Epress.am News from Armenia
The poverty-stricken family at house number 30 on street number 1 in Nerkin Shengavit (in the Shengavit administrative district of Yerevan) was deprived of an apartment provided to it by law because the family is pro-opposition and attends opposition rallies, Flora Torosyan informed the Epress.am correspondent who visited the family in their home.
Torosyan lives in the ramshackle house lacking basic conditions with her only son, Harutyun Kishmiryan, his wife, and their 5 young children. Rats and a variety of insects, she says, not only damage the damp, crumbling walls and wood flooring, but also from time to time bite the children when they're sleeping. Torosyan says the house left from her parents belongs to her brother, who years ago provided it to them as temporary shelter but is now asking them to leave.
Torosyan claims that one of her 6 grandchildren died because of doctors' negligence and indifference, while conditions are not enough to meet the needs of the remaining 5 — her monthly pension of 51,000 AMD (about $125 USD) is only enough to pay the utility bills.
On the matter of an apartment, the family's matriarch appealed to current president Serzh Sargsyan during his election campaign, though to no avail.
"I also sent a letter during [Yerevan Mayor] Taron [Margaryan’s] inauguration; I also appealed to the Shengavit district office. A [district office] employee came and looked at the house. I said, ‘See, Hasmik, it’s tight; the children have no place to sleep; the rats run around the house, bite the children.’ You should’ve seen the disgust on her face, like ‘Who asked you to have so many children, that now you want a house from us? Are you having children on our account?’ I contacted the new district leader; I got a letter during elections saying ‘you have to vote for us.’ I said, I won’t vote for any of you; if a house due [to us] by law is being given by a bribe, we don't need it," said Torosyan.
She contacted the district leader with a request to repair the collapsed roof, who gave only 15 of the 20 tin sheets he signed out to the needy family.
"The employee of the district office's utilities department, Hasmik, saw that there's no room to move in the house — she told my son to have the children sleep with him. I never heard of such a thing: a 11-, 10-, or 9 year-old child sleeping [in the same bed] with his parents," complained Torosyan.
Torosyan claims the letters she received from the municipality and the presidential administration state that her family is the first on the list of needy families; thus, the family should've received an apartment by the end of 2013. "Last year, they wrote from city hall that the first apartment will be provided to us; [Armenian Prime Minister] Tigran Sargsyan was to sign the decree in November. Now they say that we're opposition and that's why we've lost our place in the waiting list," she said.
Torosyan's son stressed that the district's Republican Party of Armenia members and some Yerevan Municipal Council members on several occasions threatened him and warned him to think about his family and children before going to opposition rallies and protesting. "They say, come, become Republican [Party of Armenia member]; we’ll solve the issue of the apartment — they don’t think about the fact that the apartment is due to me by law. During the [Karabakh] War veterans’ rally, two scoundrels — [Yerevan] Municipal Council members — came and told me not to participate, not to protest. I said I want my home. And they said: ‘Brother, it’s a serious matter; since you understand so much, come stand beside us, we’ll take care of you.’ I’m not a traitor to the nation, for me to become Republican and say, ‘Forward, Armenia’ or ‘Safe Armenia [the ruling party’s slogans during the presidential and parliamentary elections]'," said Kishmiryan.
Asked by Epress.am in writing whether Kishmiryan's family is in the list of needy families and is registered to get an apartment, Yerevan City Hall's Real Estate Management Department staff said the family is included in the RA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs' Paros social assistance program.
"The procedure for providing shelter and other social services and registering individuals (families) considered socially disadvantaged and special groups needing accommodation and the list of individuals considered socially disadvantaged and special groups having the right to receive accommodation was approved at the Aug. 1, 2013 RA Government meeting. As a socially disadvantaged family with many children, their housing issue can be discussed at the RA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. At the same time, the RA Ministry of Urban Development is working on a strategic plan to develop a social housing fund, which, after being adopted, in the case of a respective housing fund being created, will make it possible to discuss the problems of families in need of better housing conditions," reads the letter from Yerevan City Hall.