Global Overview 2011: People internally displaced by conflict and violence - Armenia

It was unknown how many people remained internally displaced due to armed conflict in Armenia at the end of 2011. Neither IDPs nor returned IDPs were persons of concern to UNHCR during the year. The last study to estimate the number of IDPs was undertaken in 2004. At that time, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Armenia's State Migration Service found some 8,400 people still internally displaced as a result of the 1988-1994 war with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. During the war, at least 65,000 people had fled from Artsvashen, an Armenian exclave inside Azerbaijani territory, and from areas bordering Azerbaijan.

Most IDPs returned to their homes following the conflict, but the 2004 survey reported that some still had not returned to border areas because of the insecurity and the poor economic conditions, or to Artsvashen because the area had been taken over by Azerbaijani forces.

These IDPs' prospects of a durable solution remain dim without government and international support and assistance or any resolution to this conflict.

While those who returned to border areas did not have trouble repossessing their homes, there were still no mechanisms to restore Artsvashen IDPs' housing, land and property or provide them with compensation for damage and destruction. There were no remedies in place for violations of their rights which they had incurred in being displaced.

In 2011, IDPs received no targeted government or international assistance. In March, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination urged the authorities to provide detailed information on their situation, including on their housing. By the end of the year, however, the government had still not secured funds for an IDP survey or a return programme. Nevertheless, it passed a decree at the end of the year to provide cash grants to IDPs from Artsvashen.