During the questions and answers session of government in the Artsakh parliament, United Motherland deputy and Vice President of the National Assembly Gagik Baghunts asked what the government of Artsakh is doing to ensure the return of 30,000 people? According to him, approximately 90,000 citizens of Artsakh left Artsakh during the war, but 53,000 have returned. There are serious concerns that those 35,000 people will leave Armenia at the first opportunity.
The Minister of Labor and Social Affairs of Artsakh, Mane Tandilyan, said that the data he presented is most likely the data provided by the Russian Ministry of Defense, but the actual numbers are much different. According to Tandilyan, 100,000 people have returned to Artsakh. These numbers, according to Tandilyan, are based on the financial assistance data. “In other words, the number of people who have received financial assistance is several times larger than the published data. They returned in their personal vehicles and other methods, which is not recorded in that data. Moreover, in the next two months, we will implement measures that will completely assess family needs, which will record the composition and number of all families living in Artsakh. This will allow us to more accurately report the accurate numbers.”
Mane Tandilyan also said that approximately 40,000 people from Artsakh are currently in Armenia. They are residents of towns that are currently under Azerbaijani control. However, thirty percent of displaced residents have returned.
Lusine Budaghyan
