YEREVAN, OCTOBER 25, ARMENPRESS. Taking into account the fact of ethnic cleansing, starving people, in fact, forced displacement, very great efforts should be made so that the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh would have the desire to return there, if the possibility of this realistically exists.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this in an interview with Wall Street Journal reporter Yaroslav Trofimov.

In response to the question about the future of 100,000 Armenians who had to leave Nagorno-Karabakh, Nikol Pashinyan answered: ‘’There is a short-term future, there is a medium-term future and there is a long-term future. In the short term, our task is to meet the most urgent needs of our compatriots who have become refugees. In the medium term we want them to have decent opportunities for living. Our approach is that if they do not have the opportunity or desire to return to Nagorno-Karabakh, we should do everything for them to stay, live, and create in the Republic of Armenia.’’

The Prime Minister noted: “Their future largely depends on what proposal Azerbaijan will make to them, or what position it will take, or what conditions Azerbaijan will create. And in this regard, will the international community encourage it and what will it support? Taking into account the fact of ethnic cleansing, starving people, in fact, forced displacement, very great efforts should be made so that the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh would have the desire to return there, if the possibility of this realistically exists.  There are questions that can even reach a dozen. The first is how realistically this possibility exists, and if it exists, to what extent people will trust this possibility? These are very serious and deep issues.