There are scores of Armenian families who had fled Azerbaijan as refugees still living in temporary housing in Gyumri.

Take the plight of the Baghdasaryan family, who relocated to Gyumri immediately after the 1988 Sumgait pogroms.

Hovhannes, the youngest son, married Alina in 2001 and the family was allocated a two room apartment in the town’s Norwegian neighbourhood.

Like thousands of other homeless families who received housing, the Baghdasaryan’s got split up. Hovhannes’ parents and brother, with his family, moved into the new flat.

Hovhannes, with his wife and three children, still live in the dilapidated cabin pictured above.

Hovhannes says that he and 16 other families with the same social status are on a waiting list for a new place but no new construction is going on.

Employees of the Shirak Center NGO visited the Hovhannes and his family the other day to see the conditions they are living in and to bring a parcel of clothes donated by American-Armenian Elvis Madatyan.

In the video, Hovhannes and his wife explain their current status to Shirak Center staff.