Prepared to accept all ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, says PM Nikol Pashinyan

Armenia is prepared to accept all ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, and the likelihood of their departure is increasing, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a speech to the country on Sunday.

“The Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh still face the danger of ethnic cleansing,” Pashinyan said, TASS reported. “Humanitarian supplies have arrived in Nagorno-Karabakh in recent days, but this does not change the situation.”

“If real living conditions are not created for the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh in their homes and effective mechanisms of protection against ethnic cleansing, then the likelihood is increasing that the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh will see expulsion from their homeland as the only way out.”

The 120,000 ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh will flee to Armenia because they do not want to live as part of Azerbaijan and are afraid of ethnic cleansing, the breakaway region’s leadership told Reuters on Sunday.

“Our government will lovingly welcome our brothers and sisters from Nagorno-Karabakh,” Pashinyan said.

Pashinyan also stated that the security blocs to which Armenia belonged were inefficient, plainly criticising Russia, Armenia’s major big-power ally.