Forcibly displaced Artsakh residents are concerned with the recent decision of the RA government, which makes changes to the programs for supporting their housing and utility payments. On November 21, the Armenian government decided that the amount provided from April to June will be 40 thousand drams instead of the current 50 thousand drams. The beneficiaries will be children under 18 years old, people who have reached the age of 18 and are receiving education, people aged 63 and over, those who have lost their breadwinners, and people from the first and second groups. People from this same group will receive support from July to December, but now in the amount of 30 thousand drams. It should be noted that the government provides 40 thousand drams of the current 50 thousand drams to each person for housing and 10 for utility payments.
“They should think about covering their family expenses with their own work,” Nikol Pashinyan said.
The people of Artsakh are perplexed by the decision of the government led by Nikol Pashinyan on the threshold of winter. In an interview with Forrights.am, Artsakh public figure Lianna Petrosyan noted that this decision would be understandable if the government had implemented its announced housing program, which, however, failed.
“This decision is absurd. They could have made such a decision when they had a successful housing program. This support is allocated purely for housing rents, but until this issue is resolved, people are not provided with housing, it can be said that the program is not moving. Parallel to this situation to take and reduce the support directed to it is incomprehensible to me. We have presented arguments that it should be continued as long as the given families are provided with housing,” she said.
“We learned from the government session that the government is raising the issue of employment, however, this is not realistic. In the Republic of Armenia, it is almost impossible to have a job that allows you to pay for housing and take care of your family’s needs,” she said, emphasizing that the age restrictions put forward by employers are no secret.
When the draft to change the amount of support provided was put up for public discussion, Lianna Petrosyan and other Artsakh public figures made proposals, which, however, the government rejected.
“When the draft was put up for public discussion, there were different proposals regarding the support provided to these vulnerable groups. I suggested that vulnerable groups also include people with disabilities of the third group, as well as citizens aged 55+, taking into account their uncompetitiveness in the RA labor market, but there was no result. Our proposals were not accepted.
The reduction in rent is not justified; there is no analysis of the prices of apartments being rented, based on which it can be said that yes, house rents have dropped so much that for 30 thousand (which is 60 thousand drams for a two-person family in a vulnerable group) they can rent an apartment,” she said.
Forrights.am conducted research on the website List.am, which is the largest platform in Armenia that publishes apartment rental announcements. According to the website, an Artsakh person who has found a job in Yerevan can rent an apartment starting from 120 thousand drams, which are apartments of 18, 20 or up to 50 square meters.
We asked Lianna Petrosyan what are the possible solutions in this situation. “There are two options: either people will end up on the streets, since they will not be able to pay the rent, or they will try to look for options outside of Armenia, for example, in Russia, where house prices are more affordable. The alternative will be to spend the nights on the streets,” she said.
Lianna Petrosyan noted that they are going to raise their voices in protest, making their problems heard and demanding clear solutions. “Seeing that public discussions and our proposals did not yield results, it was decided to raise their voices in protest to make the government hear the problems. An Artsakh resident became a refugee with one decision, but to what extent is the Armenian government ready to fulfill its obligations? We will draw the attention of embassies and international organizations to the issue so that we can understand what the funds allocated to them for refugees were spent on,” she said.
According to information provided by the National Security Service, as of June 1, 10,308 Artsakh people have left Armenia and have not returned.
Narek Kirakosyan