Our Means of Livelihood – the Car – Was Used During the War, and Now It’s No Longer Usable: A Call for Help as the State Provides No Compensation

It has been over a year since our issue has not been resolved; we understand that the country is in a difficult situation, but our standard of living and quality of life have changed, and there is no solution to the problem. This was stated by Agavni Martirosyan, wife of Artem Arakelyan, a participant in the 44-day war, in an interview with Auroranews.

“On the third day of the war, my husband volunteered and went to serve with our family’s ‘HOWO’ brand truck. Describing the course of the war and my husband’s experiences is pointless. He returned on the 24th day of the war and brought back our truck, which was completely out of service and damaged. My husband was the only breadwinner in our family, but today he is unemployed,” said Mrs. Agavni.

Artem Arakelyan worked with the aforementioned truck at an asphalt paving company, and according to his wife, his work was primarily during the summer months.

“During that period, we managed to save some money for our livelihood and support our three children, one of whom is a university student, while the other two are minors. The state paid my husband about 160,000 drams for his service, and they also covered half of my child's tuition fees, providing 250,000 drams,” added our interlocutor.

According to Mrs. Agavni, the problem is that they have tried to resolve the issue on their own means, even though both the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs assured the Arakelyans that there would be state compensation for the truck, yet, as they assert, there has been no response from the government agencies until now.

“We even took out a loan, but we couldn’t resolve the issue. One tire for the truck costs 160,000 drams, and we need eight tires like that for our truck. However, it’s not just the tires that are damaged; other important parts have also been damaged. Now the truck is not operational,” said Martirosyan, emphasizing that their family is not the only one affected by the current situation.

The photographs provided to us confirm that the truck was registered and sent to Artsakh.

Auroranews contacted another citizen, Andranik Atoyan, who is also a war participant and took part in combat operations with his truck. “My truck served as a vehicle for transporting weapons; I delivered weapons from Stepanakert to the boys, and I can’t remember which day of the war it was when the truck was caught under shelling. Now it’s completely damaged; I’ve been told that there will be state compensation, but when and how much – I don’t know,” said Atoyan.