At a news briefing on Wednesday, Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, spoke of “Baku’s constructive steps aimed at enabling the population that left their native places to return there.”
“An opportunity to return was and is there. If, as you say, people are interested in preserving their homes, their native places, then perhaps they should take advantage of it,” she said, answering a question from an Armenian journalist.
Metakse Hakobian, a Karabakh parliamentarian who also fled the region along with its more than 100,000 residents right after Azerbaijan’s September 2023 offensive, deplored Zakharova’s comments.
“Of course, every Artsakh Armenian dreams about returning to Artsakh,” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “But there is one important condition: that cannot happen in the presence or even in the vicinity of the Azerbaijanis.”
Tigran Abrahamian, an opposition member of Armenia’s parliament, was also bemused by the Russian official’s claims. He said that “clear security mechanisms” must be put in place for the Karabakh Armenians “so that their repatriation does not lead to another genocide in the future.”
Lilit Minasian, Abrahamian’s colleague representing the ruling Civil Contract party, likewise said: “We interact with our Karabakh compatriots and they themselves say that now that the whole territory is under Azerbaijani control they cannot go back for security reasons.”
Minasian hit at out at some 2,000 Russian peacekeepers who were deployed in Karabakh following the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war. The Armenian government has condemned their failure to prevent or stop the assault that restored Baku’s full control over Karabakh and forced the region’s practically entire population to take refuge in Armenia.
President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have rejected the criticism. They have said that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian himself paved the way for Azerbaijan’s recapture of Karabakh by recognizing Azerbaijani sovereignty over the territory.
Pashinian’s policy has also been denounced by his domestic political opponents as well as Karabakh leaders. Abrahamian complained on Thursday that Yerevan does not assert the Karabakh Armenians’ right to safely return to their homes in ongoing peace talks with Baku.
Zakharova had stated in February that Moscow is now discussing with Baku the possibility of such repatriation. Gegham Stepanian, Karabakh’s human rights ombudsman, countered at the time that the refugees will not go back even if the Russians offer them additional security guarantees. The Russian troops completed their withdrawal from Karabakh four months later.
Even before their exodus, Karabakh’s leaders and ordinary residents made clear that they would not live under Azerbaijani rule.