Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol pashinyan and Artsakh’s President Arayik harutyunyan chaired consultations on programs being implemented in ARtsakh and the future plans.
“Today we have gathered to discuss our agenda in the socio-economic sphere, the issues of cooperation, the course of the programs we are implementing together with the Artsakh Government,” PM Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in his opening remarks.
He reminded that one of the key points of my “road map” published on November 18 is the restoration of normal life in Artsakh.
“We have quite tangible results at the moment, but of course the volume of work to be done is very large. Let’s implement concrete programs in that direction. Of course, the discussions at various levels have not stopped for a single day, joint decisions have been made; today we will summarize the results of the discussions so far, we will reach certain agreements on what to do next,” PM Pashinyan stated.
In his turn, the President of the Republic of Artsakh Arayik Harutyunyan, in turn, expressed gratitude for the social programs implemented by the Government of the Republic of Armenia in the post-war period.
“The results are tangible in the sense that most of the population, about 120,000 citizens of the Artsakh Republic, live in Artsakh today; in terms of normal life, it seems they have been provided with everything they need,” Harutyunyan said.
“We have up to 30,000 citizens who live in the Republic of Armenia, fortunately very few have left Armenia. But I want to look back at the 90s, because we liberated the Martakert region after the war, but we did not manage to bring most of the population of the Martakert region back to Artsakh because we were late,” he stated.
He said housing remains the main problem at this stage. “In terms of social payments, I think the problem has been solved for months,” he said, noting that benefits and the lump sums should temporarily be enough.
“But we have a lot to do in terms of housing construction, the issue of providing jobs, ensuring income,” the President stated.
“According to our plans, at least 5-5.58 thousand apartments should be built in 2.5-3 years. The second important issue is the issue of compensation, many of our compatriots have suffered great losses, and we must make a decision together to compensate them,” Arayik Harutyunyan stated.
