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Armenian Pilots with Disabilities Protest Unpaid Compensation (PHOTOS)

“We’re a group of pilots with disabilities; we’ve all acquired different types of illnesses. The airport is obliged to provide compensation to those who became disabled while at work, but if it has declared bankruptcy, it’s not in a position to give money, the state is obliged to take a stand and pay us,” today said a group of pilots with disabilities outside the Armenian government building protesting the compensation they say is due to them that has been unpaid for 5 years now.

“While working on the plane, I fell down the stairs. I got a head injury: I’m a person with a second-level disability. It’s already the 5th year that we haven’t been receiving compensation. During the Soviet period, we received compensation; after Armenia’s independence, we received compensation, but then they suddenly prohibited paying us,” aviation technician Haykaz Nayiryan told Epress.am.

According to him, the practice of paying compensation to those who acquired a disability from work is accepted all over the world, but both the Armenian courts and the European Court have not responded to their appeals.

“Why is Armenia’s leadership prohibiting [paying us compensation], we don’t understand,” said Nayiryan.

“It’s as if they’re mute, they don’t give a single response. The prime minister last week said this is the first time I’m hearing that pilots have to get compensation and they’re not getting it. They are engaged only in plundering — they’ve abandoned the people. Our boys gave their lives; all of us participated in the [Nagorno] Karabakh War, we moved the injured in the fight in Afghanistan, we provided assistance during the 1988 earthquake, now no one needs us, yeah?” complained the pilots, one after another. “If they give us compensation, there will be less for them to grab. [Armenian President] Serzh [Sargsyan] is unable to speak because he’s the first plunderer, and the second are the ministers and the oligarchs. Well come and reconcile with this government, ha! Out of 137, we are 90 people with disabilities left, 47 of which are already in the other world, a few are in hospital and they can’t come to protest. There’s this many of us left, on our feet, that come… this is it, brother dear.”