Grisha BALASANYAN<\/p>\n
www.hetq.am<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/hetq.am\/en\/society\/silva-gmbikyan-margara\/<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s already a few years now that Silva Gmbikyan\u2019s daughter, who attends the ninth grade, lives far from the family. The girl is being cared for by her grandparents. The family of five lives in the village of Margara, in the Armavir Marz, close to the Armenian-Turkish border.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMy husband, Levon Gabrielyan, fought in the Artsakh war of liberation, in General Manvel Grigoryan\u2019s unit. He was wounded in the war. We\u2019ve received neither assistance nor attention from the Ministry of Defense. The government has totally forgotten about us. Because we have no money, we can\u2019t get my husband\u2019s disability papers in order so that he might receive a pension of a few kopeks. I have three adolescent children and our situation is quite dire. Nobody lends us a helping hand so that we can get back on our feet. My girl will finish school this year. I really don\u2019t know what we\u2019ll do. We\u2019re really in a mess,\u201d Silva said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The woman says that they receive no state assistance since, \u201cthe government requires a passport to apply for aid. My passport has expired and we don\u2019t have the money needed to get the passport renewed. My husband\u2019s documents aren\u2019t complete and it keeps getting put off.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We asked village mayor Khachik Asatryan if his office couldn\u2019t help this family get their paperwork in order.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always told them to bring what documents they have to the office so that we can see what we can do. It\u2019s no big deal. I can arrange their papers in two days. Levon was a freedom-fighter. He\u2019s eligible for a tidy sum if he has the proper documentation. You should at least tell them to bring their papers to my office,\u201d was Mr. Asatryan\u2019s response to \u201cHetq\u201d.<\/p>\n Silva Gmbikyan said that the appropriate papers must be prepared at the regional center but that they don\u2019t have the money to travel there.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We need to underline the fact that the Gabrielyan family lives in extremely poor conditions. The earthen house in which they live is structurally weak and can collapse at any moment. The walls of the house are separated from each other and the plaster on the walls of the only room that is livable is flaking off. In this one room there\u2019s a TV made back in the Soviet-era and two iron bed frames. Pushed together, the brother and sister sleep together on one side, and the parents on the other. There are no chairs in the house. They sit on makeshift chairs made of iron scraps collected from the street which are placed on flat stones.<\/p>\n \u201cMy brother-in-law has passed away and we now live together with his wife in the one courtyard. We have no papers for the house and don\u2019t know if it belongs to us or my brother-in-law\u2019s family. We live in this state of limbo and in constant fear because the roof can fall down on us at any moment,\u201d says Mrs. Silva.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n During our visit her husband was out strolling through the village looking for work. He does manual labor but this type of work isn\u2019t found every day; at best once or twice per week.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSometimes we go without anything to eat for weeks on end. We have flour to last for two days. When it\u2019s finished, we\u2019ll go hungry again. I work other people\u2019s land for two days a week so that my daughter can pay for her graduating class photo. If there was work, any work, I\u2019d gladly take it to feed my kids. If not, we\u2019ll have to sit here and go hungry. I can\u2019t always be asking this or that person for a piece of bread to feed my kids with. No one is obliged to give me bread every day. Think what you\u2019d do if you had no money. Would you go around begging for scraps every day? You\u2019d feel ashamed, no? Whomever I go to ask for food they\u2019ll say the same thing \u2013 you\u2019re a young woman, go and work. But what can I do? The hardest problem is that there is no work. Otherwise I\u2019d be working and not sitting home hungry. I\u2019d work at anything to take care of my children in a normal fashion,\u201d Silva argues.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe have a 1,500 meter parcel of land on the other side of the barbed wire (where the Armenian-Turkish border is \u2013 GB). But it\u2019s almost 10 kilometers away and I can\u2019t travel there every day. We also have another 1,500 meter plot a bit closer but the court has placed it under lock and key. They want to take it from us. I don\u2019t know what we\u2019ll do. We\u2019ve racked up an electricity debt and they want to take the land as payment,\u201d Silva continues.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe government should understand that our situation is so bad that we can\u2019t make the electricity payments. They decided amongst themselves that our lands must be auctioned off. We have no work. My husband is physically disabled. We can\u2019t pay of our debts in order to keep the land we have,\u201d recounts Silva.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It turns out that the Armenian Electricity Network (AEN) applied to the Armavir Regional Court requesting that it enforce payment and seize the 1,500 plot owned by Levon Gabrielyan. Judge A. Aghamyan recognized the AEN\u2019s claim as valid on March 3. The Gabrielyans\u2019 unpaid electricity bill amounts to 229,725 Drams ($ 636). While the plot has yet to be auctioned off it is clear that the family has little chance of getting the land back.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cLast year I got some land from someone to work myself. I figured at least it would help us get back on our feet. But they didn\u2019t give us any water for irrigation. My entire crop dried-up and I didn\u2019t see a kopek\u2019s worth of profit. This year it\u2019s the same question facing us \u2013 will they give us water or not? We are living on hope alone. Bu we haven\u2019t seen any positive movement for years. Now, everything has gotten expensive and I\u2019m afraid we\u2019ll die from starvation,\u201d laments Silva Gmbikyan<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Gabrielyans Revisited: \u201cHetq\u201d Coverage Forces Government to Aid Margara Family<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n http:\/\/hetq.am\/en\/society\/margara-2\/<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n