Armen Melikyan, a former NKR Foreign Minister, stated that since Karabakh still didn’t have a law regarding citizenship, the country remains an “imaginary” state and that its residents are as well. He argued that it was incumbent that the NKR government pass citizenship legislation as soon as possible, thus clearing the way for former Armenian residents of Azerbaijan to obtain citizenship in Karabakh.

“It is Artsakh that must stand for the rights of those dispersed from Azerbaijan. I demand that land in the liberated territories be freely handed over to former Armenian citizens of Azerbaijan as private property,” Mr. Melikyan stated at a press conference today.

“It is not important how many former Armenian residents will actually resettle in the NKR but how many will become actual citizens. There’s the potential for some 500,000 to become new citizens of Karabakh. It would mean that there are thousands of individuals who believe in the future of the country. This is a very important factor,” he stated.