Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan again dismissed claims from the Strong Armenia Alliance that Azerbaijanis would settle in Armenia if his Civil Contract party is re-elected.
Strong Armenia leader Samvel Karapetyan had recently claimed that Pashinyan’s government had allegedly made a commitment regarding the "resettlement" of Azerbaijanis in Armenia. “If this is not true, let Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stand up and say it is false,” Karapetyan said.
“It is false,” Pashinyan responded at a press briefing on Friday.
When asked whether he guarantees that no resettlement of Azerbaijanis will occur in Armenia during his tenure, Pashinyan said:
“I give guarantees, yes. I guarantee it, and this is connected to the fact that I say the Karabakh issue is closed; the Karabakh issue will not continue. There will be no topic of return to Karabakh, no topic of return to Nakhchivan, no topic of return to Baku, no topic of return to Sumgait, no topic of return to Kirovabad, no topic of return to Yevlakh, and so on. Yes, I guarantee it. It’s a nonsensical issue, it’s a conflict issue, it is not a peace issue. And it is so obvious. Again—this is false, and yes, I guarantee it.”