Azerbaijani Refugees May Return by Accepting Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Citizenship

STEPANAKERT (News.am) – Azerbaijani refugees may return by accepting the citizenship of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Davit Babayan, Head of the Central Information Department of the Office of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic/NKR) President and Deputy Dead of the NKR President’s Office, stated the above mentioned.

He noted this commenting—at the request of Armenian News-NEWS.am—on the Azerbaijani deputy FM’s statement regarding their “Great Return” plan. Babayan recalled, however, that this is not the first such statement.

“Actually, the return is very easy to implement; it’s enough to become a citizen of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic,” he noted. “We [i.e. Artsakh] do not discriminate between the citizens of different nationalities. We are a developed democratic state, by contrast to Azerbaijan, where people are persecuted solely for belonging to the Armenian nation.”

At the same time, Davit Babayan stressed that Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan also need to be considered when discussing the matter of refugees.

“Furthermore, the ancient Armenian lands—Shahumyan, Northern Karabakh—remain under the control of Azerbaijan,” he added.

Also, Babayan recalled that capital city Baku and the majority of the cities of Azerbaijan were built by Armenian architects.