The Netherlands will provide Armenia with €14 million to support affordable housing for Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) displaced persons, Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel announced on X.
“Today, the Netherlands announced €14 million through the Global Concessional Financing Facility to support refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh with access to affordable housing,” said David van Weel, commenting on the outcomes of his meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan.
This support comes following Azerbaijan’s 2020 war against Armenia and Artsakh and its nine-month blockade of the Lachin Corridor in 2022–2023, which violated an International Court of Justice order to keep the road open and deprived the Armenian population of food, medicine, and essential supplies. In September 2023, Azerbaijan launched a final military assault that resulted in the ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of over 100,000 indigenous Armenians from their ancestral homeland.
In the days following, Azerbaijani authorities illegally arrested Artsakh’s top political and military leadership and transported them to Baku, including former Presidents Arkadi Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, and Arayik Harutyunyan, former State Minister Ruben Vardanyan, Parliament Speaker Davit Ishkhanyan, former Foreign Minister Davit Babayan, former Defense Minister Levon Mnatsakanyan, and former Deputy Commander of the Defense Army Davit Manukyan, along with other officials. They face fabricated charges that could result in life imprisonment.
Their sham trials began in Baku in January 2024 after prolonged pre-trial detention. In total, at least 23 confirmed Armenian prisoners of war and civilian detainees remain unlawfully imprisoned in Azerbaijan, 16 of whom were captured during the September 2023 forced exodus. They have now spent nearly a year in Baku prisons as hostages of Azerbaijan’s campaign of military aggression and ethnic cleansing. Reports by independent monitors also document systematic destruction of Armenian cultural heritage under Azerbaijani control.
