The interlocutor of “Aravot” is Margarita Karamyan, the President of “Return to Dizak” NGO.
– Ms. Karamyan, the government approved the description of the identity document of the refugee who received temporary protection for forcibly displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh and the procedure for its issuance. It is noted that according to that, the legal status and scope of rights and responsibilities of the forcibly displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh will be clarified. With this decision, the government says that “persons taken under temporary protection become refugees by force of law and enjoy the rights provided for refugees by law and international conventions, including the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees.” How do you assess this decision, and what will it give to those forcibly displaced from Artsakh?
– Indeed, we have been fighting for three years to get refugee status. However, when there was still the People’s Republic of Artsakh, we sought to reach that status, which would have given us the opportunity to raise in the international arena the forced displacement of the civilian population carried out by Azerbaijan, the war crimes committed against civilians in the occupied territories, the issues of compensation for our lost houses, lands, and businesses. As you know, at that time, the RA government did not grant us status because we have an RA passport; they argued that we did not cross the internationally recognized border of another country. Now, the “president” of Artsakh has signed a decree based on which the Republic of Artsakh will be considered dissolved from January 1, 2024. Our former Republic is now considered the territory of Azerbaijan, recognized by the Prime Minister of Armenia, and the population of Artsakh has crossed the border of Armenia and should be regarded as a refugee. However, the issue of the RA passport of the Artsakh citizens becomes an obstacle to obtaining this status again. Probably, that is why the RA government has defined some incomprehensible status of “refugee with temporary protection,” which will complicate our situation even more.
If, during the last three years, we had an RA Passport but did not have RA citizenship and rights, then now we are faced with an alternative: either we accept RA citizenship and enjoy all rights, including pensions and benefits, or we accept refugee status and want the rights and privileges provided for in that status. First, to obtain RA citizenship, we must relinquish our previous life, even our biography. Imagine for a moment a person who has served his whole life for the protection and prosperity of the motherland, and he has to give up all that to get the money he deserves. In addition, becoming a citizen of the Republic of Armenia, the citizen of Artsakh will be deprived of applying to international courts and tribunals and demanding compensation for his lost house and property. We will also lose our claim to the Republic of Artsakh, and in a few years, we will not have the opportunity to prove that we lived in the land of our ancestors. Second, if we get refugee status, we will protect the possibility of compensation claims, but we will lose our earned pensions, and we will also lose our background and work experience.
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Instead, we will get refugee benefits, privileges, etc. However, there are doubts that the status of “refugee with temporary protection” contains hidden threats. Why temporary? In 2021, the governments of RA and Artsakh agreed that no program for the people of Artsakh will be implemented in the territory of RA, and all forcibly displaced persons must return to Artsakh. At that time, it was argued that the Russian peacekeepers guaranteed the safety and dignified life of the returnees. How it ended, we all saw in September 2023, in 3 days. Is it possible that tomorrow, the RA government will claim that Azerbaijan guarantees the return of Artsakh Armenians, and all those people who have temporary refugee status should return to Artsakh, which is already part of Azerbaijan? Undoubtedly, in the case of the current RA authorities’ policy, nothing can be ruled out.
– How do you evaluate the government’s policy regarding forcibly displaced people? They emphasize that they provide social support in the form of money; is that enough to solve the problem of the people of Artsakh? What should the government do?
– It would be ungrateful on our part not to appreciate Armenia’s support to the people of Artsakh, especially the warm reception of the RA society and the work of volunteers, thanks to which it was possible to place people in a relatively short period and provide them with at least some kind of accommodation. The attitude of the government is another matter. At first, it was announced that the salaries of Artsakh social workers would be maintained until the end of December, but then everything was suspended without explanation. If Artsakh institutions-enterprises have been liquidated, people should receive final settlement and severance payments.
However, the employees received only the salaries for September, and by 85%. Until today, there is no clarity about the pensions of pensioners and pensioners of the reserve forces. They also do not receive benefits for minor children’s disability pensions. Now, the issue of refugees and citizenship has come into the middle, which will complicate the situation even more because before people understand which status is in their favor until they draw up the relevant documents, the year will end.
The issue of forcibly displaced persons remaining in Armenia after 2020 becomes a separate issue. These people do not know at all whether they will benefit from housing compensation or whether they will be excluded from all types of support. The unstable, absurd decisions of the government will eventually lead to enormous volumes of emigration. This is what the experience of refugees in the 90s speaks about. In addition, considering the problems of forcibly displaced persons only from a social point of view is also harmful to the sovereignty of Armenia itself. We have been saying for three years now that refugee issues should become one of the main issues of the state strategy, with which RA will strengthen its security, accusing Azerbaijan of depopulation, regular genocides, and numerous war crimes. Unfortunately, that concept did not exist in our country for 35 years.
Rosa HOVHANNISYAN
“Aravot” daily, 28.10.2023
