Some 100 Artsakh refugees sheltering in Masis kindergarten

About 100 refugees from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) are living in a kindergarten in Masis, a small town just south of Yerevan, RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reports.

Lena Avanesyan, an elderly woman, shares a section of a kindergarten hall with her nephew and his wife. Only a curtain separates their makeshift home from several other families living in the large room. Avanesyan’s biggest wish now is to replace it with a wall and a door.

RFE/RL’s Armenian Service heard on Thursday similar stories from other residents of the Masis shelter.

“We can’t find anything. There are simply no available homes,” said Arayik Hayriyan, a young Artsakh man staying there with his brother’s and sister’s families.

A total of 1,718 Artsakh Armenians continue to live in kindergartens, schools, gyms, and even former casino buildings hastily converted into makeshift shelters.