Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online
Edik and I also went back to another homeless person we encountered last year. Nowadays, and despite government reports of unprecedented economic growth, the number of homeless people in Yerevan appears to be increasing, and others have joined her. There’ll be an update on Gohar in next week’s Hetq Online, but this is some of what Edik wrote in January 2005.
A woman completely covered in soot was dragging two huge bags toward a half-built structure. We approached her. Cursing somebody, she kept dragging her bags full of plastic bottles, bits of paper, scraps of food. Only the whites of her eyes stood out against her soot-blackened skin. She was one of about a dozen homeless people in the vicinity of the Yerevan Railroad Station, Gohar from Sevan.
On January 13, 2005 , Gohar will turn forty-five. Her seventeen-year-old son lives with his grandmother – Gohar’s stepmother – in Sevan. Gohar is unemployed, but receives no government allowance. She worked at various jobs for 25 years. But today she is a vagrant, living on the first floor of this partially constructed building.
[…]
“Maybe you like this life better,” I said.
“No. If you lived like this for just one day you wouldn’t be able to bear it. I even wonder at myself that I left my home there and live through such suffering and sorrow here. My friends are my dogs. This is my Blacky, he always follows me. And my Ginger is wandering around. They sleep with me and warm me. If they hear a rustle they start barking.”
Until Hetq Online’s homeless special edition, Gohar’s story from last year can be found here. In the meantime, the homeless in Yerevan need urgent assistance. Contact hetq@hetq.am for more information.
