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Grantee Profiles

By Abby Williamson, Advisor for Outreach and Planning
Caucasus Regional Office

On September 24, 1999, Larisa Alavardyan, executive director of the Fund Against the Violation of Law (FAVL), graced the cover of the Republic of Armenia newspaper—though these days that is hardly unusual.

Since founding FAVL in 1991, Alavardyan and her colleagues have been promoting the development of a democratic society by helping refugees in Armenia gain full citizenship. More than 300,000 refugees streamed across the border from Azerbaijan to Armenia between 1988 and 1992 due to the ethnic and territorial conflict in Nagorno-Karabagh. Ten years later, 11 percent of the Armenian population still holds refugee status. As the nation struggles toward democracy, this significant portion of the population remains disenfranchised.

In 1996, FAVL received an $18,317 grant from the Eurasia Foundation for an awareness campaign on the legal rights of refugees. Alavardyan characterizes the project as a turning point for the organization—a grassroots initiative that would achieve international renown and become a leader in cross-border, Caucasus-wide cooperation through the Eurasia Foundation Synergy Program.

Before receiving the grant, FAVL lacked even the most basic office equipment, and the staff had a lot to learn about accounting and other aspects of running a nongovernmental organization. By the time the grant had ended, however, FAVL had developed such a positive reputation that the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) invited it to become a local partner. Today FAVL is collaborating with the UNHCR, with other international organizations, and with the Armenian government to address problems from the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict that continue to hinder democratic development.

Alavardyan, who was raised in Baku, Azerbaijan, and who emigrated to Armenia in 1968, immediately became involved in the refugee crisis. She and her colleagues first established a charitable organization and tried to ease the refugees’ suffering. In 1991, they founded FAVL, realizing that a charitable organization could not address the long-term issues of refugee integration. According to Alavardyan, "While we still thought that humanitarian aid was important, we thought that we could do more by listening and providing information that would help refugees to integrate."

In 1996, after reading Armenian law closely, Alavardyan realized that most refugees qualified for citizenship because they had resided in Armenia for three years and because they could not claim citizenship of any other country. FAVL initiated the Eurasia grant project to involve refugees in Armenia’s civic and economic life and to encourage naturalization. Through a series of more than 250 seminars in the regions and a targeted media campaign, FAVL exceeded its ambitious goal of reaching 80 percent of the refugee population. To give the project an official face, FAVL brought a representative from the Ministry of Social Welfare to every seminar.

For the refugees, the opportunity to air their concerns in a supportive environment inspired hope and action. Describing the initial seminars, Alavardyan says, "When we first went out to the villages, we would sit around the table with the refugees and let them have their say. We realized that these people knew what they wanted—they wanted to find their place in Armenian society." In fact, an FAVL survey showed that half of refugees wanted to become citizens. A third of those polled, however, were afraid of losing the refugee status that made them eligible for humanitarian aid, such as transitional housing.

Recognizing that the fear of losing refugee status was an obstacle, FAVL began to help refugees apply to the government for permanent housing. Yerevan resident and refugee Bella Babaeva, a tireless advocate for refugees ever since participating in the 1996 seminars, received an apartment through this process. Though she fled Baku eleven years ago and had decided long ago to make her life in Armenia, she could only afford to apply for citizenship once the issue of housing was resolved. She explains, "Even though I only got my apartment just now, the past few years altogether have been better. I learned about my rights, and I began to have hope." Starting with the 1996 project, FAVL attracted an unprecedented brigade of more than 100 refugee volunteers like Babaeva, who have carried FAVL’s message beyond the seminars.

As refugees learned about their rights, they found that the local authorities were unaware of how to address refugee issues. To address this problem, FAVL conducted additional seminars for municipal authorities and precinct election commissions. In part through FAVL’s advocacy, refugees were allowed to vote in the first local Armenian elections held in 1996. FAVL also appealed to the national government to process the refugees’ documentation in the regions rather than in the capital, thereby saving them a long and expensive journey and ultimately facilitating the naturalization process.

Thanks to this careful strategy, FAVL can take a large part of the credit for the five percent of refugees who have become citizens. The numbers remain low, however, mainly because refugees continue to fear losing the benefits that accompany refugee status. Since partnering with FAVL, the UNHCR has embraced the organization’s approach of concentrating on housing and naturalization rather than transitional aid. As more refugees receive housing through cooperative agreements with the government, the UNHCR expects to see a considerable increase in the number of refugees who become citizens.

Because of the tremendous respect it has earned, FAVL is now playing a pivotal role in organizing prisoner exchanges with Azerbaijan. Alavardyan estimates that more than 1,800 prisoners have returned to their homes through the cooperative efforts of FAVL and other organizations.  One reason why FAVL has been so successful in these efforts is its willingness to work with nongovernmental organizations in the other countries of the South Caucasus. 

In October 1999, FAVL will begin a new grant project awarded through the Eurasia Foundation’s program for cross-border cooperation, the Synergy Program. In partnership with organizations from Georgia and Azerbaijan, they will work to develop a unified approach to address rights violations that will be adopted by nongovernmental organizations and the news media. Alavardyan and her colleagues hope that by working with their counterparts throughout the South Caucasus, they can make even greater progress in addressing the obstacles to the region’s democratic development.

November 1999

This document (c) 2001, The Eurasia Foundation.
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