Heghineh Tamanyan, a 46 year-old mother of two children, considers the building to be a breeding ground for cholera. “We don’t have a bathroom so we are forced to relieve ourselves indoors and then toss the waste out the window in plastic bags. The dorm’s communal bathroom hasn’t been working for about the last two years. Even when it was partially working the sewage pipes were constantly clogged so that waste from the above floors would accumulate and spill over on the floors below. If you go to the rooms on the first floor you’ll see the worms breeding under the floorboards. Mayor Varuzhan Nersisyan told the residents that if they vacate the building he’d renovate the place but the people are wary to leave fearing that the dorm might be sold-off in their absence” states Heghineh.

40 year-old Anahit Gasparyan has been living in the dormitory for the past ten years along with her husband, son and daughter. “We’ve sent off petitions about the building so many times we’re exhausted already. We’ve collectively petitioned the Regional Governor and the Mayor of Ijevan. Before the last local elections in 2005 Mayor Nersisyan visited us and promised to at least repair the sewer pipes” Anahit says.

56 year-old Svetlana Ghulinyan complains that she’s acquired an allergic illness caused by the odors in the dormitory. In the ten years that she’s lived here she’s become gravely ill three times and is now crippled as a result.

The residents living in the dormitory located at 50 Gharagyozyan Street, formerly housing Public School #4; also have cause for concern about their living conditions. The school was moved after the 1988 earthquake damaged the building which was later allocated to house refugees fleeing Azerbaijan. Six years ago the refugees left, having received apartments elsewhere. Those who continue to remain and live in such squalid conditions are those who ere living here even before the refugees arrived. A section of the building has collapsed and there is a large sink hole in the front. There’s a problem with the toilets and the roof leaks. Drinking water must be collected from the one faucet located in the dormitory’s courtyard. Resident Genya Pashinyan says that, “About five years ago Mayor Nersisyan stated that if we all vacated the place they’d come in, make the necessary repairs and then grant us back our apartments. We didn’t believe it. If we’re not guaranteed a place to stay where do they expect us to live if we leave?”

Geghetsik Sarukhanyan, a mother of three, testifies that since 2005 she’s applied three times to the Ijevan Municipality for the apartments to be privatized, but to no avail.

In the past, the residents have submitted written requests for assistance to the Ijevan Municipality and pointing out that the dormitory has no telephone service or gas. The twenty four families who signed these petitions note that in order to resolve these issues they are waiting for ownership of the dwellings to be granted them. “We are also Armenians and citizens of Armenia and we also need a roof over our heads in our country…” they wrote in their petition. According to Geghetsik Sarukhanyan, when she was in Yerevan for her child’s skull surgery the Municipality allocated one of their two rooms to a nurse. Another nurse, you used to hold a high office in the Marz’s health sector, was able to get control of the former communal bathroom on the floor and turn it into an apartment.

It turns out that three of the fourteen families living here have been able to construct a bathroom with a great deal of difficulty. The rest of their neighbors can be seen lining up to use this facility. 57 year-old Elmira Ghazaryan, a mother of a slain freedom-fighter, heard on TV that the republic’s dormitories were being privatized and handed over to the residents at no cost. On November 20, 2007 she dispatched some letters to Serzh Sargsyan and Ijevan Mayor Nersisyan requesting that her apartment be privatized in her name. On February 9th of this year she handed over another letter, this time signed by all the residents, to Serzh Sargsyan. To date the letter has gone unanswered. Ofelya Avetisyan complains that she has lived in one and a half rooms with her three children for the past seven years. Her husband passed away two years ago. One month later a certain resident from the neighboring village of Aygehovit appeared at her door claiming to be the apartment owner for the past four years and, according to the woman, started to periodically harass her, demanding that she vacate the premises. The dormitory residents complain that they are living in a state of “suspended animation”, without proper registration, and thus they don’t know what awaits them down the road.

On May 27th, after our visit, residents of these dormitories staged a demonstration outside the ROA Government Building in Yerevan to publicize their living conditions and the unresolved property status of the dorms. The demonstrators handed their written appeals to the Ministry of Regional Administration, the ROA Presidential Palace and the office of the Heritage Party.

What exactly has changed as a result? On June 9th, after returning from Strasbourg, Ijevan Mayor Nersisyan met with residents of these two dormitories on a one to one basis. In the words of Djonik Gizhlaryan, a resident of the Saribek Ohanyan dorm, Mayor Nersisyan told the residents that, “If you vacate the dorms we will renovate them.” The residents responded that, “If we vacate, where will we live? First guarantee us apartments.” Residents state that the Mayor has proposed two variants as a solution. According to the first, the dormitory would be privatized; residents would own the property and would have to cover renovation expenses themselves. The second option would be for the residents to vacate the premises so that the Municipality could come in and carry-out renovation work. According to the second option, however, the residents would become property renters. It is still not clear what the rents would be in this case and if the mostly socially needy resident families would be able to afford such rents.

In the words of the residents, it was only after their protests that outside interest started to be paid to their problems. Those who paid a visit to the dormitory included Felix Apinyan, a specialist with the Tavush Regional Municipality’s Urban Construction Department, and Samvel Chibukhyan, a staffer at the Ijevan Municipality. Satik Mayilyan, a resident at the “Kavro” dormitory, attested to the fact that people living in the building had been split into opposing camps regarding the future of the dorm and their status. One group is in favor of the rooms becoming the private property of the residents while another group believes that they don’t have the financial means needed to build a bathroom, repair the roof and fortify the building’s structural integrity. Then there are those who are saying that, “gas is being poured on the flames”, alleging that the Municipality is removing those people from the dorm who had participated in the demonstration in Yerevan

In passing, when the Mayor visited the dorms he was quite interested in finding out which of the residents had organized the demonstration outside the Government Building in Yerevan.

On June 13th, during his visit to the residents of the Gharagyozyan dormitory, Mayor Nersisyan expressed his displeasure over the fact that residents demonstrated outside the Government Building rather than coming to his office. In response, resident Zoya Yesayan says that, “We stated that we had made numerous visits to his office but were never allowed inside and that we had sent off numerous petitions to the Municipality that went unanswered.”

Here too the Mayor proposed the same above solutions - either the residents became property owners and renovate the building at their expense, or become renters, in which case the Municipality would pick-up the construction costs. Resident Geghetsik Sarukhanyan claims that a majority favored becoming owners of the property and covering the reconstruction costs themselves. The Mayor promised to allocate the rooms to those actually residing in the building, according to the size of each family.

The Ijevan Municipality promised to resolve all issues related to the dormitories within a ten day period. That deadline has long since come and gone.