More than 6,400 families forced from their homes by Azerbaijan’s 2023 ethnic cleansing of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) have now received state housing certificates in Armenia, and nearly 3,000 of them have already purchased homes, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatryan told parliament on Tuesday, as the government’s total obligations under the program climbed past 85 billion drams (about $230 million).
Presenting the 2025 state budget execution report, Khachatryan said that as of May 31, 2026, certificates had been issued to 6,444 families, covering 26,432 people. More than 2,970 of those families, or roughly 13,400 people, have already bought a house or apartment, with the purchased housing valued at approximately 48 billion drams (about $130 million).
Khachatryan said improving the conditions for the socio-economic integration of citizens displaced from Artsakh remained one of the main priorities of the Pashinyan administration in 2025, as in previous years. He framed the effort as a shift from emergency crisis management to long-term integration, crediting the programs run since September 2023 with making that transition possible.
The program’s rules were broadened over the past year. At the initial stage, certificates were issued according to a set order, but from July 1, 2025, eligibility was opened to all families meeting the program’s conditions, regardless of family composition. The government also expanded the list of settlements where per-person support for buying a home rises from 3 million to 4 million drams (about $8,100 to $10,800), growing it from 452 settlements to 611. In March 2026, that higher amount was extended to settlements in the regions bordering Yerevan, and beneficiaries who had already used certificates were allowed to apply the additional funds to other expenses covered by the program.
The financial commitment is larger than the purchase figures alone suggest. Khachatryan said that once the repayment of loans from financing commercial banks and the interest servicing costs to be covered by the budget in coming years are factored in, the government’s total obligations under the program have already reached 85 billion drams (about $230 million).
The broader spending also continued to grow. Roughly 45.7 billion drams (about $124 million) were allocated from the state budget in 2025 to support compatriots displaced from Artsakh, and about 146 billion drams (about $396 million) since 2023. At the end of 2025, the government approved a measure to partially compensate rent for certain groups of displaced people and continued other financial assistance programs, with approximately 38 billion drams (about $103 million) allocated for those support areas in 2025. The draft 2026 budget sets aside 55 billion drams (about $149 million) for the same program areas.
Khachatryan also reported that as of December 31, 2025, more than 31,300 citizens displaced from Artsakh are permanently employed or self-employed in Armenia.
The support follows Azerbaijan’s large-scale assault on Artsakh on September 19 and 20, 2023, carried out with artillery, drones, and combat aircraft. The offensive came after a nine-month blockade of the Berdzor (Lachin) Corridor that had cut off food, fuel, and medicine to the enclave’s population. On September 28, after negotiations with Baku, Artsakh President Samvel Shahramanyan signed a decree dissolving all state institutions and declaring the Republic of Artsakh would cease to exist as of January 1, 2024. More than 115,000 residents were forced to flee to Armenia in what governments, human rights organizations, and international observers have described as ethnic cleansing.
Before and during the exodus, Azerbaijan detained much of Artsakh’s former political and military leadership, including former state minister Ruben Vardanyan. They remain held in Baku, where they have faced trials that Armenian officials and rights groups have condemned as show trials designed to legitimize the takeover rather than deliver justice.
