HULIQ.com, SC
Oct 8 2011
Three Different Fates, One Commons Past: Armenian Orphan Asylums
Submitted by Michael Santo on 2011-10-08
Psychologists argue that humans are capable of forgetting happy
episodes of their life, but memories of hardships remain with them
through their lifetime. When you talk with the graduates of Armenian
orphan asylums, you slightly shift from this argument, as their memory
keeps both: their fate has taught them to preserve everything they
have, especially because they do not have too much of this, and they
acquire everything they have through sufferings and struggle.
Story 1. Gavar orphan asylum, a standard Soviet childhood
Karine, 34, found herself in Gavar orphan asylum when she was 3,
despite she the fact that she had parents. This fact, though, was the
same as not having parents, as her biological parents never had any
willingness to set up relations with their daughter, either through
the times in asylum or after leaving it. She left the institution when
she became 18, in 1991. Then, Armenia was just starting to follow the
path of independence, so her early recollections do not differ
essentially from those of any other Soviet child: standardized food
with compote and the daily regime according to the agenda attached to
the corridor wall. In summer: vacation in a pioneer camp.
In short, this woman’s recollections of her time in the asylum can be
deemed somewhat positive, and since the state sees the key function of
the asylum in providing food, dress and bed, then in the particular
case of Karine it has been pretty successful. We all understand,
however, that this is not all a child needs to become a citizen, as
where is the right to education? And most importantly, how can a child
from an asylum receive compensation for the family love, which even
the best and most successful orphanage institution cannot provide?
But the further flow of life brought about serious problems, when she,
along with other graduates of Gavar asylum, was moved to different
areas across Armenia, where they were to start a new life completely
on their own. Karine found herself in Yerevan, attending a
typewriter’s training courses. She used to live in various hostels,
and at flats of more successful asylum friends on temporary basis,
until 16 years later the state provided her with a one bedroom flat
close to Yerevan, as she was from an asylum. The first floor of the
residential building used to serve as a warehouse for some time, which
means it was not adapted for housing purposes. And it was there that
ten apartments were made and handed over to Karine and other asylum
graduates.
It is damp there, cold in winter; the electric wires need to be
changed. The flats are even devoid of sunlight, as there is just one
window in each of them. Those are though important, but household
issues, while there is a more powerful one, which has a psychological
impact: one can only enter the flats provided to asylum graduates from
the street, as this is how the building has been constructed, whereas
the other residents of the building use the regular entrance. In other
words, it seems someone again pinpoints that we are not from `them’,
we are different. We are children of an orphanage asylum, this is it’.
But, Karine continues, `at least this is my own corner’.
Story 2. Sovetashen, Gavar, Meghri … broken and crippled fates
Sasha, 35, is Karine’s husband. They made a family; now they are
raising two kids. He does not like to talk of the asylum or, moreover,
of the parents. `I do not have such notions,” he says furiously about
something which is an absolute value for most people. But you cannot
blame him for this, when you hear stories of his childhood and adult
life.
He appeared in Sovetashem orphan asylum at the age of 6. Then he was
moved to Gavar, and further on to Meghri. The memories of the latter
are the brightest. He remembers, for instance, when they were reaching
Meghri by bus, the kids would bite pomegranates fallen on the ground
to eat them, before they had ever heard of such fruit. `Well, yeah, we
were not hungry, nor naked, but it’s not just about that. Only when
you walk out from those walls you realize that there is no difference
between a prison and an orphanage asylum. In both places you are cared
for just as much as not to die of hunger, but nobody treats you like a
human…and then you get freedom and you do not know what to do with
it.” As a proof he points at a black and white picture from a family
album – it shows himself and friends from the asylum.
`We spent a few winters in the basement of the Chess House together
with Armen and Hayk, until one of the boys died of cold and it was
impossible to continue staying there. Armen was tried, as he stole
copper from the state and sold it,” he counts and continues. Someone
else died, someone managed to flee to Russia for work and used to
write at first, but then connection was lost, the other girl also got
lost after the divorce… In a nutshell, there is hardly even one normal
fate among those pictured on the photo. `Sometimes I am being
reproached – you have to be satisfied about the state taking care of
you, supporting and bringing you up, now you are given a flat (though
he left the asylum in 1990 and received his flat in 2008). But what
should I be content with? We went out of a dirt just to move into a
new one’. He also mentions that no one ever helped any of the asylum
graduates. On the contrary, they were persecuted and all the doors
were closed for them, as a child from an orphanage asylum in the eyes
of the society is equal to a former prisoner.
Story 3. Zatik. New times, old problems
Armine, 26, is an independent Armenian time graduate of one of the
most exemplary orphan asylums: Zatik. In her words, it was very good
in Zatik, she was secured with good food and a clean bed, and after
leaving it she was literally taken aback. However, it was only after
she left the asylum that the bitter life experienced proved that it
was not everything she needed what she got from the institution. She
needed at least primitive knowledge to somehow compensate for little
life experience. But realization of this only came when Armine, who
had no place to live, found herself out in the street after she left
the asylum. At first, she lived in Zatik, with permission of the
director. However, that could not last for long.
She ultimately found herself in a house named Tsiatsan, where people
like her lived. She spent some three years there. Then she got
married, by the way not with an asylum graduate, and gave birth to two
kids, but then she got divorced. She says her husband who at first
enjoyed everyone’s sympathy just for marrying a girl from asylum, in
the end did not resist the pressure from the society and became a
victim of stereotypes, leaving the family. As a result, today Armine
with her two children lives on the assistance of neighbors – graduates
of various asylums, as she does not work and has no one to support
her. `If it was not for them, my kids would die of hunger…I am not
even speaking of myself.’ As to getting assistance of that kind from
other neighbors, or to even regular communication with them, Armine
said her apartment is isolated from them and the entrance is from a
different side. In other words, if she uses a different entrance just
to enter the apartment, then how is she going to overcome barriers of
communicating with other neighbors? Most importantly, however, no
matter how difficult it is for her and how many half-hungry days she
has had, still Armine totally excludes possibility of sending her
children to an asylum. Even to the praised Zatik…
…Three different fates, which have a common past in orphan asylums.
Independently of all, even from few good recollections there is one
conclusion – asylum graduates are a separate caste, who are unable of
fighting against hardships of life, which attack them like predators
right after they become 18 and leave the walls of the asylum. They are
not accepted by society. At times being unaccepted brings about
aggressions either from their side or from the society. And even
though this is an old stereotype, it is so deeply rooted in their
psychology, that it leaves little or no options for struggle. As a
result, already outside the asylum, being full members of the society,
they continue to live supporting each other and standing by. Just one
thing is for sure: the fate of any of them can only compete in its
bitterness to a fate of someone with the past in the asylum.
Written by Lia Khojoyan
http://www.huliq.com/3257/three-different-fates-one-commons-past-armenian-orphan-asylums