Deinstitutionalisation, Kutaisi, Georgia
Photographs © Onnik James Krikorian 2007.
ARTICLES ABOUT DEINSTITUTIONALISATION
SUFFER THE CHILDREN
A mother waits patiently to enroll her son at an Auxiliary Boarding School for children with learning disabilities somewhere in the heart of the Armenian capital. It doesn’t seem to matter to the staff that the twelve-year old isn’t disabled, all the school requires, the Director says, is a medical certificate.
First published 2003
CHILDREN OF THE SOUTH CAUCASUS
At just eight months of age, Tiesa and her two sisters were abandoned by a roadside. They survived by eating roadkill — frogs, in fact — and drinking water from puddles before being discovered. The children, two of them with learning disabilities, were placed in Tbilisi’s Infant House, an orphanage by any other name.
First published 2014
LATEST BLOG POSTS
Catholic Armenians in Tbilisi, Georgia
Part of work on minorities in Armenia and Georgia.
Yezidis in Armenia
Recently EurasiaNet reported that Yezidis in Armenia have requested the authorities in Yerevan assist their counterparts in Iraqi Kurdistan who are experiencing violent attacks from Kurds for selling alcohol. Despite non-Muslims apparently being allowed to do so, militias are reportedly attacking shops owned by Christians and Yezidis.
Homophobia in the South Caucasus
Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso has just published my latest article on aborted plans to introduce legislation to prohibit ‘gay propaganda’ that might result in the ‘distorted understanding’ that gay and heterosexual relations are ‘socially equivalent’ in Armenia. The move follows the introduction of similar legislation in Russia.