“We worked and paid more than 5,000 drams to the Artsakh Pension Fund monthly, so that we would receive them in our old age. But today we will be left without a pension,” former resident of Martakert, freedom fighter Ashot Hayrapetyan contacted Forrights.am distressed.
He now lives in Krasnodar, Russian Federation. He works and helps his compatriots as much as he can. He says that he is not poor, but the bitter feeling of injustice does not abandon him.
“The state seems to have renounced us. I worked for Artsakh for 30 years. Armenia did not accept us, our passports, did not give us a place, we were living in the streets with our family, in a car. We came to Russia. I did not change my passport; it is a Karabakh passport. The Russians say, you didn’t change your passport, you didn’t work for us so that I could give you a pension. And in Armenia they refuse to pay me the money I have paid. It is the money we have paid. And now we have all emigrated to different places. Can’t we return our money?” asks the freedom fighter.
He has not reached retirement age, and he understands well that there is no procedure by which a person could return the amounts paid to the state, but all the same, he wants to have settled his accounts with both Artsakh and Armenia. And it will be possible if the state compensates the losses of the people of Artsakh.
“Let them give me money to compensate for what I lost; I will buy a house. Or, let them take Karabakh back, I will go and live there, or I live wherever is convenient for me. They took my house from me, they have sold it, right? Let them give me a house now. I do not want their 40+10 thousand drams. I have lost businesses, I have lost a house, relatives, my father’s grave, which they will not return, it is clear, but at least let them give me a house. I know that they gave houses to several people, but those people got those houses from the bank and will pay off the mortgages for the rest of their lives,” says Ashot Hayrapetyan.
He assures that 35,000 Karabakh residents have received passports in Russia and none of them want to go back. “I don’t want to hear the name of Armenia at all. They have done such bad things. I don’t want to blame the people, but how can the rent be 280,000, 300,000, 400,000 for a house? The Armenians have rented out their houses there, have come here, where they rent places for 100,000 and spend the difference and live well here. I don’t want to come [to Armenia]. I have kept my Karabakh passport so that I can get compensation, and if they don’t give me that, I will hand over that passport and get over everything. I am so fed up with Armenia. I was parking my car; we were living in it, they came and said, ‘Hey, why did you park this car here? Don’t you know that this is our place?’ I don’t want to blame the entire people, you are also a part of the people, my mother is, my sister is, but imagine how fed up I am,” the man says.
And what about the right of return? Today, on international platforms, experts, various figures are talking about the right of return of the people of Artsakh. If you are given such a right, will you return to Artsakh?
“They will not return. None of the people of Artsakh will return. They say, bring NATO troops, station them there, the people of Artsakh will return. NATO troops are Turkish troops. It is like you trusting a farm to a fox. If they say let’s go, fight, liberate [NK], I will take my son, come to fight, but I will never come putting a hope on NATO troops. They [the Azerbaijanis] depopulated Artsakh like Nakhichevan. They have been talking and talking for a hundred years, but now no one talks about Nakhichevan. The same is in Artsakh case: again, we will put up a picture, we will miss it, but that’s it, they won’t do anything.”
Let us remind you that in 2023, it was planned to transfer 144 billion AMD to Artsakh. Various countries transferred money for the needs of Artsakh Armenians: Japan – 2 million USD, the USA – 11 million USD, the European Commission – 10.4 million EUR, Latvia – 350 thousand EUR, Switzerland – 1.5 million francs, Canada – 2.5 million USD, and the Republic of Armenia – about 144 billion AMD. Later, it was decided that these funds would not be allocated for the people of Artsakh, but would be spent on all homeless citizens of the Republic of Armenia. However, the Armenian authorities emphasize at every opportunity what a favor they are doing to the people of Artsakh, giving them “40+10” thousand drams [about $150] every month, providing small amounts of money for housing programs, which no Artsakh resident is satisfied with. They also periodically remind that Armenia has been giving money to Artsakh for years.
Syuzan Simonyan