168: The pre-election “restart” of those closing the Artsakh page. To “home” the people of Artsakh and

Nikol Pashinyan, who is demonized by the word “Artsakh”, deprived the people of Artsakh of their own land and water, home and place, and closed the page of the Karabakh movement, decided to remember the problems of the “brothers and sisters” of Artsakh on the eve of the elections. He gathered a group of people and tried to hang noodles from their ears before the elections.

He convinced them to forget Artsakh, the graves of their parents and children and relatives left in Atsakh, what they had done over the years and urged them to settle in Armenia without unnecessary emotions.

Before the elections, for obvious reasons, he tried to woo the people of Artsakh.

If they already feel the need for the votes of the people of Artsakh, it means that the situation is really difficult. The citizens of Artsakh who have the right to participate in the elections are the last group of voters who can even think of voting for these authorities after all this time. Today’s rulers of Armenia also understand this, but due to their incompetence, they threw their hands into the foam. Once they targeted and insulted, they did not listen to the raised social issues, now they remembered the people of Artsakh.

For two years, people have been continuously complaining that it is not possible to buy an apartment both in Yerevan and outside of Yerevan with the money allocated by the housing security program approved by the government, the apartments are much more expensive than the allocated money, but who was listening? At that time, the elections were still behind the mountains, there is no problem of wooing the people of Artsakh. The elections are approaching, they remembered that the 3 million drams given are not enough to buy an apartment in the settlements bordering Yerevan. Therefore, they promise to increase the 3 million to 4 million in a short time, within 1-2 months, before the elections.

They are so worried about their own future that they are ready to give retroactive effect to this change, to extend it to the certificates that have been issued so far.

It is clear that it is not out of love for the “brothers and sisters” of Artsakh that they intend to take such steps. If it were up to them, they wouldn’t have given what they had, let alone increase the amount. But they have to do it because they need the votes of the citizens of Artsakh who have received Armenian citizenship.

Although, it is not the case that the people of Artsakh have received the citizenship of Armenia and now they can satisfy the appetite of the authorities with their votes. Two and a half years after their forced displacement, most of them prefer to keep Artsakh citizenship, which means that unlike Nikol Pashinyan and his exhortations to settle in Armenia, people do not lose hope of returning. Even the dire need for an apartment is not a reason for many to obtain Armenian citizenship, which is a mandatory requirement to use the housing assistance program. There is no secret in the fact that they did this specifically in order to deprive the people of Artsakh of the last hope of returning.

Of the 120,000 forcibly displaced people, only 34,000 have received Armenian citizenship. The rest continue to wait and hope that one day they will return to their homes.

Out of those 34,000 Artsakh citizens who received Armenian citizenship, only 1,700 families were able to get an apartment with the residence certificate provided by the government in almost 2 years. Hardly 7-8 percent of displaced Artsakh families.

At this rate, it will take years, perhaps decades, for our forcibly displaced compatriots to fully benefit from the housing program. The reasons are different, but one of the main ones has always been the discrepancy between the offered amount and the prices of the apartments. Apartments, even in marzes, are much more expensive than the amount that the government is willing to give. That is why many people could not and still cannot use the program.

But until recently, it did not bother the government and the political authorities at all, no one even thought why people do not use the program that is so glorified by them, although the need for housing is suffocating many. After that, they suddenly remembered the problems of the people of Artsakh, they are ready to provide solutions to them. Although what they are proposing will not be a solution, because it is not the money with which they can buy apartments in the neighboring marzes and settlements of Yerevan.

They will be just as unattainable for many even after the 3 million each become 4 million each. Until they do that, housing prices will rise again. Moreover, in the case of such initiatives, the market reacts much faster, people rush to raise prices through artificial price increases.

Therefore, it is still too early to say how much the situation will change after this hasty decision of the government. But in this case, that is not the problem at all. It is obvious that the purpose of all this is to convince and woo the people of Artsakh and get their votes in the elections. That is why they make such “sacrifices”, they are ready to increase the amount by 1 million per person.

Of course, it’s good, but why now? After all, all those problems are not new and it is not new that they knew about them.

On the eve of the elections, when other political forces have been deprived of the opportunity to do something, sometimes even to speak, to communicate with the citizens, they can freely interfere in the electoral processes, using the state levers, to show a special attitude towards the voters. And this does not apply only to the people of Artsakh.

Recently, the “selfless” care and assistance of the authorities to the voters at the expense of state funds is noticeable everywhere. But, no matter how strange it is, it is not customary to call it election bribery, although it is obviously done to bribe the voters.

HAKOB KOCHARYAN