Pashinian to Karabakh Armenians: The Return Dream Is Over

Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has delivered his clearest message yet to the more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians uprooted from Nagorno-Karabakh: don’t expect to go back.

In a sweeping national address on Monday, Pashinian said the exiled population displaced by Azerbaijan’s September 2023 offensive should accept resettlement in Armenia instead of holding out hope for repatriation.

“I do not consider their ideas about return to be realistic,” he declared, adding that even raising the issue risks “undermining the peace” struck with Baku.

Pashinian’s comments came days after his August 8 summit with Donald Trump and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the White House, which produced the outline of a US-brokered peace treaty. As part of the deal, Pashinian also agreed to give Washington exclusive rights to a transit corridor across Armenia demanded by Azerbaijan.

The draft treaty, however, dodges some of the most sensitive issues: defining the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, securing the release of at least 23 Armenian prisoners in Baku, and any mention of Karabakh itself.

Still, Pashinian hailed it as a turning point:

“Peace has been established between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan.”

For Karabakh’s exiled leaders in Yerevan, Pashinian’s stance is a bitter pill. They had pressed the government to demand international guarantees for safe return during peace talks. Instead, the prime minister has effectively declared the Karabakh issue closed for his administration.

His message: those who fled should “settle down in Armenia and live, create, and establish themselves here as full citizens.”

It marks a sharp reversal for Pashinian, who once rallied supporters with the slogan “Artsakh is Armenia.” Since recognizing Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over the region in 2022, he’s abandoned even the use of the Armenian name for Karabakh.

Last year’s lightning Azerbaijani offensive emptied the region almost overnight, as the remaining Armenian population fled en masse. Baku insists they are free to return under Azerbaijani rule, but both local leaders and ordinary Karabakh Armenians have rejected that outright, saying only international guarantees could make repatriation possible.

Pashinian isn’t seeking those guarantees — instead, he wants to move on. For Armenia’s displaced, that means the homeland they left behind is no longer part of Yerevan’s future.