EIGHT CHILDREN ARE HOMELESS
Anahit Danielyan

Hetq.am
KarabakhOpen
14-05-2008 10:48:53

The eight children of Mikhail Arushanyan, disabled of war in Artsakh,
are homeless. The family has appeared in a difficult situation from
which they have been looking for a way out for many years on but
in vain.

Before 1990 the Arushanyan family used to live in Stepanakert. Mikhail
and his wife Rita moved from Stavropol to Karabakh in 1979 and worked
at the silk factory of Karabakh and lived at the dormitory of the
factory on 42 Tigran Mets Street. The room of the dormitory where
they lived was 36 sq m.

Mikhail Arushanyan says in 1990, as part of some government program,
he signed a contract with the City Hall of Stepanakert, and his family
moved to live in the village of Khachen, Askeran for five years. "At
that time they said it is necessary to preserve and develop villages,
therefore they sent us there. But on the condition that we would return
to Stepanakert five years later and our room at the dormitory would
remain, as well as the queue for apartments since 1984. As a result
we lost the room where we are still registered," said the veteran of
the war in Artsakh. To support his words, he showed us his work card,
yellow from humidity, with corresponding records.

The family of eight children lives in a house without basic conditions
for life. It is one of the oldest houses of the village which looks
like an earth-house rather. The traces of humidity are everywhere.

They sleep in two small rooms with four bunks. It is dangerous to
sleep on the floor because it is too humid, besides the floor is the
ground. The children, shivering with cold, pale and thin, blush every
time I ask them a question.

Their little daughter Gohar, 7 does not go to school. The other
children do not go to school either. Their mother Rita Danielyan says
one of them has no shoes, the other has no clothes, besides in the
conditions they live the children have no time to have a rest or do
homework, says Rita. Children often fall ill, and there is no money
for treatment.

They cannot afford to take their son who also has disability of second
degree (got meningitis in the army and was demobilized) to Yerevan
to see the doctor.

Rita Danielyan says in 2005 his husband and in 2007 his son got
disabilities but still get no pension because they cannot change their
passports. They are not given new passports because the housing board
of Stepanakert does not give them certificate of registration. For
the same reason the children do not get benefits toll recently,
and before that a kind person had helped them get a certificate of
registration at their room in the dormitory.

The situation is more complicated because Rita, her husband and their
adult children are still registered at the dormitory. "In 1995 when
we had to return to Stepanakert, our room at the dormitory which
was damaged by a shell during the war, it was impossible to live
there. We have turned to different agencies for help. They assured
that the room is theirs but now there is no possibility to repair
it. In 1999 when I arrived in Stepanakert I saw there was no lock on
the door. I asked what the matter was and I was told that the room
had been provided to Camilla Gasparyan, a woman with three children,"
says the wife of Mikhail who does not know what else to do.

Rita says the woman did not live in the room until the roof was
repaired in 2003. Over these years she has turned to different agencies
but in vain. She has also gone to court but the district court decided
to provide the room to Camilla Gasparyan.

The Arushanyans have turned to the mayor of Stepanakert and President
Arkady Ghukasyan for a number of times but in vain. They hope that
the government will provide them with an apartment in the building
where the residents of the dormitory will move to live. They hope
the question of pensions and benefits will also be solved.

"We already owe so much money to the shop of the village that we are
ashamed of going there. They hardly give us flour on credit not to
let our children starve. We would somehow live on the pension and
benefit. Why do they refuse to give us a certificate? Is this what
we fought for?" asks the veteran of war. They have already run out
of flour and he does not know what to do.

We asked the minister of social security Narine Azatyan, who also
coordinates the problem of housing, to comment on this case. She said
she is not aware of the details but promised to study and answer.