News agencies quoted Ruben Sargsian, a deputy minister of labor and social affairs, as saying that about one thousand of them have been hired by Armenian schools, colleges and other educational institutions. More than 1,800 others now work for local entities involved in services, manufacturing and construction, Sargsian told a news conference. He said nothing about the occupations of other officially employed Karabakh refugees.
More than 100,000 ethnic Armenians making up Karabakh’s virtually entire remaining population fled to Armenia in late September as Baku regained full control of the region after two days of fighting that left hundreds of soldiers from both sides dead. Most of them have since struggled to find new housing and sources of income. In Sargsian’s words, 3,737 refugees had the official status of an unemployed person as of December 4.
Armenia - Ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh walk along the road from Nagorno-Karabakh to Kornidzor in Syunik region, September 26, 2023.
According to Karabakh’s exiled leadership now based in Yerevan, some 6,000 Karabakh Armenians have left for other countries, mainly for Russia, for these reasons. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on November 23 that their out-migration from Armenia has essentially stopped not least because of various aid programs implemented by his government.
“I have repeatedly said that our policy on our sisters and brothers forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh is as follows: if they are objectively unable or unwilling to return to Nagorno-Karabakh we will do everything to have them stay in Armenia,” he said.
However, many refugees complain that Armenian ministries, law-enforcement agencies and local government bodies are rejecting their job applications on the grounds that they do not have Armenian citizenship or are not registered in permanent places of residence in the country.
Pashinian and other government officials declared in October that the refugees are not Armenian citizens despite the fact that virtually all of them hold Armenian passports. Some legal experts disputed those claims.
Armenia - Newly arrived refugees from Nagorno Karabakh register at a government aid center in Kornidzor, September 26, 2023.
“I don't know anyone in my circle who has landed a job in the [Armenian] public sector,” Armen Petrosian, a former martial arts coach who worked at the Karabakh ministry of education and sports until the exodus, told the Hraparak newspaper on Friday.
Petrosian said that he applied for corresponding jobs at the Yerevan mayor’s office or sporting schools administered by it but was told that the municipal administration is “not an employment center.” He accused the Armenian government of “doing everything” to reduce the number of the Karabakh refugees. Many of them blame Pashinian for the restoration of Azerbaijani control over their homeland and its depopulation.
Earlier this week, Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinian told municipal officials to be “a bit more active” in helping Karabakh Armenians find jobs. But it is not clear whether he encouraged them to hire refugees.