By Oksana Musaelyan
After the law on citizenship of the Republic of
Armenia was adopted in 1995, the process of "voluntary" naturalization
of Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan began.
They were granted citizenship, which gave them the
right to be elected to public office and to vote, as well as the right
to travel. Yet, 25 years later, according to the State Migration Service
of Armenia, about 20,000 refugees from Azerbaijan still retain refugee
status.
About 83,000 naturalized citizens are convinced that
naturalization was forced upon them. They consider themselves victims of
the trap set by the country's migration policy. They were hopeful that
acquiring citizenship would radically change their social and economic
situation. However, this was not the case. Both naturalized citizens and
those who have retained refugee status remain the poorest, most
marginalized and vulnerable segments of the population. For them, many
issues, including housing, education and employment, remain unresolved.
Naturalized citizens stand united in the belief that
the Armenian government deceived them. The government promised that they
would receive housing after acquiring citizenship. Also, the refugee
passport issued by Armenia limited the refugees’ rights to travel
outside Armenia. Naturalized citizens are convinced that they lost the
protection of the international community when they gave up their
refugee status. They also believe that the Armenian authorities are
enacting a silent policy of indifference. Naturalized citizens believe
that the authorities are waiting for them to either migrate or simply
pass away—the mortality rate is high among former refugees.
Nevertheless, Gagik Yeganyan, who heads the migration service, believes that such an excuse is a delusion.
“Many believe that refugee status gives them a
greater advantage than an Armenian passport because in the 1990s Armenia
received a large amount of humanitarian aid that was distributed
amongst vulnerable social groups, and refugees comprise some of these
groups. But after 2000, humanitarian aid ended. And yet, people still
have this mindset,” Yeganyan said.
About 700 refugee families received their own houses
under the housing security program, which operated from 2005 to 2008.
However, since 2009 no funding for housing has been allocated.
Nevertheless, for more than 1,000 refugee families, the housing problem
continues to be the most acute. These refugee families from Azerbaijan,
who were displaced due to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict nearly 30 years
ago, continue to live in unfit housing conditions. They live in derelict
hotels, boarding schools, and hostels, often without their own
bathrooms. Commonly, four people live in a single11square-meterroom,
which serves as both a kitchen and bedroom. They are very often
subjected to the arbitrariness of the managers and new owners of these
buildings. They experience random water and power outages. Managers
sometimes guard building entrances to keep out “unwanted” visitors,
thereby creating a prison-like atmosphere.
Yeganyan said that the Armenian authorities would be
happy to help those with outstanding housing issues, but such “good
intentions” run contrary to international practice.
“There isn’t a single international document that
says that the country hosting refugees is obliged to provide them with
housing,” Yeganyan said.
The fact that they are not just refugees, but the
Armenians whose fate have been decided instead of them, when they were
forcibly dislocated as a result of the political issue raised in Armenia
and in Karabakh, proved to be absolutely not an important circumstance
in terms of the rule of the international law, which, as it turned out,
the Armenian authorities strictly comply.
In May 2011, the Armenian government held an
international forum with representatives of the diplomatic missions in
Armenia to come up with a way to solve the refugee housing problem. The
former UN High Commissioner for Refugees and now UN Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres participated. The forum aimed to encourage participants
to donate an $45 million in funding to solve the refugee housing issue.
In his opening remarks at the forum, former Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan noted that the refugee housing problem was the most important
among the social issues facing the country. Yet, despite that statement,
the funds were not allocated to the budget. Among the forum
participants, the embassy of Brazil was the sole contributor to the
fund, donating $50,000. The other forum participants ignored the appeal,
arguing that refugees are de jure citizens of the Republic of Armenia,
which means that the issues former refugees face are Armenia’s problem
to deal with.
During his meeting with Guterres in 2011, former
president Serzh Sargsyan finally stated the authorities' position on the
problems facing refugees by saying that “Yerevan has never politicized
the issue of refugees.” One can only wonder why Sargsyan so belittled
the consequences of the forced resettlement of the Armenian population.
In 2011, refugee issues were finally excluded from the agenda of
Armenia's foreign and domestic policy.
In 2007, during a press conference held on the
side-lines of the Ministerial Council of the OSCE conference in Madrid,
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammedyarov said, "Do not believe
what you are told in Armenia … Armenians left Azerbaijan calmly,
selling all their property.”
Yerevan’s indifferent attitude toward the plight of
Armenian refugees is no different from the official Baku line on their
crimes of violent persecution and property committed against their own
ethnically Armenian citizens. Today, twice a year, the victims of the
Sumgait, Kirovabad and Baku pogroms are commemorated, but the issues
their survivors face in Armenia are ignored. Yerevan’s silence suggests a
cynical, illiterate and antihuman position towards Armenian refugees,
who are treated as second-class citizens. Their rights remain
unprotected under Armenian law.
Today, Armenian refugees find themselves on the
periphery of human existence. They are displaced Armenians whose fate
was decided for them, living unjustly in their own hell.
Photo: Jan Zychlinski