Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday firmly denied that Armenia is engaged in negotiations with Azerbaijan over the return of displaced Armenians or Azerbaijanis to their former homes, including Nagorno-Karabakh and Baku.
Addressing reporters at a government briefing, Pashinyan said such discussions have “never” been part of the bilateral agenda. He warned that both issues, the return of Armenians to Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis to Armenia, are being deliberately manipulated to provoke political tensions.
“We are not discussing the return of Armenians to Karabakh, to Baku, or to other places, nor are we discussing the return of Azerbaijanis,” Pashinyan declared. “These topics have a provocative effect on the current political situation. They can escalate one another and often that is exactly what happens.”
He accused some political figures of exploiting the issue for “cheap political manipulation”, claiming they alternate between inflaming one narrative and then another when the first fails to gain traction.
“This is nothing more than low-level political exploitation,” Pashinyan added.
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