Stepanakert residents complain about lack of help from authorities

Officials are indifferent to those people who lost their homes during the autumn escalation of the Karabakh conflict and do not provide them with any assistance, residents of Stepanakert say. According to the Nagorno-Karabakh government, programmes of assistance are under development now.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that after the agreement between Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia on the cessation of the hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh had been signed, local residents began to return to the unrecognized republic. The authorities promised to provide with housing the city residents who had lost their homes. The people are being temporarily accommodated in hotels. Not all refugees are ready to return, because they are not sure that they will be safe and do not know how to restore their households affected by shelling attacks.

According to Asmik Arushanyan, a resident of Stepanakert, the authorities are busy with solving other problems, rather than providing assistance to the population. The woman notes that her house was badly damaged after a mortar attack. However, she got no financial assistance.

Anush Mkrtumyan, another local resident, reports that as a result of shelling attacks, her family's house in Martakert was almost completely destroyed. She believes that in addition to providing people with housing, the authorities should also think about providing them with household appliances as well.