The Netherlands provides $16 million to house displaced Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians

The Dutch government has announced the provision of €14 million ($16  million) to Armenia to support refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh to have ‘access to affordable housing’.

The announcement came on Wednesday, as Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan paid an official visit to the Netherlands and met with his Dutch counterpart, David Van Weel.

Following the meeting, Van Weel announced the assistance in a post on X, noting that the funds will come through the Global Concessional Financing Facility (GCFF).

The GCFF was originally established in 2016 to respond to the Syrian refugee crisis, with the main goal being ‘to provide concessional financing to countries hosting large numbers of refugees’.

Immediately after the exodus of virtually the entire Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians in September 2023 — after Azerbaijan’s final offensive into the region that occurred after it was placed under a nine-month blockade — the Armenian government launched several assistance programmes. Later, it also offered a state housing programme, which still has not attracted many of the refugees.

One issue is that it takes time to obtain Armenian citizenship, which is required in order to be eligible for the state housing programme. In addition, finding a property that is available for purchase can also be time-consuming.

‘At the moment, 1,900 certificates have been issued, we are talking about 25,000 beneficiary families […] of which 300–400 have been realised’, Nagorno-Karabakh’s final Human Rights Defender, Gegham Stepanyan, stated in July.

While admitting that the government has amended the state housing programme, Stepanyan noted that many complaints still stand, especially among small families who would be unable to buy an apartment with the allocated amount.

As of 22 August, fewer than 11,000 Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians have received Armenian citizenship, according to the Interior Ministry, which is considerably less than the number of refugees who have left Armenia and not returned. According to the National Security Service, this number amounts to 16,000 as of 1 September.

Moreover, based on the analysis of the data, CivilNet noticed that between spring 2024 and spring 2025, the number of refugees who did not return remained at around 11,000–12,000. However, the number increased by up to 5,000 starting from May 2025, which ‘coincided with the period’ when the government cut the social aid provided for refugees to cover rental costs.

Social assistance was slashed starting from June, after the government postponed the date of it entering into force — the delay followed a major rally and several refugee protests in Yerevan.

At the same time, the government launched a new programme targeting vulnerable groups.

The decision to make cuts to the aid programme was adopted by the government in November 2024. The changes cut the number of people eligible to receive support, mainly excluding working-age people. It also included gradually reducing the monthly assistance from 1 April from ֏50,000 ($130) to ֏30,000 ($80).

The authorities stated that the money would be redirected to a state housing assistance program, which has been condemned by some of its intended beneficiaries, and later was amended.