ARMENIA: ITALY OPENS NEW REFUGEE CENTRE

(ANSA) – YEREVAN, November 24 – Seen from a distance and in the snow
storm, the sweep of small yellow domes which float in the fog seems
unreal but when you approach the harsh reality with small metal
or clay brick shelters without windows that look like cattle sheds
covered with hay to protect them from the cold hits you.

   This village on the outskirts of Yerevan is where some 20,000
Armenian refugees, who fled Azerbaijan in the 1990s after the bloody
secessionist war against the Azeri government started by the Armenian
community in Nagorno-Karabakh, currently live. They are part of
the hundreds of thousands evacuees, victims of ethnic conflicts and
territorial contests who float in the Caucasus and are often held on
the brink of survival by their own nations.

   The Italian government has been carrying out a humanitarian
aid programme in the three Caucasian states Armenia, Georgia and
Azerbaijan, and Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Margherita Boniver
inaugurated on Tuesday a new centre for rehabilitation of refugees
donated by Italy.

   A small crowd of freezing children waving the Italian flag welcomed
the arrival of the Italian delegation in an obviously very important
event in their life of misery and isolation. They were shouting “Ciao,
Ciao” alongside the muddy street.

   A few short speeches were delivered outdoors in front of the
building with sewing machines, kitchen and emergency equipment and
accompanied by a band musicians in traditional costumes playing
tambourines and flutes.

   The new centre is part of a 60,000 euro aid programme.

   “This is yet another proof of the close relations between Italy
and the Armenian population,” Boniver said underlining the importance
of the humanitarian aspects of the programme.

   From a political point of view the Italian government maintains
an absolutely neutral position towards the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

   “Karabakh is Armenian, it is the heart of our nation,” one of the
refugees, Georgy, who has fought in this war and later was forced
to leave the Azerbaijan capital of Baku with his family, said. “The
Azeri cannot take it from us shielding themselves behind a decision
taken by Stalin.”

   Now Georgy is waiting in the Yerevan refugee camp for something
to happen. The way to Baku seems closed and probably he will end up
in the diaspora abroad like a million other

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