ICRC launches business programme for refugees from Talish village

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which provides assistance to internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the Karabakh village of Talish, has decided to reduce the dependence of refugees' family members from financial assistance and invited them to take part in collective microeconomic projects. Members of 22 families expressed their desire to participate in the projects, reported Eteri Musaelyan, the chief of the ICRC's press service in Stepanakert.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in March, in Nagorno-Karabakh, the village of Alashan in the Martakert District started to build 20 houses for IDPs from the Talish village. In Talish, the reconstruction works are also underway; however, local residents said they would not return in absence of firm security guarantees.

In September 2018, Talish residents will already live in their native village, announced Araik Arutyunyan, State Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Family members of Mileta Airapetyan took advantage of the ICRC's programme and grew vegetables in the garden during the summer. There are five children in the woman's family.

"We collected a good harvest, and we prepared food for the winter. It is a very good programme, and in the spring we will took part in it again," the woman said.

Mareta Abelyan is a widow of a soldier killed in the first Karabakh war. She has three grown-up sons. The woman with her sons also moved to a rapid-assembly house, but complained the house was too small.

The woman spoke positively about the ICRC's assistance programme. She has noted her son had started to construct a farm for breeding livestock.

"The ICRC is the only international humanitarian organization that supports residents of the Talish village," believes historian Armen Airapetyan, the deputy principal of the school in the village of Alashan.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.