2024-07-25 05:17:06
Our compatriots forcibly displaced from Artsakh have been in Armenia for about five months. If in the early days the issue of housing, food and clothing was a priority, now other problems are also emerging. Metaxe Hakobyan, deputy of the “Justice” faction of the Artsakh Republic’s National Assembly, chairman of the “Justice and Return” NGO, emphasizes in a conversation with “Fact” that the problems have not decreased, but have increased tenfold.
“The problems are more than one could imagine. People faced other problems, starting with rents they couldn’t pay. From March, the disbursement of AMD 40 + 10 thousand will be stopped. Even in rural communities, this is not enough money to rent a house. On the other hand, it is impossible to find a job, especially in marzes and villages, people do not have the opportunity to work because they do not have the opportunity to engage in animal husbandry or farming because they are not in their homes. Many people are no longer looking for work in their field, but still, finding a job is almost impossible for many. We all know how many obstacles there are when it comes to working in government institutions. “Social problems are not diminishing, but deepening and becoming unsolvable,” says Hakobyan.
You can also regularly come across publications that our compatriots forcibly displaced from Artsakh face various obstacles when they apply to this or that state department: queues, inaccuracies, etc. Metakse Hakobyan notes that he has personal experience in this matter, besides that, dozens of citizens contact him with the same problems on a daily basis.
“For example, the problems appearing at passport points are different. The other day I was talking with a citizen who is unable to register his parents in the city of Abovyan, therefore, the latter is unable to receive his pension. Accumulations are the reason. He’s signed up now, but there’s currently a queue of about 5,000. If the passport office serves 30 people a day, imagine when the citizen will be registered. There are passport departments where there are two windows instead of one, they also work on Saturdays, but this is still not enough to solve the problem. Decisions are constantly changing, people avoid being counted too. Citizens appeal to me that they once had the registration of the Republic of Armenia, now they are being forced to change their passports, they no longer register the code 070 in their passports, as they did in November. The problems with the Ministry of Social Affairs are unspeakable. I’m trying to solve an issue related to two families, but it just doesn’t work.
One of the families lived in Artsakh since 2008, but the children were registered in Artsakh in 2021. Children have been registered in Artsakh since 2021. Now the children do not receive financial support, because the program says that they are registered in the Republic of Armenia, but in fact they were registered in Artsakh, according to the documents. The other is a family of eight people who were forcibly displaced from Hadrut in 2020, lived in Armenia for a year, returned to Artsakh in 2021, and were forcibly displaced from Artsakh in 2023. In general, that family did not receive either 100 or 50 thousand financial aid. The answer to those people is very rude every time: you haven’t lived in Artsakh, that’s how it shows in our base, and that’s it. No regulation is made in that regard, you don’t know who to turn to, so that the issues raised are resolved. The citizen submits the necessary documents, there is the actual registration, but they can say that we are not interested, your name is not in the database. I don’t know a family whose all members received support,” he emphasizes.
And how many of our compatriots from Artsakh leave Armenia? “Unfortunately, a lot. I don’t want to blame, but I also don’t understand it all. I know many families who have tears in their eyes because they cannot find housing and work here with normal rent. But, for example, they went to Russia, not even having relatives there, they were able to find a house and a job for a cheaper fee. Many have started to leave for USA, France. Recently, I saw at the airport how many families from Artsakh were leaving Armenia. Many people also have the feeling that they are simply not accepted here. On one occasion, I said that it is very hard when you feel like a countryless person in your homeland. That feeling sometimes becomes unbearable, and people prefer to wait for good days for their homeland from outside, but they do not find the strength to take part in making those good days come sooner,” adds the president of “Justice and Return” NGO.
There are also regular reports that they are listing people who would like to return to Artsakh. On the one hand, this disturbs our compatriots settled in Armenia, who, one way or another, are mentally in Artsakh, on the other hand, you start leaning towards conspiracy theories. “I don’t know who are the authors of such news, but they spread very quickly among the people. It is even rumored that I am making lists, many people have been calling me. To be honest, I was surprised. I have clearly stated the conditions under which our return should be, now it cannot be something like that. They are playing with people’s feelings, many are in a desperate situation and do not even realize what it means to talk about returning to Artsakh now. Returning to Artsakh is the main goal of all of us, but for that we have to work, get the fulfillment of our demands, only then will it be possible to return to Artsakh. Either these are specially organized actions, or they aim to calm the society so that there is no rebellion, the demand for the homeland is mild, people wait with the hope that you will see if we will return, let’s wait quietly. This can be done for different purposes, but in any case, the purpose is not good,” says Metaxe Hakobyan.
Ilham Aliyev votes in Stepanakert, this is another blow to all conscious people, on the other hand, our compatriots continue to stay in prisons in Baku. “There is a destruction of dignity. What is happening is not to talk, to forget or to find excuses for various reasons not to fight, but also to realize that the military-political elite of an entire victorious state, both the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh, have been captured and are facing illegal charges that have nothing to do with do not have, cannot have with these persons. Starting with the government and ending with many political forces and people, they do not talk about these topics. My colleague, Mr. Davit Ishkhanyan, who is captured today, if he had the opportunity to send us a message, he would firstly shame us, and secondly, he would call us to fight and not stop.
In fact, we have one thing left, and we are losing this every day and hour, we have the most important thing left, dignity, which we are slowly losing. We have to fight for it. We talk about our victims over the past 30 years, about the Fraternal Pantheon and Yrablur, but we don’t talk about the fact that it is our dignity to at least have the right to lay flowers on those tombstones. Now we are losing it, there are only a few left who at least try to do something in this widespread chaos. They are stoned, subjected to pressure, become political prisoners, they are stigmatized. But water can penetrate stone drop by drop. There is that type that will not back down, will not give in, no matter what the pressures are and will eventually be a pariah or a stone, bitten by those drops. I am optimistic in the sense that there cannot be a struggle that will remain fruitless,” concludes Metaxe Hakobyan.