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  • Karabakh War Vets Seek Law On Social Guarantees, Determined To Conti

    KARABAKH WAR VETS SEEK LAW ON SOCIAL GUARANTEES, DETERMINED TO CONTINUE PROTESTS

    http://armenianow.com/society/46647/armenia_karabakh_war_veterans_pensions_rise_protes t
    SOCIETY | 05.06.13 | 15:24

    Photolure

    By SIRANUYSH GEVORGYAN ArmeniaNow reporter

    Karabakh war veterans continue their protests determined not to give
    up until the government gives concrete solutions to the issues they
    have put forward.

    Ishkhan Sargsyan, who heads the Shushi-92 Union of Freedom Fighters
    and War Veterans, says they have submitted a multi-step social package
    to the government and are waiting for a reply. On Thursday, June 6,
    freedom fighters will again rally in front of the government building
    to voice their demands.

    The freedom-fighters' standoff started around a month ago, when on
    May 11 army reserve colonel Volodya Avetisyan, together with a group
    of fellow veterans, declared a sit-in in Yerevan's Liberty Square,
    complaining of the order of provision of pensions to servicemen.

    Avetisyan, 49, says veteran pensions range between 40,000 and 80,000
    drams (around $96-$192) per month; they are demanding reconsideration
    of the order of provision of pensions to freedom fighters and families
    of deceased freedom fighters so that they be raised to 100,000 -
    200,000 drams (around $240-$481) per month.

    A day after the sit-in more war veterans joined him and started a more
    structured standoff. Tuesday, June 4, Avetisyan and several others,
    held another sit-in at Liberty Square, stating that the government
    is not giving an unambiguous response to their demands.

    Karabakh war veterans say for two decades they have been silent, but
    will no longer tolerate this attitude, when the state does not show
    the care they deserve (there are a total of around 15,000 veterans
    of the Karabakh war (1990-92 guerilla war, 1992-1994 official active
    hostilities) registered in Armenia.)

    "If it weren't for this impudent attitude to us, these protest actions
    wouldn't have begun," says Hakob Hakobyan, who fought as part of the
    legendary Arabo brigade.

    Last week the defense minister received the war veterans. The Shushi-92
    union leader says Minister Seyran Ohanyan, as someone who has fought in
    the war, fully understands their demands and shows support, however
    they want a bill to be drafted on freedom fighters and passed by
    the parliament.

    The submitted social package suggests their following demands be met
    through certain laws and/or decrees: raise the freedom fighters'
    pensions, make public transport free of charge for them, utility
    bills be cut by 50 percent, those in need of housing be provided with
    apartments, grant low-interest bank loans, offer discounts on tuition
    fees for their children, celebrate Freedom Fighters' Day as a state
    holiday, etc.

    "The great respect once shown to freedom fighters is gradually
    disappearing, we do not need fake toasts to our wellbeing, let them
    pass laws, decrees, to make us feel that we are living a decent life.

    By laying flowers here and there they show as if they care for us,
    but we do not need flowers, we need laws," says Sargsyan.

    Presently, certain privileges are available only to families of
    deceased or wounded freedom fighters. "It is not our fault that we
    survived," says Hakobyan.

    "I wish I got killed, then I wouldn't have witnessed this," adds
    Jivan Poghosyan, who, too, fought within the Arabo brigade.

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