By Ani Avetisyan
The Armenian government announced that it will give Karabakh Armenians refugee status and Armenian citizenship if requested. Karabakh Armenians, however, thought that they were already Armenian citizens as they hold passports from the Republic of Armenia.
The whole population of post-war Nagorno-Karabakh, over 100,000 Armenians fled the region in late September, following Azerbaijan’s nine-month-long blockade and the September 19 attack.
“The government’s position has always been that the people living there are not Armenian citizens. Now, if they are not citizens, then they must have some status. In this case, it is refugee status”, Artyom Sujyan, adviser to the Minister of Justice of Armenia, told CivilNet.
According to Sujyan, the general procedure for receiving refugee status is that the individuals should apply for it, and the relevant governments decide. Yet, in the case of Karabakh Armenians, there is no need for individual applications as over 100,000 Armenians forcibly displaced from the region are granted the status.
Speaking at the cabinet meeting on November 2, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that “a large number” of Karabakh Armenians have already applied for Armenian citizenship.
“Our task is to organize this matter as quickly as possible. […] Our policy is that if they do not have an objective opportunity to return to Nagorno-Karabakh, our wish is that they all stay in Armenia, live and work in Armenia,” Pashinyan stated.
The country’s government adopted a decision to grant Karabakh Armenians “temporary protection” or refugee status in last week’s session, promising them Armenian citizenship if requested.
“Travel documents”
Head of Armenia’s Migration and Citizenship Service, Armen Ghazaryan, told RFE/RL that giving Karabakh Armenians refugee status was in accordance with international law and the accepted norms. The difference is that Karabakh Armenians already have Armenian passports, which were given to them as “travel documents” without granting citizenship. Those passports were to ensure that Karabakh residents can travel to and from Nagorno-Karabakh.
“The Armenian government expressed a similar position in the European Court, that the passports were issued to the people of Nagorno-Karabakh as travel documents and not as a certificate of citizenship”, Ghazaryan said.
Those displaced in 2020 will also be able to apply for Armenian citizenship, something they did not have the chance to do after the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War.
Karabakh residents also seem to be confused by the uncertainty and the issues of their legal status.
The Hadrut residents have been demanding refugee status since 2020. They continued protesting following Azerbaijan’s attack on Nagorno-Karabakh in September. Some of them seek asylum in France.
Levon Hayriyan, the president of For Hadrut NGO, told RFE/RL that he is sure that the basis of the decision to make them refugees is political. He said the Armenian government wanted to remove the Karabakh toponyms from the passports.
Military service
The mass exodus of Karabakh Armenians brought a number of questions regarding the integration of refugees in Armenia, with some questions being hard to answer by official Yerevan, too.
Along with the uncertain future of Karabakh state agencies and the payment of pensions to the refugees, the future military service of Karabakhi men remains unclear.
While official Yerevan does not have a published strategy about the involvement of Karabakhi conscripts, they explain that the refugee status given to Karabakh Armenians is going to be temporary. It will be given for one year in the beginning, with a possibility of extension. Once the term of the status ends, the refugees would need to apply for Armenian citizenship. Then, the process of conscription will take place in accordance with relevant laws.
