Pashinyan rejects “cheap manipulations,” says no talks on reciprocal return o

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Yerevan and Baku are not discussing the reciprocal return of Armenians and Azerbaijanis.

“We have not discussed, and are not discussing, the issue of the return of Azerbaijanis, nor are we discussing the return of Armenians from Karabakh or Baku, or Armenians from other places. Discussions in both directions have a provocative effect on the current political situation and tend to inflame each other,” Pashinyan said at a press briefing.

Pashinyan branded those promoting the narratives as engaging in “cheap political manipulation,” pointing to the Strong Armenia party and its leader, businessman Samvel Karapetyan.

The prime minister added that both issues are being kept on the political agenda in an escalatory manner by the same forces.

“At first they escalate one issue; if it does not produce sufficient effect, they escalate the other. It is cheap political manipulation, nothing more. For example, I am sure the oligarch from Kaluga does not even understand what he is talking about—he is given instructions and he speaks,” Nikol Pashinyan said, referring to Samvel Karapetyan.

Strong Armenia party members have been making allegations that Pashinyan has supposedly agreed to ensure the “return of 300,000 Azerbaijanis” to Armenia.