"Yes, I have committed theft, but I didn't steal from my neighbors. I have only stolen from the state, because the state has turned me into a pauper," says Anahit Chiloyan, a resident of 148 Kond, not promising not to do it again.

Anahit Chiloyan's family is one of about 2,000 needy families in Kond. She is 53 and unemployed, with three teenage daughters. Her husband died of a heart attack in 1995.

Anahit Chiloyan was accused of stealing electricity from the line across her from house last winter. According to a civil suit brought against her by the Armenian Electricity Supply Networks, CJSC and granted by the Court of First Instance of the Kentron and Nork-Marash districts of Yerevan, she is required to pay the state budget 101,525 drams (about $185). "I didn't appear before the court. What was I supposed to say? I wasn't going to lie; I would have said that I had stolen the electricity. They were able to decide whatever they were supposed to decide without me," she says.

Officers from the Service of Obligatory Execution of Writs came to Anahit's home with the court order to confiscate the money. "They saw that I only have a piano in the house. I said, 'This is the only thing their father left my children; if you take it away, God will punish you.' The executors were conscientious guys; they went away," she recalls.

The state of the Chiloyans' house gives a good picture of their social condition: The house walls are moldy and crumbling, the floor is bare concrete, when you look at the ceiling, it's like looking through a tunnel. As far as the furniture is concerned, the only "valuable" piece is the half-broken piano. They have a table that is barely standing, but no chairs. The only place to sit is a dilapidated couch. "Everything in our house is broken down like us," Anahit explains, adding that for her, the most important thing is that her children are able to go to school.

She believes that her biggest problem is that she doesn't have a normal president. "I am tired of petitioning everybody; the main person responsible for all this is the head of state. I propose to Robert Kocharyan that he adopt me and my children." At first glance this proposal seems odd, but actually, similar proposals have been made before, and even met with a positive reaction.

"One of our neighbors said on A1 Plus TV Station that her husband had died and she was unable to support her children, and she was giving them to Robert Kocharyan. After this statement was aired, some people would come by on Robert Kocharyan's behalf and bring my neighbor assistance. I won't give my children to Kocharyan, of course, but let him adopt them and pay for their education. As a leader, he has to take care of the people. He himself said during the presidential elections, 'My party is my people'", Anahit reminds us.

She says the late prime minister, Vazgen Sargisyan, visited her house as well. He came to learn about the problems facing the residents of Kond. "He sat on this very broken couch, my children played piano for him, and he said that I had talented children and that we shouldn't live in such conditions. He promised that the problems of the people who live in these crumbling houses would be solved. But Vazgen Sargisyan's program was never carried out. Today no government official visits Kond. Everybody has forgotten about us."

Anahit Chiloyan also told me that the former mayor of the Kentron district of Yerevan, Ararat Zurabyan, used to give her and many other Kond residents financial assistance every month, and send school supplies and clothes for the children. Anahit has informed the current Kentron mayor, Gagik Beglaryan, about her social situation as well. Beglaryan never responded to her numerous appeals. The only time they met was when she was accused of stealing electricity. Although Beglaryan refuses to help the resident of this district, he viewed her actions with understanding: "You have three school-aged children. You are unable to pay. Madam, if you steal electricity, it doesn't make you a thief."

If the state officials can't solve her family's problems, Anahit Chiloyan suggests that they find her a job. "I can't find a job by myself; my age doesn't correspond to employers' requirements; I am missing some teeth, I have health problems".

Anahit doesn't believe that our leaders will ever solve the problems of the people who live in Kond. "That's why when I was voting for president I crossed all the candidates off the list and wrote down the name of Putin. I don't have a president. It is not clear to me what country I live in, who my president is. Let them make it clear to me, so I know who to appeal to."

Living conditions are the same for almost everyone in Kond. Emma Gasparyan, the Chiloyans' neighbor, is 53 and has two children. Her husband died in 2001 when he couldn't get proper medical treatment. The children can't continue their education because of financial problems. Emma is the only one in the family with a job, but her salary isn't enough to pay for their daily bread. Nevertheless, the Gasparyans are known in Kond as a lucky family. "Last winter a big stone came off the wall and almost hit my son in the head as he was going out of the houses. He was saved by a miracle. We are indeed lucky. Now we want to at least repair the roof, because in winter, snow falls into the house. But I don't have enough money; I will probably look for sponsors."

Irrespective of their living conditions, all the residents of Kond have one problem in common-as they put it, they are hanging in the air.

"We've lived here for more than a half a century, but we have no rights. Last February, they decided not to give passports to our children. We declared that if they didn't give the passports, we wouldn't let our sons go to the Army. Only after the human rights ombudsman, Larisa Alaverdyan, intervened did they give passports to our children," Emma Gasparyan says.

She says that rumors about pulling down the dwellings in Kond first started circulating in 1953. At that time, the residents collected all the documents related to their homes. Although Kond residents have no property rights, they are required to pay for electricity, water, and refuse collection. "I was born in this house, but I have no property rights. Since 1998, rumors that the houses in Kond will be pulled down and that we will get new apartments or money have been going around constantly. We will leave only on one condition-that we get apartments in the city center. With the sum of money they have in mind, I won't be able to buy an apartment for myself and my three children," Anahit Chiloyan says.

Photos by Onnik Krikorian