Gevorg Avagyan moved with his family from the Krasnodar region of Russia in 1989 to participate in the Artsakh war of liberation. He enlisted as a volunteer, and in 1992-1994 he participated in military operations in Lachin and in the defense of border regions of Armenia . In 1995, over doctors' objections, he began working with the Abovyan Department of Communal Services as a garbage collector.

"We used to live in a dormitory; it was very hard, but I had to support my family," the freedom fighter says.

In 1999, after Vazgen Sargisyan intervened, Avagyan was given the one-room-apartment in Abovyan where he now lives with his family. He is a first degree invalid and spends his days under the care of his wife.

Of the five members of the family, only the eldest son-barely out of eighth grade-has a job.

"He had to support the family; he couldn't continue his studies," the boy's mother says. The family lives on the 35,000 drams (about $70) he makes a month, along with Gevorg's pension, though its mostly spent on medicine. "In the past, the Veterans' Union used to have a pharmacy where we could get medicine free of charge. But later on it was closed. Now the Abovyan polyclinic provides us with some of the medicine free of charge, but the rest we have to buy ourselves. And psychotropic drugs are quite expensive," Gevorg says. His body shakes constantly, as a result of his injuries, but two months ago the Veterans' Union presented him with a wheelchair, so he can move around now.

The veteran, too proud to complain about his own lot, tells us, "Many people nowadays are in a miserable situation. There are veterans who have nowhere to live, no one to take care of them. I know many guys who came back from the war without limbs; their families came apart, and they were left alone. But they need somebody to take care of them; they need attention and care. And also they need jobs, so as not to feel isolated from society. I think that people who take care of disabled veterans should receive an additional pension. My wife cannot work now because of me. She should get a pension to be able to support me. But she only receives 1,500 drams (about $3) a month," he says.

Gevorg cannot recall many of his comrades-in-arms; he doesn't remember events from the war. "A freedom fighter should not say, 'I went to war, so I should be appreciated.' Respect should come by itself. We pinned our hopes on peace, we thought that we would have normal lives in peace time," Gevorg explains. "But many of the guys who fought are victims of disability instead."