Yerevan: Refugee Day was marked by march and exhibition-sale of Armenian refugees' works

On June 20, Yerevan hosted, at the initiative of the UN Agency for Refugees, a march and an exhibition-sale of works made by Armenian refugees. The events were dated the World Refugee Day marked on that day. The exhibition showed works of Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan, Iraq and Syria.

According to the office of the UN Agency for Refugees in Armenia, due to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, in the early 1990s about 360,000 Armenian refugees came to Armenia from Azerbaijan; of them, 2300 persons have not received Armenian citizenship yet. Since 2004, Armenia received about 1000 ethnic Armenians – refugees from Iraq; and now Armenia takes its compatriots from Syria.

Anahit Airapetyan, the coordinator for external relations of the local office of the UN Agency for Refugees, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the refugees, who had found refuge in Armenia, were put on the humanitarian aid programme; however, their housing problems are among the main obstacles to their integration into the society.

Carmen Manucharyan, the head of the division on refugee matters of the Migration Service of the Ministry of Territorial Management of Armenia, has noted that, in general, from 2500 to 3000 families in Armenia are not provided with housing. However, there is no budget funding for providing refugees from Azerbaijan with housing.

According to her story, today, the Migration Service is involved in restoring the work records of refugees from Azerbaijan, so they could receive their pensions.