When we approached the wooden hut, Margarita, a 4 year-old girl, rushed out to greet us. “Will you be building us a new house?” she asked with a wide smile on her face. When I answered in the negative, the smile was replaced with a scowl and she stopped speaking to me. The Petrosyan family is a large one. There’s mom and pop and five adolescent children. They don’t have a proper home and have been living the life of itinerant wanderers for over ten years.

When the father, Zhora, got married and moved out of his parents’ house he wound up on the streets. For the past ten years the family has been living in someone else’s cattle shed in the village of Karin, Aragatzotn Marz. The children were born and raised in that shed. Seeing that they couldn’t continue living in the shed, the family moved to Karabakh two years ago. But conditions there weren’t much better so they moved back to their former residence. Conditions in Karabakh were worse “We went to Karabakh but couldn’t make a go of it. It was just as bad there. We had no electricity. We had high hopes that conditions would be better there, but, in fact, they proved to be worse. It was also expensive there. I worked as a laborer for a guy who owned a store. I got a normal salary for 1-2 months. Later he told me to go to the store and take what I was owed in salary as products. But the items in the store were so expensive that I wound up getting half of what I was owed. They did it on purpose so that I would remain in debt to them,” Zhora Petrosyan told “Hetq”. The seven member family now lives in a temporary shelter that isn’t much different from the cattle shed. The roof leaks when it rains and there are no communal facilities. The hands of Ani, the two year-old girl, are covered with insect bites. She can’t sit still and cries constantly. There’s just the one bed inside the hut, with a small table, a beaten-up couch and two small wooden chairs that someone has pieced together. The family gets by on a 47,500 dram ($130) monthly pension. Shoghakat, Zhora’s wife, says they can hardly get by on what the government gives them and that about half of what they eat per month is bought on credit. Presidential directives lead nowhere “For ten years we lived in that shed under terrible condition. When we returned from Karabakh we went back to the shed. Later on the owner told us that he wanted to keep animals in the shed. In January of last year we were forced out. Not having a place to live we applied to President Sargsyan for help. He got us this “domik” (small trailer) in which we now live. The regional administrator handed the keys over to us and the village mayor allocated the land to us on a temporary basis. The “domik” used to belong to the school. After the 1988 earthquake it was used as a classroom. Me and the wife used to attend classes in this very same “domik”. For the past year, our family has been living in our former classroom,” Zhora recounts. They told us that they’d renovate the place within a month and to be patient until they allocated us a new home. Then the regional administration asked us for certain paperwork which we gave to Gabriel Gyuzalyan, the former administrator. Two weeks ago we met with the new regional administrator who told us that Gyuzalyan gave the house intended for us to his relatives. He told us that we’d be getting a new place by the end of October. I no longer believe their promises. They constantly fill us with hope but do nothing at all. Serzh Sargsyan directed them to adequately assist us but they haven’t. I remember Sargsyan telling the regional administrator to give us a three room hut until we were allocated a new home. But this is what the regional administration gave us instead. They promised that they’d supply us with water but they haven’t. We have to walk the 2-3 kilometers on foot to fetch water. It’s tough on the kids,” added Shoghakat. During a conversation with “Hetq”, Aragatzotn Regional Administrator Sargis Sahakyan said that he was aware of the family’s problems and that the president’s office had indeed issued a directive that the family be allocated new housing. “We have an agreement with the “Araj Hayastan” benevolent foundation. They are scheduled to build a house for the family. I can’t answer your question regarding the former regional administrator and allegations that he handed over the house intended for the Petrosyan’s to his own relatives since I know nothing about that incident,” Administrator Sahakyan said. Mesrop: From top student to family water-boy The eldest boy in the family is eleven year-old Mesrop. It basically falls on his shoulders to make the 2 kilometer trek for water. Because he has to fetch water several times a day, his school work has suffered as a result. Once a promising student with good grades, Mesrop has now substituted his textbooks for water pails. His new job as the family’s water supplier keeps him busy from dawn till dusk. The adults say that they can no longer live in the hut since the entire place is infested with bed bugs and that there is no relief for the children.

 Shoghakat told us that the hut fills with water every time it rains even though the regional administration supposedly has allocated finds for roof repairs. “Since we live in such wretched conditions maybe they take us for fools who understand nothing,” Shoghakat said. She added that a few days ago they were summoned to the presidential office and handed 20,000 drams by Anahit Asatryan, the Secretary for Correspondence.  The official told her to use the money to make necessary repairs to the hut. “What can I possibly repair with just 20,000 drams? It just about covers the cost of two sacks of flour,” Shoghakat added.

In September, the Petrosyan's are expecting their sixth child