A procession calling to help the refugees passed off in Armenia

A series of actions devoted to the World Day of Refugees passed off in Yerevan on June, 19-20. Over one hundred people took part in a procession along the central streets of the capital with a slogan “Do at least something for a refugee!”

“The Armenian UNO Association organized this action to popularize defense of the refugees’ rights and the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. We want people to be more responsive and tolerant when refugees are in grave situations, to give them a helping hand and the state to take more responsibility for defense of the refugees’ rights”, Nona Shagoyan, Coordinator of the projects of the Armenian UNO Association, comments on the goal of the actions.

Over half a million Armenians were compelled to leave their homes in Azerbaijan as a result of Karabakh conflict during the period from 1988 up to the end of 1991. According to the Armenian Refugees’ Assembly, 360 thousand out of those who left Azerbaijan found shelter in Armenia. About three thousand refugees from Azerbaijan and about one thousand from Iraq are registered in the country today. The rest received Armenian citizenship.

“Having lost everything they had and were used to the refugees had to migrate to other places. This is a sad date. We should never forget it is our duty to help them”, Adiljan Shamshiev, student of the Institute of the Caucasus in Yerevan, said. – I am a native of Kirgizia. When I received the news of this action I could not pass by and I share all the calls of the participants of the procession”.

The dwelling problem remains critical in Armenia. In 2004 a program of accommodation for the refugee families living in extreme  poverty was adopted, however, its implementation was held up in 2010 because of world financial crisis. At present dwelling problems of 1200 refugee families remain unsettled.
After losing all her property in Baku Raya Grigoryan went to Krasnodar by ferry and from there to Armenia. “It is terrible to remember how we survived just by a lucky chance, – she says. – When I came to Yerevan in 1989 I received one room in a dormitory. 22 years passed and I am still living in unbearable conditions”.

Part of the refugees who came to Armenia and stayed with their relatives or friends were excluded from the programs of housing construction. The other part were accommodated in dormitories.