Residents of Kashatag District of Nagorno-Karabakh complain about selective approach to granting help for house rebuilding

They claim that the new settlers who moved to the district since 2009 receive building materials free of charge, while old-timers have to repair their damaged houses at their own expense.

Thus, according to the state programme of resettlement, since 2009, all the newcomers to the district receive building materials to rebuild the houses damaged or destroyed during the Karabakh War; however, according to local residents, this help does not cover those who had settled there before 2009.

Artyush Mkhitaryan, the deputy head of the Kashatag District, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that under the above state programme the families who resettled since 2009 are provided with building materials, which has increased the number of residents. He also stressed that "there are no resettlement issues; and the Kashatag District could accept more families, if not for the housing problem."

"Nothing was built in other villages. The problems that have accumulated during 15 years cannot be solved at once. We give materials to new settlers; and those who have lived here for almost 10-20 years, believe that it is unfair, because they too have housing problems. Certainly, we are able to provide materials for the construction of roofs only, but we can't do even this right away. Repairing roofs of almost 2000 houses costs a lot of money," said Mkhitaryan.