YEREVAN, October 2. /TASS/. The Armenian government has provided shelter for more than 53,000 displaced people from Nagorno-Karabakh, which is about 54% of all refugees, Armenian Prime Minister's spokeswoman Nazeli Baghdasaryan said at a briefing.
"At the moment 53,935 refugees have received temporary housing," she said.
According to the Armenian government, 100,520 displaced people from Nagorno-Karabakh, which had a population of about 120,000 until recently, have entered Armenia. Some of them refuse the housing offered by the government and settle mostly on their own in Yerevan.
On September 19, tensions flared up again in Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku announced it was launching what it described as "local anti-terrorist measures" and demanded the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the region. Yerevan, in turn, said there were no Armenian forces in Karabakh, calling what was happening "an act of large-scale aggression." Russia called on the parties to the conflict to stop the bloodshed and return to a diplomatic settlement. On September 20, an agreement was reached to stop hostilities. On September 21, representatives of Baku and the Armenian population of Karabakh met in the Azerbaijani city of Yevlakh "to discuss reintegration issues." The third such meeting was held in Yevlakh on September 29.
On September 28, President of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Samvel Shahramanyan signed a decree on the termination of its existence from January 1, 2024. The population is instructed to consider the reintegration conditions proposed by Baku and decide on their own whether to stay.