The Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan hosted Artsakh Republic President Arayik Harutyunyan in the Government.
Welcoming the Artsakh President, the Prime Minister noted. "Mr. President, I welcome you to Yerevan, this is our first meeting after the cessation of hostilities. Of course, we have lived through quite hard times together, we have made difficult decisions and now, as we have agreed, we must concentrate our efforts to restore normal life in Artsakh, ensure the return of our compatriots and create the necessary conditions.
The Armenian government has already made a number of decisions regarding the financial assistance to our compatriots in Artsakh. Of course, these actions will continue. I have published a "road map" that you are familiar with, we have discussed it with each other and our main task here is to restore normal life in Artsakh, provide social guarantees for the families of killed servicemen and citizens, find out the fate of the missing as soon as possible, provision of social guarantees for their families, disabled soldiers and citizens, as well as the implementation of social-psychological work in general.
Of course, after the war, both Armenia and Artsakh need large investments, and we must also work together to ensure those investments. Of course, we are in daily contact, but in these meetings we will specify what to do".
In his speech, Arayik Harutyunyan noted. "Dear Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for the meeting. During the war and in the post-war period, we had the opportunity to present the situation. Today I want to note that the flow to Artsakh, the return of our compatriots is quite fast. According to our registration center, 25,000 people came back in just 5 days and the flow continues. Of course, we will discuss road and safety issues with you.
I would like to thank for response to all the social issues, the response of the Government of the Republic of Armenia to the issues raised by us, their operative solution, as well as the programs that are planned for the next few days.
In the coming days, several social programs will be implemented, in particular, financial assistance will be provided to each Artsakh citizen who has moved to the Republic of Armenia, and our compatriots who have lost an apartment will be allocated 300,000 drams per capita. These and other programs, yes, will ease the social tension.
I would like to express special thanks to the Armenians, to all our compatriots in the Republic of Armenia, who have hosted the people of Artsakh during this month and a half and they have not seen or felt any problems. But taking into account the fact that the weather is getting colder and the utility costs will increase, we are also trying to reimburse some utility costs through the operative headquarters set up in Yerevan, as well as for our compatriots in Armenia who provided their property, hotels or facilities. We have a lot to do here.
In the first stage, we plan to relocate our compatriots to Artsakh who have the opportunity to stay, and those who have been deprived of shelter will be relocated in stages so that we can accommodate and solve social problems in the process. I am convinced that in the near future there will be no social problems as a result of the investments and we will be able to implement the planned socio-economic programs together".
