By Narineh Sargsyan

The only old age home and residence for the homeless is located in the Haghtanak neighbourhood. There’s also a medical clinic to serve those who have wound up at Haghtanak.

There are many seniors who have been abandoned by their families.

On a recent trip to the residence, I took some copies of the Hetq newspaper.

One resident, Zaven, perused the paper and came upon an article regarding the child Lilit who is sick and in need of medical assistance.

Zaven, who has spent the last month at the home, offered one month of his pension for Lilit.

Zaven’s wife recently passed away and his only son resides in Russia.

The man, who has many relatives in Armenia, says that he’s never asked them for assistance because they are always expecting handouts from him.

“Whenever I visit them, the first question they ask is ‘what have you brought?’. Hey, it’s not as if I’ve just returned from America laden with gifts.”

Another resident, Robert, used to work as a physics teacher in an Aparan school until his wife died in 1983. His only daughter lives in Russia.

“I raised her and married her off. I haven’t told her where I live now not to embarrass her,” he says.

Unlike many others at the residence, Robert never lived on the streets. He plans to move to Russia as soon as possible.

Not having other living options, most residents do not complain about conditions at the home. One resident told me that “it’s still better than living on the street.”

Robert told me that the shower facilities were awful and that anyone with a sense of minimum cleanliness would only dare to bathe there once.

79 year-old Sergey Navasardyan goes to public bath once a week to clean up.

“The showers here are a veritable pigsty. I don’t let any of the residents to enter my room, so you know I would never take a bath here,” he declares.

Mr. Navasardyan lives in a room with three others. He keeps it neat and tidy.

While he’s had the right to transfer to the old age home long ago, it appears that management finds it conducive to keep Mr. Navasardyan at the homeless residence.

“I keep a watch on things here. Deputy Director Poghosyan told me that if I ever left the place would become unmanageable,” Sergey chuckles.

Mr. Navasardyan fled Baku in 1988 with just the clothes on his back. He used to work as a driver in Baku.

For the past 23 years, he’s been living rough on the streets or temporarily in the homes of friends. He wound up at the homeless shelter a few months ago.

When I visited, he had decorated his room with colourful balloons and toys for the holidays.

The only thing missing was a Christmas tree.

When I asked why, Mr. Navasardyan answered, “Hey, I’m not a kid anymore.”