The issue of “300,000 Azerbaijanis” is a fake, fabricated and invented narrative, and “it has not happened, does not exist, and will not happen,” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during a question-and-answer session with the government in the National Assembly.

He was responding to a question about the extent to which what he described as “manipulative falsehoods” had been used during the election campaign, according to 1lurer.am.

“Our society should also give an appropriate response to those political forces that spread this lie. I want to reiterate that it is possible to keep such a topic alive, even at the level of the media agenda, only by continuing the rhetoric of the three-headed war party. In other words, if we enter the logic of conflict, all kinds of narratives can emerge. But the peace agenda and peace itself close and have closed all such issues. That is the reality,” Pashinyan said.

The prime minister also addressed the issue of election bribery, arguing that large-scale vote-buying had taken place during the elections but that the state had fought the phenomenon with unprecedented effectiveness.

“This is the first time that the people have overcome election bribery on such a scale, because there has never before been a case where vote-buying occurred at this level and the people’s genuine choice was still expressed. On the one hand, this demonstrates the institutional maturity of our state. On the other hand, it shows that this path must continue.

I repeat: uprooting those who distribute election bribes from Armenia’s political life is becoming a top priority because of this reality. We must eliminate them one by one using every possible legal means, and we are going to follow that path,” Pashinyan stated.

The remarks came in response to campaign claims made by opposition figures regarding a possible influx of Azerbaijanis into Armenia.

During the election campaign, Strong Armenia alliance leader Samvel Karapetyan and other representatives of the alliance repeatedly claimed that “300,000 Azerbaijanis would come to live in Armenia” if the current government were re-elected. They also referred to a conference titled “Western Azerbaijan,” scheduled to take place in Nakhchivan on June 18 and expected to be attended by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.