Aida doesn’t want her kids to end up like her Nazik Demouryan, along with her children and young grandkids, lives in Room 208 located in a former student dormitory in Section 2 of Yerevan’s Nor-Nork district. This is the third month that they have been evicted for illegal squatting. “We now have no place to live. We’ve placed all our belongings in a wagon next to the dorm. Some of our stuff has been left outside. I and Andranik spend a night at my friend’s house or someone else’s place. It’s the same with Seda,” says Mrs. Nazik. Seda’s young kids have been given shelter at the Fund for Armenian Relief’s Children’s Help Center. 2 year-old Diana, 5 year-old Emanuel and 7 year-old Marianna face the prospect of going to an orphanage, since the one year limit for staying at the FAR shelter has long since expired. Government allocates dorm room to another family The dorm room used to belong to Nazik Demouryan’s aunt, Emma Khachatryan who received permission from the Ministry of Education and Science to occupy the room on a contractual basis. The aunt resided in the room till her death in 2008. Since Nazik Demouryan didn’t get a share of the paternal house, she, along with her kids and their kids, have been left on the streets. After Aunt Emma passed away the group has taken up residence in the room. While Mrs. Nazik was running around from one government agency to another in a futile attempt to gain ownership rights to the room, Edward, a resident of the dorm’s basement floor, was quicker to the draw and got the process going in his favor by using his wife’s name. Mrs. Nazik petitioned the Ministry of education and Science, the State Property Management Department and the local district council office. She was told by the Education Ministry that the dormitory in question was now registered to the State Property Management Department and that as part of the residential housing stock it has been handed over to the residents. Thus, a resolution to the issue raised by Nazik Demouryan was out of the ministry’s jurisdiction. In the letter sent to Nor-Nork District Leader D. Petrosyan by the Education Ministry’s “Nor-Nork Student Borough” Ltd. it is noted that the room in question had been allocated to Armineh Bazoyan, her husband Edward Manoukyan and their two young children by a decision of the State Property Management Department. In response to one of Nazik Demouryan’s numerous letters, Mr. N. Haroutyunyan, Chief of Staff at the State Property Management Dept, wrote, “Taking into account that in accordance with the information provided by the RoA Ministry Of Education and Science to the effect that there is no information that Room 208 of Building 5 in the Nor-Nork 2nd District’s “Student Borough” regarding registration of said room to either Emma Khachatryan or a third party, according to the RoA government decision adopted on September 4, 2008, the room has been allocated to Armineh Bazoyan.” We should note that Armineh Bazoyan is also officially registered in the village of Artzvanist in the Martuni district. The Demouryan family stubbornly refused to leave the room. This prompted Edward Manoukyan and Armineh Bazoyan to take the matter to the Avan and Nor-Nork District Court, with the demand that the Demouryan's be evicted henceforth. On March 6, the court found in favor of the eviction. On June 10, 2009, employees of the Compulsory Enforcement Service visited the room and evicted the Demouryan’s. They later turned it over to Edward Manoukyan and his family. Mrs. Nazik angrily adds that her aunt was a veteran of WW II and made it all the way to Berlin. She said that the government nevertheless allocated her room to a bunch of strangers. Now, her aunt’s belongings as well as their stuff are out on the street. “We kept the place clean and safe. They should have at least shown some respect for the war vet’s property,” Mrs. Nazik says. Mrs. Demouryan is even ready to reside in the dorm’s basement if they allow her to; just as long as the family has a place to sleep. She has made many requests to the district leader and the head of the State Property Management Department to be allowed the right to take up residence in the basement where Edward Manoukyan once lived. Karineh Kirakosyan, who heads the State Property Management Dept. explained, “Demouryan is now looking for an unoccupied apartment and wants to live on the basement floor. But those spaces aren’t habitable and we can’t allocate her space there.” Fate of the kids still uncertain In 1994, Mrs. Nazik adopted Andranik and Seda, two children orphaned by the 1988 earthquake. Mrs. Nazik is registered as a 3rd degree physically disabled person; Andranik with 2nd degree disabilities and Seda with 3rd degree disabilities. No one in the family has a job. They get by on the pensions they receive but it’s not enough to be able to rent an apt. The eldest girl, Marianna, has been sent to camp twice now and lives with her grandma and mother. The two youngest kids had been staying at the FAR children’s center. Mrs. Ktakyan, Deputy Director and Program Coordinator of FAR’s Children’s Assistance Center, says that Nazik Demouryan is in no condition to take care of the kids and wants to get them into an orphanage. “But we have no basis to make such a decision since the mother or care-taker must voluntarily disown the children. Only then can we apply to the ministry. We’re in sort of a confusing situation.” Mrs. Ktakyan also believes that Aida isn’t capable of fulfilling her motherly duties and that she is quite reserved when it comes to decision-making. “It seems to us that she also has mental health problems.” Mrs. Ktakyan states that the two young children also have mental health issues. “Before she came here, Diana hadn’t uttered a word. Now she can pronounce sounds and some words and make herself understood a bit. Emanuel was a super-active kid with aggressive tendencies but has noticeably calmed down. This all signifies that conditions in the home really weren’t the best for the children and that they suffered developmentally. It wouldn’t be correct or moral to now send them back to that same environment. We must be thinking of creating a new environment for them,” says the FAR Deputy Director Aida, however, doesn’t want to send her kids to an orphanage. She doesn’t want to see them following the same road she has traveled in life. When we went to the FAR center to see Aida and her kids, little Diana was intrigued by the camera’s flash. She moved in closer for a better look. When she saw the family in the camera’s viewfinder all she did was to point at Aida and repeat the word “mamma”. Mrs. Ktakyan says, “The kids miss their mom. Emanuel was aggressive yesterday. The kids miss their mom’s caress and attention.” It’s still not clear how things will work out for the children. “Starting in September they will have to go to school. Where will they stay?” asks the grandma. Aida doesn’t want to send the kids to an orphanage. The only solution that Mrs. Nazik can see is for the government to allocate them another room somewhere, even if it’s in the dormitory. Mrs. Ktakyan, on the other hand, is inclined to believe that the orphanage route is the solution. “We have come to an agreement with the ministry to get all the players involved to sit down together and find a way out of this situation. It is a very serious situation. We just can’t turn the kids out even though they’ve overstayed the limit here. Even though we don’t want to see the kids sent to an orphanage, in this case, we see no real alternative. They’ll be looked after better there,” argues FAR’s Mrs. Ktakyan.