Karabakh residents rebuked Armenia's Minister of Labor for a publication about displaced persons.

In a statement about 11 displaced persons, the Armenian Minister of Labor and Social Affairs called Nagorno-Karabakh territory Azerbaijani. Karabakh refugees called the official's wording unacceptable for forcibly displaced persons.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," on January 23, the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, Arsen Torosyan, announced that 11 people who remained in Nagorno-Karabakh after the exodus of the population – 10 ethnic Armenians and one Russian with Armenian citizenship – had been resettled to Armenia.

The publication of the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs of Armenia Arsen Torosyan, who designated Nagorno-Karabakh as Azerbaijani territory on social media, provoked indignation among representatives of the Karabakh public. In his publication, Torosyan indicated that the new settlers who arrived in Armenia previously "lived on the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan (in Karabakh)."

The Nagorno-Karabakh representation in Yerevan was not informed about the transfer of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, stated Metaxe Hakobyan, a member of the unrecognized republic's parliament. She added that the current Armenian authorities "allow themselves to make such statements and treat the people unfairly due to a sense of impunity."

Nagorno-Karabakh State Minister Nzhdeh Iskandaryan recalled that in 2018, shortly after Nikol Pashinyan came to power, "Arsen Torosyan, as a member of the Armenian government, visited Artsakh (the self-designation of Nagorno-Karabakh) with particular pride." The official, according to him, participated in various events and forums held in Karabakh, and "proudly posed for photos in front of the 'Welcome to Artsakh' sign."

"In Artsakh, Torosyan was generous with declarations of love for Artsakh. Moreover, during the Youth Forum held in Hadrut in 2018, he stated that Artsakh should prosper even more under their rule, and spoke of the importance of activating and developing Artsakh's youth potential. But later it turned out that all of this was a deliberate policy by the Armenian authorities to surrender Artsakh. "What Torosyan wrote is further confirmation of this," Iskandaryan noted.

Lawyer Roman Yeritsyan, commenting on Arsen Torosyan's post, stated that "Karabakh is not Azerbaijan, and those leaving Artsakh are not 'resettlers,' but people forcibly deprived of their homeland."

"We left Artsakh not of our own free will, but after enduring silence, hunger, and fear. We left our homes not by choice, but because we were faced with the threat of massacre and were left with no other choice. Karabakh is not Azerbaijan, and no matter how they try to formulate it differently, Artsakh will forever remain the homeland of Armenians," he stated.

Arsen Torosyan's wording is either "a manifestation of insensitivity at the state level" or "a deliberate linguistic move that indirectly legitimizes violent control over Artsakh and the consequences of deportation," according to lawyer Rafael Martirosyan.

"In both cases, it is politically and morally unacceptable, since the identity, rights, and historical truth of the people of Artsakh are denigrated through language," Martirosyan noted.

He added that he considers the minister's use of social media inappropriate. "It is unacceptable for a minister to formulate political positions in this space, make semi-responsible comments on sensitive topics, and reduce official speech to the level of a personal publication." "A government official is not a civil blogger: every word he says is on behalf of the state, regardless of the platform," the lawyer noted.

Journalist and public figure Tatev Khachatryan expressed confidence that the choice of such wording "is aimed not so much at flattering (Azerbaijani President Ilham) Aliyev, but at hurting us, the people of Artsakh." "On Torosyan's part, this was yet another propaganda stunt by the Armenian authorities for the citizens of Armenia. But everything is temporary, including their seemingly eternal power of the 'Civil Contract,' and the moment of retribution will eventually come," Khachatryan noted.

Public figure Liana Petrosyan noted that the public recognition of Artsakh as Azerbaijani territory by representatives of the Armenian political authorities no longer causes surprise or bewilderment.

"Since 2022, we have regularly encountered similar discourse and language, but for us, reality has not changed and cannot change. Artsakh was, is, and will remain our homeland, our millennia-old fatherland, from which more than 150,000 Armenians were forcibly displaced as a result of Azerbaijan's policy of ethnic cleansing. The graves of our relatives, our holy sites, our identity are located in Artsakh." "Regardless of the statements and approaches of the Armenian political authorities or their individual representatives, every forcibly displaced person in Artsakh is a bearer of their rights, guaranteed by international law, for which they will always fight to the end and for which they will always strive in every possible forum, no matter how difficult this may be without the Republic of Armenia," Petrosyan stated.

She called on Armenian officials "to be more restrained in their wording and rhetoric," noting that Armenia, as the host country, is responsible not only for the refugees' socio-economic situation, "but also for their moral and psychological state, feelings, and experiences."

"Minister Torosyan's words raise the question of whose interests in Armenia the Armenian authorities are protecting. Judging by the fact that Azerbaijan has not allowed a single Armenian to live in Artsakh, the question arises: is the Azerbaijani side truly serious about peace with the Armenian people? "Or maybe they are only peace-loving with the current Armenian government," teacher David Mikaelyan expressed doubt.

"Artsakh and its people are being deliberately and purposefully destroyed, as if it were not the Armenian homeland. And this is being done at the state level not only by Azerbaijan, but also by Armenia. This is the only way to characterize the policy of the Armenian authorities even now, when we have lost everything," said medical worker Anahit Gasparyan.

"In 2019, Nikol Pashinyan declared in Stepanakert: 'Artsakh is Armenia, period.' Then they unleashed a negotiated war to hand Artsakh over to the Azerbaijanis, then recognized Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan (...). The ruling Civil Contract party works against Armenians, Armenians, and Armenian history. Their policy was initially aimed at the destruction of Artsakh. “The words written by the minister confirm this,” shared her opinion school teacher Angelina Hayrapetyan.