April 18, 2026
More than once, Nikol Pashinyan and his associates have stated that not only the issue of Artsakh is closed for them, but also the issue of the return of Artsakh Armenians. Nikol Pashinyan always says that “Artsakh Armenians should forget about returning to Artsakh and settle in Armenia.”
Today, during the NA briefings, Taguhi Ghazaryan, member of the CP, announced that they “do not discuss the issue of refugees with Azerbaijan, therefore, those forcibly displaced from Artsakh should take advantage of the programs offered by the RA government and stay in Armenia.”
Artsvik Sargsyan, the mayor of the city of Shushi occupied by Azerbaijan says that he has been hearing such statements from the Armenian authorities for more than 2 years, but this does not mean that they should give up exercising their right to return to Artsakh.
“Azerbaijan has been saying for 30 years that one day we will “liberate” Artsakh, they said, but they did not imagine, now that the RA government says that the issue of Artsakh is closed, they do not imagine that the day will come, and the people of Artsakh will return to their homeland.
Of course, this refusal policy of the Armenian authorities does not have any logic, the Artsakh Armenians were forcibly displaced from their homeland, under the threat of physical extermination, therefore, they must return to their homes. The Armenians of Artsakh would have been genocided if they had stayed in Artsakh, that’s why they left their homes, but the day of solving this issue must surely come.” 168.amArtsvik Sargsyan said in a conversation with
The mayor of occupied Shushi believes that one day justice will be restored and the world will accept that Artsakh is an Armenian territory. In this context, he again reminded Azerbaijan’s policy: for 30 years, Azerbaijan’s goal has been to occupy Artsakh, while the RA government adopted the policy of denying Artsakh after the loss of Artsakh.
“We did not lose Artsakh because Azerbaijan won the war, but we lost it as a result of an organized defeat.
We have left everything in Artsakh: sanctuaries, graves, the fate of which we do not know anything about, although Azerbaijan builds roads on some graves and receives God’s punishment, those roads are being destroyed indiscriminately,” emphasized Artsvik Sargsyan.
At the same time, our interlocutor mentioned that the issue of the return of Artsakh and Artsakh Armenians should be resolved “freshly”, that is, we should not wait for decades to pass, then raise the issue, we should always talk about the issue, talk until it receives its positive solution.
“The solution of the issue should be in the near future so that it is easy.
If the RA leader did not recognize Artsakh as a part of Azerbaijan, it would not have happened like this, Aliyev would not have taken the opportunity and said: “It’s mine, I’ll do as I want, Armenians shouldn’t live here either.”
This was the reason why the Armenians of Artsakh were deported in September 2023, but this was not an escape, but a rescue, because I already said that if the Armenians of Artsakh had stayed, they would have been massacred. It is not pleasant for anyone to leave his home and go out, to leave his home and live in such a status today. We left our homes crying, especially the adults, how many unfortunate incidents happened on the way of migration.
After all this, the person who gave up the goal of returning to Artsakh from Artsakh is not an Artsakh citizen, that’s all I can say,” stressed Artsvik Sargsyan.
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