The forced displacement of 100 thousand people from Nagorno-Karabakh was unexpected. Minister of Finance Vahe Hovhannisyan stated this while presenting the 2024 state budget draft in the National Assembly of Armenia Wednesday.

"Of course, the policy pursued by Azerbaijan made the criminal intent to carry out [Armenian] ethnic cleansing [in Nagorno-Karabakh] obvious, but the forced displacement of 100 thousand people in such a short period of time was really unexpected," said Hovhannisyan.

The finance minister added that thanks to the high rate of the collection of revenues and the formation of the necessary reserves in Armenia, it became possible to fund the proper organizing of the providing of accommodation for and the provision of primary assistance to the Armenians who were forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh.