«Why don't they want their children to serve in the army? Because there is no peace» - Prime Minister

A significant portion of those emigrating from Armenia are individuals who do not want their children to serve in the army. This was stated today, August 31, by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during a press conference at the Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concert Complex, responding to a journalist's remark that around 23,000 residents of Artsakh have emigrated from Armenia in the past three months.

“We urge those who have been forcibly displaced from Artsakh to apply for Armenian citizenship. We want them not to emigrate. Why don’t they want their children to serve in the army? Because there is no peace,” he said.

According to Nikol Pashinyan, “The peace agenda is also about this. Is this a prerequisite for a country that should make it possible for its citizens to live in its sovereign territory? We have adopted a second conceptual framework. We weren’t so wise that we would have adopted that line before the shocks; as a state, we had long passed the ‘point of no return’ by 2018,” he noted.

In response to a journalist’s question about why embassies are rejecting visa applications from citizens with passport code 070, Pashinyan answered that he learned about the issue yesterday and cannot yet respond, as he is not aware of the reasons.