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Sara Petrosyan

They Tricked Me into Coming Here. I Was Better off at Home

Eighty-one-year-old Arshaluys Stepanyan was placed in Yerevan' Retirement Home No. 1 a month ago. She had been discovered in the village of Norabak in the Vardenis region by the Gegharkunik branch of the Sakharov Human Rights Center. "We have seen people in dire condition before, but this was something extreme," said Ruben Khackhikyan, director of the organization's program "Refugees in the Gegharkunik Marz (province), 15 Years After".

"The day was just dawning, Arshaluys, was collecting firewood in the fields, leaning on a walking stick, with a bag under her free arm. She had no electricity at home; all she had to eat was a piece of cheese and moldy piece of black bread, which she had hidden under the bed. The house was completely covered in spider webs; her bed was only a pile of wool. Her house has practically no roof-the walls were wet from the rain and snow," they told us at the Sakharov Center.

She had lived in another house before she moved into this ruin, her neighbors told us, but had burnt it up bit by bit, to keep warm.

When we visited the retirement home, Arshaluys was having a meal in the cafeteria. She stood up as soon as she saw us, begging, "Tell Nune to come and take me away from here." She had been brought here by the Sakharov Center and Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders). That had had to cajole her into it- she kept insisting she was doing well on her own. "I received 11,000 drams pension and 6,000 drams stipend. I would go to Vardenis to buy provisions, and would collect wood from the forest for heat in the winter. They tricked me into coming here-I was better off at home," she said sadly.

Ruben Khachikyan told us that they had met the workers from Medicins sans Frontieres in the village. "We were shocked by what we saw; I told them that Arshaluys needed medical care and took her to the MSF doctor. The doctor examined her legs and was surprised that there was no gangrene. She had lost all the toes on one foot-they had probably fallen off as a result of frostbite-and the nails on her other foot looked like a snail shell." Both organizations insisted that she needed immediate medical, as well as social and psychological, help.

Arshaluys Stepanyan told us that in she had been was forced to leave the city of Kirovabad in Azerbaijan in 1988, and had moved to Norabak, a village near the border, and become an Armenian citizen. She had served in the Second World War. She had lost all her relatives to the war and been wounded in battle herself. Her husband was killed in a car accident when she was still young, and she has been all alone ever since. "I had two houses in Kirovabad. I worked as a seamstress in a factory and sang in a choir," she recounted. Ruben Khachikyan believes that she may have fallen victim to wartime violence. "She is depressed and sometimes she interrupts the conversation to remember the violence, cases of rape of women and young girls."

Though not in the best conditions, Yerevan's Retirement Home No. 1 should have been a dream come true for Arshaluys. Nevertheless, she asked us to take her home. "They don't give us enough food, it's not enough," she said. She isn't impressed by the food here, including dolma, or the warm bed. But her roommates said that a doctor had been to see her twice, and that she had already moved her things in. They explained that there was no need to worry-most people have trouble at first, but ultimately they adapt.

"Whenever you persuade someone to come here, no matter what you do for them, they don't like it here," said Arthur Markosyan, deputy director of the home. "But if they come here of their own will because they need food and warmth and shelter, they are happy here."

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