in 2024.
Cultural heritage commitment disappears
The change is not limited to terminology or to the now-defunct political settlement process.
The previous government program explicitly identified the preservation of cultural and religious heritage as part of Armenia’s policy on Nagorno-Karabakh. It pledged to keep in focus “the post-war reconstruction of Artsakh, revitalization of economic life, resolution of the social problems of the displaced population, and preservation of cultural and religious heritage.”
The preservation of cultural and religious heritage and the resolution of humanitarian issues were also included among the government’s broader foreign policy objectives related to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. No equivalent commitment appears in the 2026-2031 program concerning Armenian cultural and religious heritage remaining under Azerbaijani control in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The distinction is significant because, unlike negotiations over Nagorno-Karabakh’s status or the security arrangements envisaged in 2021, the fate of Armenian churches, monasteries, cemeteries and other cultural sites remains an issue after the Armenian population’s displacement.
One line on displaced Karabakh Armenians
The new program does address the displaced population, but in a much narrower context. Its social policy section says: “The housing program for 10,000 families displaced from Karabakh will continue.”
The figure has drawn criticism from Artak Beglaryan, a former state minister of Nagorno-Karabakh, who noted that when the housing program was approved in 2024, it was presented as covering around 25,000 families.
Beglaryan said around 4,000 families have so far benefited from the program and questioned what would happen to thousands of other families if the government’s five-year target is limited to 10,000. “Does the Armenian government plan further mass emigration of Artsakh Armenians from Armenia, given that the approved government program envisages providing housing to only 10,000 families over the next five years?” Beglaryan wrote on Facebook.
He estimated that at least another 11,000 to 12,000 families could be left outside the stated target and asked whether the government intended to encourage emigration, abandon its previous commitments or envisage the return of some Karabakh Armenians to their homes.
The government’s broader policy since the displacement has focused on establishing long-term living conditions for Karabakh Armenians in Armenia. Officials have previously described housing, employment, education and healthcare as elements of that approach.
The new five-year program, however, reduces the issue to a single specific commitment on housing for 10,000 families, while no longer using either “Nagorno-Karabakh” or “forcibly displaced.”
Minsk Group framework also gone
The international framework at the center of Armenia’s previous Nagorno-Karabakh policy has also ceased to exist.
The 2021 program repeatedly identified the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship, led by Russia, the United States and France, as the principal framework for a peaceful and comprehensive settlement.
Azerbaijan subsequently pushed for the dissolution of the Minsk structures as part of the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process. Armenia and Azerbaijan jointly requested their closure in August 2025, and the process was completed later that year.
The new program begins its bilateral foreign policy agenda with Azerbaijan and the “institutionalization” of peace. It calls for signing and ratifying a peace agreement, continuing border delimitation and demarcation, developing contacts between the two countries’ civil societies and business communities and promoting bilateral trade.
The disappearance of the previous conflict-resolution and status agenda therefore reflects the fundamental change in circumstances since 2023. But the new document goes further: the terminology of “Nagorno-Karabakh” and “forcibly displaced” has also disappeared, while the previous government commitment to preserving Armenian cultural and religious heritage in the region has not been carried over into the new five-year program.
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