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Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Tigran Khachatryan stated on Public TV on April 7 that since October 2023, more than 115 billion AMD (about $294.3 million) has been allocated from the state budget under various programs to support the forcibly displaced population from Nagorno-Karabakh.
“I also deem it worthwhile to note that 85-90% of these funds were spent from the Government’s budget. Of course, there were also additional support funds from international organizations, to which we are grateful and which we highly value,” the Deputy Prime Minister noted.
The Fact Investigation Platform sent an inquiry to the Prime Minister’s Office of the Republic of Armenia to find out what international aid the Armenian government has received to provide support to displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh, and based on the response received, summarized the international aid by country and international organization.
Direct budget allocations
Thus, in response to an inquiry from FIP.am, the Office of Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatryan informed that the governments of Lithuania and Latvia provided assistance through direct budget support in the amount of €350,000 ($398,000) and €100,000 ($113.00), respectively.
€15 million was provided within the framework of the “State and Resilience Enhancement Agreement for the Republic of Armenia” signed between the Republic of Armenia and the European Commission in June 2024. The Office reported that later, in December of the same year, another €25 million was allocated as a result of amendments to the Agreement.
The Government of China allocated $1 million.
Funds from partner institutions
The Deputy Prime Minister’s Office also reported that in December 2023, Armenia became a beneficiary of the World Bank’s Global Facility for Concessional Funding which raised $16 million to address the needs of the forcibly displaced.
The $16 million in grant funds raised under the Fund were raised as a supplement to the $92.3 million in loan funds provided under the “Second Green, Resilient and Inclusive Development Policy Operation” budget support agreement signed in May 2024 between the Republic of Armenia and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Refugee Response Program have raised $52 million.
Another $50 million has been provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross, a number of other organizations, and development agencies.
Thus, international aid provided to the forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh amounted to about $165 million in USD, or about 64.5 billion in AMD.
In fact, this amount of international support constitutes slightly more than half, or 56.12%, of the 115 billion AMD, or $294.3 million, allocated to the needs of the people of Artsakh to date.
In-kind support
In-kind assistance was also provided to the forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh, the volume of which was not disclosed by the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office. The response to FIP.am’s inquiry only states that such assistance was provided by the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and individual states and private initiatives.
How much money was distributed and how?
The Government reported that since the ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh, only a small share of international financial aid has been distributed in the amount of about 8 billion AMD or 12.4%.
“In this context, we would like to inform you that during the reporting period, payments of 960 million AMD were made through donor organizations under the program approved by the Government decision “On approving the social support measure and the procedure for providing it to cover primary and consumer expenses for those forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh.
And payments of about 6.8 billion AMD were made under the program approved by the decision “On approving the social support measure and the procedure for providing it to those forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh,” reads the response to the inquiry.
Nane Manasyan
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