Armenian News... A Topalian... Population down by 10,000

Panorama, Armenia

Oct 17 2018

Armenian population down by 10,000 in first half-year, UN report shows

Armenia saw a significant decline in population numbers in the first half of 2018, according to the State of World Population (SWOP) 2018 report launched by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The country’s population dropped by 10,000 people in the first half-year, Anna Hovhannisyan, UNFPA Armenia "Support to Implementation of Population Policies" Project Coordinator, told a news conference on Wednesday, presenting the report.  

According to the figures, Armenia’s fertility rates continue to drop, falling by 1,000 children from January to June 2018 compared to the same period last year, keeping up with the global trend.

Meantime, the country’s mortality rates have fallen by 1,500 to 13,000 deaths this year against 14,500 deaths recorded in the same period last year.  

“The figure is lower than that of the birth rate. In terms of demography, this means that we have recorded a natural increase. In this case why has the number of population reduced by 10,000? This is the result of negative net migration rate,” Hovhannisyan said.

Marriages are dropping, while divorces are rising in Armenia, with average marriage age increasing in the country, the report revealed.   

Armenia is among the aging countries with people aged 63 and over comprising 13 percent of its population in the first half-year, the UNFPA Armenia official said.

She also pointed to the high unemployment rate in the country. “A serious government intervention, state policy is expected in this regard. Equal conditions should be ensured for women to be competitive. After childbirth, a woman should be able to get back to work, combining it with the childcare,” she said.

Tsovinar Harutyunyan, UNFPA Armenia Assistant Representative, in attendance of the conference, said Niger has the world’s highest birth rate with 6.6 children per woman, while China has the lowest – 1.1 children per woman.   

EurasiaNet.org

Oct 18 2018

Armenia's Teflon president 

Peter Liakhov 

President Armen Sarkissian is a holdover from the old regime, but he's carved out a key role in Armenia's post-revolutionary government.

When parliamentarians from Armenia’s old guard joined forces in early October to try to block Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s ability to hold early elections, Pashinyan dubbed the move a “counter-revolution” and called his supporters into the streets to oppose it. But what ultimately defeated the bill was a veto by an erstwhile member of the old guard – President Armen Sarkissian. 

Sarkissian's role in defusing the crisis highlighted his unlikely prominence in post-revolutionary Armenia. 

According to the constitution, the president is a virtual figurehead. And other members of the former administration are being aggressively prosecuted by the new authorities.

And yet, Sarkissian has taken an improbably high-profile role in the new administration. Following his veto of the election bill – which likely played a key role in convincing Pashinyan’s former parliamentary partners to return to the fold and support the elections – he undertook a whirlwind international tour, visiting senior officials in France, the United States, and Russia. 

As the dust settles from the tumult of the dramatic transition earlier this year, Sarkissian has not only survived the revolution, but appears to be thriving. 

Sarkissian has been a part of Armenian politics since the beginning, as independent Armenia's first ambassador to the United Kingdom. He served a four-month stint as prime minister in 1996 and 1997, after which he resumed his role as ambassador. In 1999, he stepped down as envoy but remained in the U.K. as a private citizen, undertaking a series of prominent consultancies for major international companies such as British Petroleum, Bank of America, and Merrill Lynch. He also developed a close relationship with the British royal family and built a multi-billion dollar business empire throughout Europe and the former Soviet Union, according to an investigation by the online news outlet Hetq. 

He returned to Armenian politics in 2013 when he was once again appointed ambassador to London, this time by President Serzh Sargsyan. On March 2, roughly a month before the protests that would culminate in Sargsyan's overthrow and Pashinyan's rise to power, Sarkissian was elected president by a parliament dominated by Sargsyan's Republican Party. Pashinyan and his Yelk bloc in parliament voted against him. 

During the spring uprising it seemed that few from the old government were safe. Posters were plastered on streets across Armenia showing the “enemies of the revolution,” and few were spared: Serzh Sargsyan, his brother Alexander, the Catholicos of All Armenians (the top church official), and a range of other Republican Party members and oligarchs were targeted. Even ostensible supporters of the uprising, like oligarch Gagik Tsarukyan, were received skeptically. 

But Sarkissian was – and remains – apparently immune to the vitriol directed at many members of the old guard. Even before Pashinyan's “Velvet Revolution” succeeded, Sarkissian appeared to be hedging his bets. He made one visit to Republic Square at a key moment in the protests, after which he said the atmosphere at the rally was “fantastic” and his discussion with Pashinyan “constructive.” Immediately after Sargsyan resigned, Sarkissian went further and said: “I'm ready to stand between the police and protesters if I have to.”

In the aftermath of the transition, Sarkissian presented himself as a member of the new guard, engaging closely with Pashinyan and other key revolutionary figures. A photo op of him happily sharing ice-cream with children at the presidential residence seemed to set the tone for his new role. 

“In the person of Nikol Pashinyan, I discovered for myself a talented, quick-thinking, willing and diligent person, with whom I pursue very good working relations,” Sarkissian told reporters in May. “I do not spot any problem in working with him; on the contrary, I believe we can successfully work together.”

The relationship has, at the same time, been distant. As recently as June, Pashinyan questioned Sarkissian’s eligibility as president, since Sarkissian had given up his Armenian passport for a British one, thus potentially becoming legally ineligible for the presidency under the constitution. 

The relationship between the two men is more fraught than the rhetoric and photo ops would have one believe, said Zhanna Andreasyan, a sociologist at Yerevan State University.

“If you look at the president’s website, you will see that almost no information is provided in which Pashinyan is mentioned,” Andreasyan told Eurasianet. “The same is true for Pashinyan’s websites: no mention for Sarkissian even when both of them were participating in the same event. It seems that they ignore each other. They talk about each other only when there is no chance to escape from the topic.”

While Pashinyan has focused on internal affairs – in particular waging battle against the remnants of the old regime – Sarkissian has taken the lead on the international front, where his image of stability, respectability, and continuity is useful in soothing those rattled by the uprising, including foreign investors and the Kremlin. 

Sarkissian's “great foreign policy experience allows him do this, while certain deficiencies in this sort of experience in the new government facilitates it,” Artur Ghazinyan, who heads the Center for European Research at Yerevan State University, told the Russian newspaper Kommersant. 

Sarkissian also plays a key role as a bridge between Pashinyan's team and the old guard. Many in the Pashinyan government “are not fans” of the president, said Stepan Grigoryan, director of the Yerevan-based Analytical Center on Globalization and Regional Cooperation, and author of a recent book on the spring uprising. But it is his key position in holding a check on the power of parliament and acting as a “moderator” between the old and new regimes that Pashinyan needs, Grigoryan told Eurasianet. 

Sarkissian, meanwhile, continues to strengthen his position in Armenia. “What he is doing is accumulating international legitimacy which always works as a crucial factor for further internal legitimacy,” Andreasyan said. She said that were Pashinyan’s ongoing anti-corruption campaign to find Sarkissian in its crosshairs, international legitimacy would serve him well in his subsequent life as a private citizen and businessman outside of Armenia.

How long Sarkissian will play this role is unclear. Parliamentary elections are expected in early December, after which Pashinyan is likely to have his own parliamentary majority. 

Andreasyan suggested that, in the medium term, Sarkissian could become the locus of opposition to Pashinyan and the prime minister’s “honest populism.” 

With his gilded pedigree and “neoliberal” outlook, Sarkissian represents business interests, Andreasyan said. Certainly, his vision for Armenia is clear. During his speech last week at the Francophonie Economic Forum, Sarkissian said, “This nation [Armenia] is a trading nation.”

Peter Liakhov is a freelance journalist based in Yerevan.

News.am, Armenia

Oct 17 2018

UNWTO: Tourists spent over $1 billion in Armenia in 2017 

Tourists visiting Armenia last year spent $ 1.120 billion, World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) reported.

According to the report, a total of 1,495 million tourists visited Armenia in 2017.

Georgia is the leader in the number of tourists among the South Caucasus countries, as the country was visited by 3.4 million tourists. However, tourists spent $ 2,751 billion in Georgia, while in Azerbaijan - $ 3,012 billion, although the latter was visited by 2.4 million people.

The United States top the rankings with 211 billion spent by tourists per year, leaving behind Spain, France, Thailand, Great Britain, Italy, Australia, Germany, Macau and Japan.

Panorama, Armenia

Oct 19 2018

Armenian servicemen awarded with Certificate of UK’s Exercise Cambrian Patrol 2018

The group of Armenian servicemen was awarded with a certificate in an annual international military patrolling event called Exercise Cambrian Patrol held in the United Kingdom.

As the press service at the ministry of defense reports, the exercise is the premier patrolling event of the British Army which is held in Wales and hosted by 160 Infantry Brigade. This year’s event saw 139 patrols entered into the mix, including five overseas armies with soldiers from Armenia, Uzbekistan, United Arab Emirates, the Philippines and Moldova having their first crack at completing the patrol and aiming to navigate their way through the arduous terrain of the Black Mountains of Mid Wales.

The unit of Armenian militaries covered the designated route, navigating through day and night, and dealt with a set of stands, casualty evacuation scenarios, dealing with mock improvised explosive device finds, intelligence gathering, seeking protective measures against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats, a water crossing, close-target reconnaissance among others. 

Crypto News

Oct 19 2018

Armenia Opens Massive Crypto Mine

By Tim Alper

The Armenian government has presided over the opening of what it claims is one of the biggest cryptocurrency mining farms in the world. At a ceremony in the capital, Yerevan, acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was joined by the head of the consortium that has constructed the farm, Armenian billionaire (and so-called oligarch) Gagik Tsarukyan.

Per news outlet Yerkramas, Tsarukyan claims that the farm, which is the brainchild of his Multi Group conglomerate, cost some USD 50 million to construct, and has been equipped with an initial 3,000 mining rigs. The company is planning to expand that number to 12,000 in the near future.

The farm will initially mine Bitcoin and Ethereum. 

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Yerkramas states that the facility is based on two floors: the ground floor is a business and management center, with an entire floor given over to servers and equipment above.

The media outlet says that Tsarukyan and Pashinyan – who tendered his resignation from his post two days ago in a bid to call snap elections – were joined by business leaders from China, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates and “a number of other countries” for the opening ceremony.

Tsarukyan is quoted as saying, “Guests are coming to Armenia from almost 40 countries [to see the mine]. This is an important step towards the development of the information technology sector in Armenia, especially since representatives of foreign business circles are planning to meet with members of the government to discover more about the possibilities of making new, larger investments in the Armenian economy.”

The farm will initially receive some 50MW of power from a thermal energy plant, with “an agreement in place” to provide an increase in capacity to 200MW, per Armenpress.

Earlier this year, the country’s government legalized mining in anticipation of the farm’s opening, although cryptocurrency trading remains illegal in Armenia. The country says it is planning to create a Free Economic Zone for overseas crypto and blockchain companies – in the vein of Belarus’ Hi-Tech Park and Kazakhstan’s Astana International Financial Center.

ARKA, Armenia

Oct 17 2018

Sociologist speaks about poverty in Armenia 

The poverty rate in Armenia stands at 30% now and the number of unemployed people is 220,000, Aharon Adibekyan, a sociologist and the head of the Sociometer think tank, told journalists on Wednesday. 

According to official reports, the country’s poverty rate was recorded at 29.4% in 2016 – 0.4 percentage points lower than one year earlier. 

The unemployment rate stood at 17.7% in 2017. The number of unemployed people in Armenia was 218,900 in 2017 against 220,200 in 2016. 

Adibekyan said there are two wording for poverty – European and subjective. The European means the minimum needs of an individual, while the second one reflects surveyed people’s personal treatment to their own state. 

”According to the official figures, 30% of Armenia’s population live in poverty, but only 15% admit they live in poverty,” Adibekyan said adding that 2% of the population live in abject penury. 

The sociologist finds it remarkable that the Armenian citizens consider themselves as wealthy despite salaries in Armenia are far smaller than the world standards. 

”Some 176,000 people receive pensions and disability benefits, 112,000 receive family benefits and 12,400 baby benefits,” he said. “Nevertheless, people try to find money for food by trading, taking loans and doing occasional work.”

Adibekyan said that in accordance with the UN standards, in countries with the average salary of $113 (55,000 drams), a little less than a half of the population is poor. 

“Every tenth individual goes to bed for night sleep hungry and many can’t afford even minimal living conditions,” he said. 

Adibekyan advised the government to pay special attention to the subsistence minimum and to ways to increase benefits to ease social tension in the country. 

Public Radio of Armenia

Oct 17 2018

China donates 200 ambulance cars to Armenia

China has donated 200 ambulance cars to Armenia, of which 65 are reanimobiles. The vehicles are equipped with modern devises and auxiliary equipment. Forty-nine ambulances have been provided to the Yerevan ambulance company, 10 have been given to medical centers in Yerevan, the remaining 131 ambulance cars will be sent to provinces.

Armenia’s acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his spouse Anna Hakobyan were present today at the ceremony of handing over the vehicles to the Armenian side.

Addressing the event, China’s Ambassador to Armenia Tian Erlong said the program is one of the largest ones in China’s international charity projects. He informed that a group of Chinese specialists have arrived in Armenia to present the equipment to Armenian colleagues.

A1+

Breath of Syrian-Armenian culture in Yerevan

October 16,2018

On October 16, the charity exhibition-fair “The breath of Syrian-Armenian culture in Yerevan” was opened at the Northern Avenue with the support of the Ministry of Diaspora, “Armenian Caritas” Benevolent NGO, UN Armenia Office, Center for Coordination of Syrian-Armenians’ Issues NGO and Yerevan Municipality. It is dedicated to the 2800th anniversary of Yerevan.

Speaking about the importance of such events, Levon Antonyan, Head of the Department of Armenian Communities of the Near and Middle East Ministry of Diaspora, mentioned: “This is a great opportunity to support the socio-economic integration of Syrian-Armenians in Armenia, to present their production, to earn money, to bring a new breath to the local market and new culture and to compete in small and medium-sized businesses.”

Within the framework of the exhibition-fair more than 50 Syrian-Armenians have the opportunity to present their handmade items and decorations, sweets and flavors of the oriental flavor today and tomorrow.

Asbarez.com

Legendary Turkish-Armenian Photographer Ara Guler Passes Away

17 October 2018

World-renowned Turkish-Armenian photographer Ara Güler, nicknamed the “Eye of Istanbul,” passed away late Wednesday at the intensive care unit of the Florence Nightingale Hospital in Istanbul after attempts to revive him failed. He was 90.

For years he had suffered from kidney failure and underwent dialysis three times a week.

Born on August 16, 1926, Güler studied at Getronagan Armenian High School. His father owned a pharmacy, but had many friends that belonged to the world of art.

Guler’s work is included in the collections of institutions worldwide, such as Paris’s National Library of France; New York’s George Eastman Museum; Das imaginäre Photo-Museum; Museum Ludwig Köln; and Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery

He won several awards for his work, including Turkey’s Photographer of the Century, 1999; Master of Leica, 1962; France’s Légion d’honneur; Lifetime Achievement Lucie Award, 2009; and Turkey’s Grand Prize of Culture and Arts, 2005. In 2004, he was give honorary fellowship by Istanbul’s Yıldız Technical University.

He celebrated his 90th birthday with the opening of a museum named after him. In January, a street in his neighborhood was also named after him.

“I have always remained loyal to Istanbul,” Ara Güler had told the French newspaper Le Monde in the interview he gave for the opening of his exhibition in Paris.

Originally a film student who studied under Muhsin Ertuğrul, he eventually abandoned cinema in favor of journalism and, in 1950, while studying economics at University of Istanbul, started working as a photojournalist at the Turkish newspaper Yeni Istanbul.

In 1958, Güler became the first correspondent for Time-Life’s Turkey branch, which opened the door to publication in a number of other international magazines.

In 1961, he was hired by Hayat magazine as its chief photographer, and during that period met Marc Riboud and Henri Cartier-Bresson, who recruited him to join Magnum Photos. His work continued on to international acclaim, appearing in exhibitions in Germany and New York.

He has received a number of awards, including Turkey’s Photographer of the Century Award, in 1999; Master of Leica, in 1962; and France’s Légion d’honneur. He has also conducted interviews with such famous historic figures as Salvador Dali and Winston Churchill.

Güler’s philosophy on photography attached great importance to the presence of humans in photography and considers himself a visual historian. According to him, photography should provide people with memory of their suffering and their life. He feels that art can lie but photography only reflects reality. He does not value art in photography, so he prefers photojournalism.

The Guardian

'It's better to die': the struggle to survive poverty in Armenia

1 October 2018

Abandoned and isolated, thousands of elderly people in the former Soviet republic suffer a life of great hardship. Photojournalist Nick Danziger documents their plight as part of a Red Cross project, featured in BBC Radio 4’s The Art of Now: Nick Danziger’s Shutter Stories, on 1 October

Political upheaval, poverty and an exodus of young people to Russia to find work have taken their toll on the former Soviet Republic of Armenia, and in particular on its elderly people. Thousands of over 75s struggle to survive, coping in temperatures of -30C in winter and unable to afford medicine or sufficient food on their meagre pensions.

In early 2017 I was commissioned by the Swiss, Monaco and Armenian Red Cross societies to bring awareness of the plight of the elderly in Armenia and to focus on a pilot project which was being put in place to try and help them.

I was no stranger to Armenia having travelled there several times on assignments to cities and rural areas in the north of the country. Yet I had only an inkling of the hardships faced by older people through Hasmik, an elderly woman, whom I always found huddled in her barrack-like single room in all her clothes to keep the cold from her bones. Her room had no running water, a toilet or heating. Her pitiful pension paid for the electricity to heat a clothes iron, which she used to keep her bed warm by placing it between the bedclothes. She couldn’t afford firewood for the stove or even enough food – she purchased day-old, discounted bread from the local bakery. 

As I discovered, it’s a problem on a massive scale. In the city of Vanadzor, for example, there are more than 20,000 elderly people in a population of 68,000. Many have been left to fend for themselves. With tiny pensions, even finding the money to pay for basic necessities such as food and heating is a struggle. I hoped the photographs I took of those I met would raise awareness of their plight.

I first visited older people in Vanadzor and Gyumri in 2017, and returned early this year, to see how their hardships had been reduced by the intervention of nurses, home helpers and volunteers from local branches of the Red Cross.

Bavakan Avestiyan, 80, and Razmik Avetisyan, 83

Bavakan lives with her husband in a one-bedroom home in the centre of Gyumri. She broke her leg in a car accident three years before our visit. Since then she has been bedridden, and has not left her home. She now also has Parkinson’s.

“I was a rich woman, I used to help everybody. Now I am in this condition.” As she says this she starts to cry, “It’s better I die.” She spent her working life in a textile factory, which has brought her a pension of 35,000 drams (£55) a month. In winter this mostly goes on heating. “My main problem is financial,” she says. “I love sweets, but it’s now a luxury.”

Until the nurses started their regular visits, Razmik was his wife’s only carer. He lovingly tells the nurses, “I now cook for my wife.” “He cooks what I tell him to!” Bavakan replies.

Strapped for cash, Razmik spends his mornings making tea and coffee in the bazaar, averaging 1,000 drams (£1.60) a day. He says that despite his money worries, it’s been a help since the nurses started coming to care for his wife. “We’re very happy with their work and we have a good laugh together.”

Larisa Khachatryan, 75

Larisa lives on the fourth floor of a dilapidated Soviet-era housing block. In addition to being bedridden with a broken leg and bedsores, she has asthma. Unable to move around her apartment, Larisa has had her bed put in the kitchen. She lives alone and receives a daily visit from her 82-year-old sister, who does not stay with her as she finds the apartment too cold. There is no electricity, no heating and no running water. The bedpan that the Red Cross nurses remove needs to be taken to a neighbour’s apartment where the toilet functions.

When her sister comes, she lights the candle on the chair next to Larisa’s bed. Larisa would like to use it more of the time, but she worries that if it gets knocked over in the night, she won’t be able to reach it to prevent the wooden floor from catching fire. Like several of the elderly people I visit, she has a son living in Russia who does not provide for her.

Galya Petrosyan, 74

The smell of gas lingers in Galya’s one-room apartment in Vanadzor, the result of a leak the previous day. She tells Gohar, the Armenian Red Cross nurse, “If [the neighbour] hadn’t come, I could be dead. I didn’t smell anything.” Galya, who is now unable to descend the five floors to street level, shuffles across her world – which now consists of her living room, where her bed is tucked into one corner, and the kitchen.

Galya survives on the kindness of her neighbours. The previous day another neighbour had brought her some meat, but Galya no longer has the strength to cook, so she did not eat the whole day. She is no stranger to adversity – back in 1988 she was forced to flee Baku with her children during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. They have since died; she has outlived the only family she had.

Her pain is written in her face. She has swelling in both her feet and ankles as well as in one hand, but a proper diagnosis is beyond her means both financially and physically, as she cannot make her way to the nearest clinic. As Gohar sets about cooking an omelette for Galya she smiles. “I am getting used to her visits, I miss her when she isn’t here. Without her I would now be dead.” One year later, Galya has been able to access one of the rare places in a retirement home through a relative among the Armenian diaspora. 

Gevorg Danielyan, 82

Gevorg suffers from diabetes, hypertension, atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and arthritis. He has to take his medication every day, but by the end of the month the pills have run out and he’s unable to afford to purchase them until his pension is paid. This leaves him with a high risk of life-threatening conditions such as a heart attack or a stroke.

Gevorg’s children have abandoned him as he once wanted to remarry. His only visitor is an elderly neighbour. “We sit next to the stove and reminisce about the good old times. I was very rich in the past. I worked as a storekeeper and even had access to luxuries from the Czech Republic that people hadn’t heard of. Now I cannot keep my room warm. I either sit by the stove or stay in bed to keep warm.”

He opens his wallet. “All I have left for the rest of the month is 220 drams” – just enough to buy bread. “I can’t afford the monthly 10,000 drams for the digital TV box so I read to pass the time.” In winter, Gevorg spends much of his day trawling the streets for cardboard, bringing it home, tearing it up to stoke the wood burning stove. In the summer months Gevorg sells baubles – necklaces and bracelets near the local church, earning on average 500 drams (80p) a day.

I visit Gevorg in 2018, with Gayane and Armine, the two Red Cross nurses. When they enter Gevorg’s small one-room home, even their reassuring words can’t stem the tide of tears. Through the local branch of the Red Cross, Gevorg is now provided with the medication he requires, his clothes and bed linen are taken away for washing and the nurses and home helpers make sure he has enough firewood to stay warm. Like all the elderly people I visited, he is grateful for the support in food, clothing and medication, but what is most appreciated are the twice-weekly visits from the nurses and home helpers. It saves him from the total isolation that many bear. In Gevorg’s case, his elderly neighbour died between my two trips and now his only visitors are Red Cross workers.

Asya Sargsyan, 89

Most of Vanadzor’s citizens, until the collapse of the Soviet Union, spent their working lives in one of the town’s chemical or textiles factories. Asya spent decades in both, first in a chemical factory, then in a textile factory. Unlike many of the elderly people that Gohar and Narine visit, Asya has a son who endeavours to take care of her. Two years previously, after a stroke, the doctors thought she wouldn’t have long to live. When I visited her in 2017 she was bedridden and unable to move without help. She says she has given up the will to live.

Narine, who has only recently begun to work with elderly patients, often finds it challenging. “The hardest part is to understand their psychological state. They’re often different from an adult. With some you have to treat them like children. You have to be patient.”

I was worried that several of the elderly people I photographed wouldn’t survive another winter. Asya died several months after I took her picture.

Hranush Sargsyan, 81

Hranush has been living in barrack-like temporary accommodation with outdoor lavatories since the Spitak earthquake struck in 1988, killing her son. A draft blows through a cracked glass pane in an ill-fitting window frame, and there are gaps under the door and between the wall’s chipboard panels. 

Hranush is one of 4,000 elderly people listed by the local social services as living alone and in need. She has no running water, is not connected to the city’s gas grid and has no telephone, but she is proud of her two-room home, and keeps it beautifully tidy. She relies on a neighbour to carry the buckets of water she requires for cooking and washing from a standpipe.

Since becoming a beneficiary of the Red Cross programme, Hranush feels the quality of her life has improved immeasurably. She gets twice-weekly visits from Gohar as well as the nurse helpers, who have become like family. “They are like my daughters!” says Hranush with a broad grin. House-proud Hranush refuses to let her visitors clean and tidy her home, but is only too glad that they take her neighbour’s job and fill her buckets at a distant standpipe. 

Lena Petrosyan, 88

Cold rises up through the concrete floor in the garage where Lena lives alone on the outskirts of Gyurmi. The garage is cold, dark and damp, lit by a single bare bulb. As we arrive for our first visit, Lena is hunched over a bucket washing her only change of clothes. 

Near the stove is a pile of wet wood that she bought the previous day with her monthly pension. The cupboards are empty. In tears, she shakes her purse to show that it, too, is now empty. All she has is a cardboard box with some official papers and photographs, and a bible under her pillow.

Lena’s six brothers and sisters are all dead. Her 70-year-old son lives in Russia but has a serious health condition that prevents him from returning to Gyumri to look after his mother. Lena relies on the goodwill of her neighbours to buy medication, and some food from time to time. As a result of a cataract she has difficulty seeing. 

Svetlana, the Red Cross nurse manager, is here to see if Lena can become a beneficiary of the programme. Lena confides to her that she has not bathed for three months. She says the neighbours offered her a shower but she was too shy and refused. 

The Red Cross has now taken Lena on to their programme, but her eyesight has deteriorated to the point that she can no longer see anyone’s features. Although she has a good grasp of her living space, she now only uses aluminium cups as she has broken all her glassware. The Red Cross are seeking the funds so that Lena can have the eye operation that would restore some of her vision. When I visit her in 2018, I ask her about the bible she treasured under her pillow. “I don’t have it any more. The owner took it back.”