Every refugee lacking decent housing is to receive 50,000 drams ($125) per month to pay rent and utility bills at least until next March. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian pledged such support during the mass exodus of over 100,000 Karabakh Armenians who lived in the region as of September 19.
His government claims to have housed more than half of the refugees in hotels, disused public buildings and empty village houses. It now expects 40,000 of them to apply for the housing compensation scheme this month.
“We are thereby encouraging our compatriots to rent apartments,” Pashinian said during a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan. He suggested that the sums allocated to them should be enough to cover their housing expenses.
Labor and Social Affairs Minister Narek Mkrtchian clarified that starting from next month those refugees who own homes in Armenia or continue to live in temporary shelters provided by the government will not be eligible for this financial aid.
Some refugees are already using their modest savings to rent homes in and outside Yerevan which have become much more expensive in recent years. They include the family of Suzanna Arzumanian, a Karabakh mother of two. Their rented apartment in Yerevan’s Nor Nork suburb did not even have beds when they moved there earlier this month.
Arzumanian complained that despite repeated government pledges, municipal authorities have not provided her family with food, clothing or any other basic necessities.
The government approved on Thursday unpublicized rules for the distribution of such humanitarian assistance. It was not clear whether they will apply to at least $35 million in aid to the refugees promised by the United States, the European Union and some EU member states.
The government aid also includes a one-off cash payment of 100,000 drams ($260) to every refugee. Officials say 80 percent of the displaced Karabakh Armenians have already received that money. Many of the refugees interviewed by RFE/RL’s Armenian Services and other media outlets still say that they haven’t, however.
It also remains unclear whether the government will pay Karabakh’s pensions and other social benefits. Dozens of elderly refugees visit the Karabakh government office in Yerevan every day to inquire about their pensions.
“They won’t tell us anything,” Sergei Mirzoyan, a pensioner from Stepanakert, said on Wednesday, referring to Karabakh officials working there. He hopes to continue receiving his monthly pension of 72,000 drams in Armenia.
Pashinian cited earlier a “legal problem” hampering such payments. He did not say on Thursday whether it has been resolved.