When refugee Aleftina Ter-Manuelyants went to see Petros Aghababyan, a lawyer for the Government Department of Migration and Refugees on May 31, regarding temporary housing for her daughter Irene, Aghababyan beat the woman and threw her out of his office. The Court of First Instance of Yerevan’s Arabkir and Zeytun-Kanaker Districts had ruled on a petition filed by Irene Ter-Manuelyants on April 28 that the Government Department of Migration and Refugees must provide her with temporary shelter. The department did not appeal the verdict by the required deadline, but nevertheless refused to carry out the May 19 decision to enforce it.

"On May 31, I went to the Department of Migration and Refugees to find out why the verdict was not being carried out, because the lawyer there, Petros Aghababyan, had informed us that Department Head Gagik Yeganyan was not going to provide us with temporary shelter. As soon as he saw me, Aghababyan shouted, 'Get out of here,' and dragged me by my arm out of the room," said Ter-Manuelyants. She went on to say that the noise attracted the attention of others in the department, and a staff member pulled the two of them apart. Ter-Manuelyants called the Arabkir municipal police department; police officers interviewed staff members on the scene and directed Ter-Manuelyants to a medical examination. The examination concluded that Ter-Manuelyants had suffered minor injuries in the brawl.

Following this incident, Ter-Manuelyants was notified of an appeal by the department against the verdict of the court of first instance, half a month after it had come into force. We were told by Petros Aghababyan that they had presented their appeal in time, but the court of appeals had been late in sending it to the court of first instance, due to which a statement of closure had been issued there. We should note, however, that they did not inform the enforcement officer of their decision to appeal the verdict, or of their decision to initiate proceedings against it, nor did they request a postponement of the enforcement of the verdict. All of which casts some doubt on Ahababyan’s explanation, especially since he told us that there are 600-700 refugees on the waiting list for housing. "If the court wishes to satisfy Irene Ter-Manuelyants' demands, then they must wait their turn; the department has no rooms available right now," Aghababyan said. Was putting the refugee at the end of this interminable list worth appealing the verdict of the court?