T he Poghosyans live in borderline Martiros village, in a former abandoned shop at the side of the road. The family consists of 5 children, 2 grandchildren, the youngest of them – Eric, 10 days old. It is not understandable to the children – why it is written “Продукты (Food- ed.)” at their “house”, if there is no “food” to eat inside oftentimes. The parents know, that that abandoned shop serves both as a house, and a garage, car spare parts lie in one corner of the room, the tub of the newborn is placed beside the old wheels, on the other corner – the “kitchen”, and it is better not to refer to the corners serving as bedrooms.
At our question – how do you live in these conditions, the housewife – Gorhar grinned: “If I tell you – with a very much difficulty, will you believe? How should we live in these conditions? We have put the stove in the room and all gathered around it, how should it be?”
The members of the family assured, as an extended family they had received no privilege, they had not seen anything. According Gohar: “There is no family in the village to have as many children as we do, mine are the most – 5 children and there is nothing in it. We keep 2 cows, hardly make both ends meet with that. My son is a contracted soldier, he works, receives 100.000 AMD salary.”
It is noteworthy that one of the former village governors of Martiros, Nikolay Poghosyan, had demanded from Gohar’s husband to keep his cattle free of charge in return of giving a shelter to his family in the abandoned shop: “He would keep the cattle of the village and not pay the rent – 15-20.000 AMD. Then he went to Russia and has not demanded a charge since then. Good that the new governor does not require it. We were living in the dark, there was no electricity, nothing, when we moved in to the shop, it is afterwards that they have switched on the electricity”, told Gohar.
If the people suffered from disaster in Gyumri impatiently wait for getting rid of their cottages, this family dreams of a cottage in village Martiros: “They have told they should bring cottages, we do not cherish hopes, we wait. We simply hear that there are a lot of privileges for the people living in borderline villages, we are an extended family but have not seen any privilege yet.” She said that the village governor has not helped by any means either: “We have applied to him many times.” The members of the family told that they did not see a future: “What is a regional government? We have applied up to Mr. President… it seems my son works, we receive social benefits, hardly make both ends meet. We were glad – it was good, at least we would be given the cottages, but even that we are not given.”
One of the children, Oline, who pursues her 3rd class at school, has spoken until the age of 5 fluently, mother told: “she got afraid of a dog in the street, now she is not able to speak. We do not have money to take her to the logopedist.”
The family was discontented with the reigning indifference. Asked whether the leaders do not come during elections, Mrs. Gohar replied: “No, it depends on who they visit. Who has an acquaintance, they come to visit. Who will remember us? Hovik Abrahamyan was the PM back then, he promised to solve the issue, will help, he told us to write a letter, we wrote the letter, the result – nothing. We wrote a letter to Serzh Sargsyan, in a week we received the response implying that they will help us in case of the possibility. It is for several years the possibility has not been there.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
