Armenian MPs apply to CC to defend pensioners from Artsakh 

ArmInfo. At the request of the Artsakh Human Rights Defender's Office and the proposal of 1/5 of the  deputies of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia (deputies from the "Armenia" and "I have the honor" factions), they applied to the RA Constitutional Court to determine the protection of the rights and legitimate interests of the participants in the funded component of the pension system of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Artsakh  Ombudsman Gegham Stepanyan reported this on his Facebook account. 

As the Artsakh Ombudsman explained, this concerns the compliance of  Article 8.1 of the RA Law "On Additional Guarantees for the  Protection of the Rights and Legitimate Interests of the Participants  in the Funded Component of the Pension System" with Articles 29, 60  (ownership rights), 78 (principle of proportionality) and 79  (principle of legal certainty) of the Constitution. In this regard,  he recalled that the disputed provision of the law was amended by the  National Assembly of Armenia in June 2024 and provided for a  mechanism for transferring the amounts accumulated by the residents  of Artsakh to the RA savings system without taking into account their  will. "The statement reasonably presents the contradiction of this  provision with the property right enshrined in the Constitution,"  Stepanyan added, noting that he would later provide additional  information on the further process.

Earlier, Artsakh Ombudsman Gegham Stepanyan had already called the  actions of the Armenian government in relation to the pension savings  of Artsakh residents a violation of the rights of NKR Armenians. He  drew attention to the fact that on February 29, 2024, the government  of Nagorno-Karabakh approved the procedure for citizens to own their  savings within the framework of this law. Later, the authorities  discussed with the Central Bank of Armenia, the Central Depository of  Armenia OJSC and the fund manager, General Asset Management CJSC, the  possibility for citizens of Nagorno-Karabakh to either transfer their  accumulated funds to another fund operating in the funded pension  system of the Republic of Armenia or to receive them in hand.  "However, the current government of Armenia came up with a  legislative initiative allowing a refugee to only transfer his  accumulated funds to the pension savings system of Armenia,  voluntarily or forcibly. Thus, the citizens of Artsakh were deprived  of the right to manage their pension amounts," Stepanyan noted.

The 120,000 population of Artsakh was under blockade for about 10  months (since December 12, 2022), experiencing a shortage of food,  medicine, other essentials and fuel. On September 19, 2023, at about  13:00, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, having announced the start of  "local anti-terrorist measures", began the forcible subordination of  Artsakh. The NKR fell without receiving support from Armenia. 

On September 22, the process of abolishing the Artsakh Defense Army  began, and a mass exodus of the Armenian and Nagorno-Karabakh  population began. This was the second wave of exodus from Artsakh.   The first occurred during the 44-day war of 2020, when about 40  thousand Artsakh residents were forced to leave their homes. Thus, in  total, since the enemy aggression that began in the fall of 2020,  which in September 2023 ended with the complete ethnic cleansing of  Artsakh, over 150 thousand Artsakh residents have become homeless.