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18 The Armenian Reporter | May 31, 2008ArmeniaLife is hard – and getting lonelier – on the borderby Tatul HakobyanTavush Marz, Armenia – In thepast five months, only one child hasbeen born in Barekamavan village:a girl named Asia. Since Barekamavanis an aging village, for the pastfew years the number of peoplepassing away is greater than thenumber of those being born. Sevenpeople have already died this year.Hovik Gharakeshishian, thehead of the village, is concernedabout Barekamavan’s future.“At this rate, in 15 to 20 yearsBarekamavan will end. A few decadesago the village had 1,000residents. Today the number is 330.There was a time when the villageschool had more than 200 students;today the number is 44. At best,three or four children are born eachyear,” says Mr. Gharakeshishian.Barekamavan has no godfathers.Even during elections, candidatesfail to visit the village – an index ofjust how neglected and ignored thisborder village has become. “Duringthe presidential elections, whenSerge Sargsian came to Noyemberianon his campaign, they asked usto take some people from our villagefor a meeting with the presidentialcandidate. We took 60 people toNoyemberian. All officials ostentatiouslyvisit the fertile villages of theArarat plateau. No one visits theseparts,” says the village headman.Serjhik Gharakeshishian,one of the remaining residentsof Barekamavan, complains thatonly Nagorno-Karabakh occupiesthe center of the state’s attention– even though Barekamavan is alsoKarabakh.“During the years of the conflict,up to 160 people were armed fromthis village, while today, the numbercould only be 20 to 25,” he complains,presenting these figures asevidence that no other village inArmenia is as neglected, ignored,and poor as Barekamavan.To the northeast of Armenia,where the Armenia-Georgia borderends, the Armenia-Azerbaijan borderbegins. Tavush marz has about20 Armenian settlements scatteredalong its 100-mile border with Azerbaijan.In this section of the border,some villages are directly in theenemy’s line of fire. In the wake ofthe May 1994 ceasefire, this remainsthe most unstable section of the Armenia-Azerbaijanborder. Dozens ofpeaceful residents and soldiers havefallen victim to snipers.Barekamavan has an eight-kilometerlong border with Azerbaijan.Four hundred hectares of the villages’arable lands and orchardshave not been cultivated for thepast 15 years, as they are on theborder and have been mined. Theresidents of Barekamavan can cultivateonly 55 hectares of land – avery small area even for a village of330 residents.“First of all, everything must bedone so that the remaining 20 to 25young families of the village continueliving here, otherwise the villagewill completely vanish,” the head ofthe village says, with a grave tone.Under enemy controlBerkaber village – which, unlikeBarekamavan, is not secluded fromthe main highway – is also aging.Today, only 53 students study ina village school that had 165 studentsin 1990. Berkaber villagehead Suren Khudaverdian notesthat a new wave of flight from thevillage is noticeable this year. Leadersand citizens of the nine villageswe visited confirmed this year’sincrease in the number of peoplefleeing their hometowns.Incidentally, if in the 1990s peoplepreferred to emigrate abroad,Hovik Gharakeshishian. Photos: Armenian Reporter.mainly to Russia, today they aremoving both to Yerevan and Russiaequally. Hikes in the cost of livingpushes people out of the bordertowns, while construction employmentin Yerevan is a lure to ablebodiedresidents.“What are these authoritiesbuilding? Yerevan and the NorthernAvenue. People are leaving thevillage because of the continuousprice rises. They either find work inconstruction in the capital city, orin Russia. A villager must cultivateland and keep animals. The landsof this village are under the controlof the enemy. Until this latest pricerise it was still possible to exist, butnow it is impossible,” says Mr. Khudaverdian.The 800 hectares of mostly fruitbearing orchards of Berkaber– which shares a 10-kilometer borderwith Azerbaijan – are under thecontrol of the enemy. The remaininglands are dangerous for cultivation.Berkaber is separated from itsneighboring four Azerbaijani villagesby the Joghaz reservoir, constructedin 1970 for irrigating Armenianand Azerbaijani lands. Themain part of the reservoir coversArmenian lands, but in order to useit the Armenians must pass thoughtwo Azerbaijani villages, which isimpossible.And so, for about 20 years thereservoir has not been used, evenfor fishing; for as soon as the Armeniansfrom Berkaber approach theshore to fish, the Azerbaijanis fire.The Armenian army is consideredthe most efficient in the region.A strong army is one of theprincipal guarantors of the defenseof Armenian lands from the encroachmentsof neighbors. But theArmenian soldier is more courageouswhen he feels support fromthe land-cultivating, lawn-mowing,tree-planting villagers. Land is keptfirst of all though cultivation – butif the current hopeless situationcontinues in the border regions,keeping those borders secure willbecome harder. An Armenian soldier,especially a border-guard, ismore valiant with the support ofhis family.Voskepar village became the centerof the Armenian-Azerbaijaniconflict in 1990–91. Today, 50 ofthe 250 village houses have beenlocked shut for the past 15 years.Mekhak Stepanian, one of theyoung people still living in Voskepar,says that the government ignoresthe residents of the bordervillage. There is no seed, fuel is veryexpensive, and the only availableagricultural machines are leftoversfrom Soviet times.“The residents of those 50 lockedhouses will never return, as theyhave settled in Russia. That iswhere their children and grandchildrenwere born,” says Mr. Stepanian.“Of the remaining 200 houses,80 of them are inhabited by the elderly.Those houses are also goingto be locked up in 15 to 20 years.There was a time when the villageschool had more than 300 students,while today there are only 135. Thisyear a new wave of emigration hasstarted. Leaving Voskepar and settlingin Russia, the youth see thatlife is easier and happier there, andso they remain in Russia.”An atmosphere of fearWhile confirming the latest wave ofemigration from the border villages,residents give different reasons forthe flight. For example in Baghanisvillage, African swine fever – adisease infecting pigs – is consideredthe main reason for emigration.Because of this disease therewas an unprecedented drop in thenumbers of pigs registered in Armenia.In Baghanis, because of theLeft: On theleft side of thereservoir isthe Azerbaijanivillage ofMazamli. Onthe right, is theArmenian villageof Berkaber.ArmenianReporter maps byGrigor Beglaryan.disease, about 500 pigs either diedor were slaughtered. Head of thevillage Arthur Ghukasian saysthat a few youngsters who used tokeep pigs left for Yerevan or Russia,as they could not find workanywhere, apart from the luxuryconstruction going on in Armenia’scapital city.“According to the veterinarians,pig farming will be impossible inthe upcoming five years. Even duringthe Soviet years this villagewas mostly occupied with animalhusbandry. Cultivating lands isnot profitable, as our lands are notfruit-bearing and are directly in theAzerbaijani line of fire. Last yeara tractor could only cultivate twohectares of land before the Azerbaijaniswould fire, and so the arableland remained uncultivated.People do not have money to buyfertilizers, although the state allocatessome subsidized fertilizers.For example, the market price ofone sack is 5,000 drams, but theysell it at 3,700 drams,” says the headof the village.Even during the Soviet years,people from Baghanis’s neighboringvillage of Voskevan used toleave in search for work. The mainreason was the shortage and infertilityof its lands. However, whenthe war started, the villagers startedto cultivate their lands in an atmosphereof fear. People were willingto cultivate their infertile lands,rather than die from the enemy’sbullet.“Many things have been left tothe Azerbaijanis’ whim. They canfire on and kill the farmers at anygiven time. Sometimes they fireand sometimes they do not. Ourside can fire on their farms too, butthey usually do not open fire,” saysagriculturist Hrachik Antonianfrom Voskevan.In the past few years life had takena turn for the positive in the bordervillages of Tavush. But the latestprice hikes and animal deathshas placed the villagers in a difficultsituation. Unable to find a betteralternative, some of them leave thevillage temporarily – or forever.The recent presidential electionand the post-election developments“encouraged” the emigration.According to official data, formerPresident Levon Ter-Petrossianhas a high reputation in the Tavushmarz. But after the March 1events, the first president’s trustedrepresentatives are being houndedthroughout Armenia – includingTavush. This fact has had an additionalnegative impact on the generaldisposition of the people.Koti is one of the villages whereMr. Ter-Petrossian beat PresidentSerge Sargsian. Apart from beingfamous for being the birthplace ofTer-Petrossian–era Interior Ministerand fugitive Vano Siradeghian,this village is also famous forhaving a 38-kilometer long borderwith Azerbaijan. For this reasononly 500 hectares of Koti’s 1,500hectares are being cultivated. Currentlyless than 2,000 people residein the village, which used to haveabout 3,000 residents. Felix Melikiannotices that even thoughthere is no emigration, the numberof people, especially the youngsters,working abroad has increased.In recent years the cultivationof tobacco has been revived in thisvillage. The Grand Tobacco Companysigns contracts with the villagersand pledges to buy the tobacco.This year about 25 hectaresof tobacco have been planted. TheIFAD project is implementing theconstruction works of the Koti irrigationwater project. Accordingto Melikian, this is a major projectand a few hundred hectares of nonirrigatedland will have water.The price of warDifferent projects are being implementedin Koti, as in the rest ofthe border villages, with assistancefrom the government or internationalorganizations. However, asyet they have not improved thevillagers’ lives. Many villages aresimply lagging behind in the developmentwhich has been registeredelsewhere in Armenia over the pastfew years. Whenever, for example,Yerevan’s development is obvious,then one can be sure that the bordervillages will continue to be poor.In some ways Yerevans’ developmenthas had a negative impacton the villages, where the alreadysmall number of younger residentsaim to go to the capital city withthe hope of work and a better life.Some of them settle in Yerevan,and as a result Armenia’s bordersare weakened.The problems and difficultiesin border villages vary. It is evenmore difficult for people to live inthose settlements where the landsare not fertile and are close to theenemy’s line of fire, and where thevillages are secluded from the mainhighway or are far from the marzcenters.However, residents of the bordervillages have one thing in common:they all want peace, even thoughthey are the ones who have sufferedthe most during the Armenia-Azerbaijanwar. Their perception of warand peace is completely differentfrom that of people in Yerevan. Theresidents of the border villages attacha greater significance to peace,as they have personally suffered, andare well aware of the price of war. f
The Armenian Reporter | May 31, 2008 19ArmeniaIFAD helps village economies growby Armen HakobyanSEVAN, Armenia – Among the majorprojects supporting Armenia’srural development are two agriculturalloan programs sponsored bythe International Fund for AgriculturalDevelopment (IFAD) and theWorld Bank. The IFAD program waslaunched in October 2005 and theWorld Bank program in 2006.The programs are coordinatedand monitored by the Rural FundingStructure, headed by Ara Muradian.He said in an interview thataround $6 million out of $8.9 millionallocated by IFAD has been loaned,and 315 farms, farmers, or processingcompanies in the least developedmountainous regions of Armeniahave received low-interest loans.The World Bank in turn has allocated$5.3 million, Mr. Muradiansaid, of which $2.2 million has beenloaned. Around 40 farms have receivedcredit.Another way to get ontheir feetBeyond the bare figures are realpeople who wish to find the economicopportunity to stand firmlyon their feet on their native land.Over the last year and half, ArthurSmbatian, 36, has tried to revivethe once-powerful Sevan PoultryFactory, which belongs to the firmBasis Sar. Mr. Smbatian is the mainshareholder of Basis Sar, and he acquiredthe poultry factory in 1993.He said in an interview that thefactory at the time had 30 huge hencoops that were desolated. In 1994,he said, “in those bad years, thoseterrible years of the Armenian NationalMovement’s rule, I brought30,000 birds from Pyatigorsk, Russia,by air. They were good, egg-layinghens. In 1997 I was forced toshut down the factory because theyA permanent moveby Betty Panossian-TerSarkissianYEREVAN – Vicky Odeh is oneof many Iranian-Armenians whohave chosen their historic homelandas a suitable country in whichto settle permanently. Already afull-time resident of Armenia forfive years, Vicky talked to the Reporterabout the rewards of livingin the homeland, as well as thelittle difficulties that complicateeveryday life.Moving to YerevanBack in Tehran, Vicky cherishedhopes of becoming a musicianand a choir conductor. But in thelate 1970s, political circumstancespushed her out of music school andshe devoted the ensuing years toher family and children.By the early 1980s, however,Vicky did manage to make use of herknowledge in music and conducting.“Back in those days, there wasa sharp need in Tehran to providea modern rhythmic interpretationto our patriotic and revolutionarysongs. The ARF Central Committeeassigned several of my friends andme to carry out the task. I mustsay that my work as a choir conductorwas not professional, since Ihad not completed my education inmusic,” recalled Vicky.The result of this initiative wasPotorik, a choir famous in the diasporaespecially in the 1980s for itsArsen Zadoian and his hothouse tomatoes.were bringing in cheap eggs fromIran. We faced bankruptcy,” he saidbitterly.He had now restarted, investingin the renovation of one of his hencoops and 20–25 hens. He employs25 people from Sevan and neighboringsettlements. His firm hasreceived an IFAD loan, with whichhe expects to double the capacity ofhis factory.“Having learned about this loanprogram I submitted a loan applicationto Inecobank, and took an$85,000 five-year loan at 12 percent,”Mr. Smbatian said. “I took the loanlast spring and renovated anotherhen coop with that money. Part ofthe money we invested in the birdseedkitchen and we bought Fordand Gazel vehicles for egg delivery.The equipment for the hen coop Ibought with my own money. Thisnew hen coop is for 35,000 birds. Iam going to buy chickens, mostlyegg-laying, and I expect to raisemonthly output from the current400,000 eggs to 1 million. By thedynamic interpretation of Armenianpatriotic songs.Vicky says that around a decadeago, she embraced a family traditionof practicing skin-care, andtook courses at the offices of a famousFrench brand specializing inskin care. In 2002, she spent somemonths in Paris to qualify as a practitionerin the field.“By then we were already consideringmoving to Armenia,”recalled Vicky. It was a step herfamily had always wanted to take,following the independence ofArmenia.“We had several motives, butthe basic one was to satisfy ourneed of completely belonging toa place. We wanted to put an endto our temporary belonging to aplace.” She and her husband alsowanted their kids to spend partof their growing years in their fatherland.Settling downOne of the first things Vicky did aftermoving to Yerevan was to rent aspace on Pushkin Street and openher own skin care center, called“Vitak” – referring to a valued glitteryfabric in Armenian. Vitak wasa warm and cozy corner operatingwith the French approach of offeringprofessional skin care to theresidents of Yerevan.The facility in the heart of Yerevanoperated for four years,during which Vicky succeeded ingathering a clientele that appreciatedthe novelty and the professionalapproach Vitak brought tothe city.way, during the last year, we alreadypaid off $15,000 of the principle,”he added.This loan is his first ever. “I wouldbe able to reach this level in fiveyears without the loan; with thehelp of the loan, I have reached itin 1 year,” he noted.A fertile greenhouse inone yearIn a greenhouse not far from Arznivillage, a bumper crop of tomatoesis ripening. The greenhousebelongs to Rasfood. The executivemanager, Arsen Zadoian, notesthat the greenhouse was built onlya year ago. Mr Zadoian’s father is aformer minister of agriculture.The founders of the company, ArsenZadoian said in an interview,learned about the loan programs,and knowing that he has experiencein greenhouse work, decidedto take a loan and construct agreenhouse. This loan came fromthe World Bank.By that time, her children wereenrolled in public schools. Soon,her daughter graduated from highschool, and enrolled at the FrenchUniversity in Yerevan to study law.She will graduate this summer.Vicky’s teenage boy will soon graduatefrom high school and plans tocontinue his studies at the PolytechnicInstitute.Toward the end of 2007, Vickymoved her practice into the premisesof Shoonch, a yoga and spacenter owned by two of her friends.For the past two months, she hasbeen offering courses in “face yoga”to her clients – another novel approachto skincare in Yerevan.Back in 2003, Vitak was one ofthe very few high-quality skinArtur Smbatian’s chicken coop.“The greenhouse occupies territoryof 2,000 square meters. Thecompany took also a $140,000 loanfor a 6-year term and 11 percentinterest from Inecobank for equipmentwhen we started constructionwork here. After receiving theloan we worked on a larger scale.This greenhouse was started fromscratch. Now we cultivate hothouseDutch tomatoes here. Around 4,500plants were put here with the expectationof up to 10 kg crop capacityfrom a plant in 1 year,” Mr.Zadoian said.The greenhouse provides 4–5 jobsin Arzni with average monthly salaryof 60,000 drams. The companyis planning to build more greenhousesin its 1 hectare of land andto buy more land.Due diligenceWhat kind of due diligence do thelenders perform? Mr. Muradiansaid potential borrowers apply toone of eight approved banks. Thebank considers the application andhealth centers in Yerevan. But fiveyears later, deluxe centers withlavish interiors operate at almostevery corner in the downtownarea. Despite the increased competition(or maybe because of it),Vicky’s center continues to keepfaith with her original approach.“My center has never been forthe elite, or for those who seeka brand name behind the servicethey get,” she said.Vicky said that in establishingher small business in Yerevan, shehas not encountered any unusualdifficulties. But she’s quick to mentionsome aspects of Armenia’s taxcode that hinder the expansion ofthe business.“I may see a brand in the marketwith a suspiciously low price,” shesaid. “That means the given productreached the market throughsome illegal path. This dishonestcompetition makes it difficultfor many, including me, to importnew brands for our business– simply because after paying allthe taxes, it becomes impossibleto sell it with a price even closeto the one in the market,” saysVicky.Over the past five years, Vickyhas tried to suggest a new way ofunderstanding skin care. “One ofthe main problems I encounteredin my profession after moving toYerevan was the attitude of peopletoward skin care. Unfortunately,routine care is not yet part of thelifestyle of women in Armenia. Tomake matters worse, obsolete approacheshave settled deep in themindset of people, and skin care isif it is satisfied, forwards it to thecoordinating office. If it agrees tofund the loan, it forwards the fundsto the bank, which becomes responsiblefor repayment.Then, within three months, thecoordinating office begins monitoringvisits to ensure that the loanis being used as intended. If thefunds are being misused, the officedemands repayment in full fromthe bank. It may also suspend thebank from the program.Mr. Muradian said that loansmore than 90 days overdue makeup 2.1 percent of the total.A large share of IFAD loans goto border villages, Mr. Muradiannotes. (See adjacent story byTatul Hakobyan.) In Gomk villagein the Vayots Dzor province,a loan allowed a dairy to increasecheese production. That led toloans to local farms to increasetheir milk production and improvetheir milk storage capacity,Mr. Muradian noted withpride.fA skin-care specialist takes her family and practice to YerevanVicky Odeh.often confused with facial makeup,”said Vicky.She considers it a challenge totry to changing that mindset – andwhen she succeeds, it’s the appreciationof her efforts that drivesher forward.Anyone moving their family toanother country can expect to encounterdifficulties. Before movingto Yerevan, Vicky and her familywould visit Armenia once a year;but she said that the real difficultiesbecame apparent to her onlyafter settling down.“The foremost was the integrationof the children into their newenvironment, and getting adaptedto their new world,” she said.She was philosophical about themore general challenges to adaptingto an entirely new setting, withits own existing problems. “Whenyou try to understand those problemsand their causes, it becomeseasier to overcome them,” she said.“Of course, there are several shortcomingsin our fatherland. Butwhat we can do is either patientlywait for their solution, or act tohave whatever positive impact wecan have in our country.”“If one considers the fatherlandas a possession, then it cannot beabandoned, even after seeing itsweak points.”“I think Armenia is the final homefor our family. I cannot decide formy children, but my hope is thatthey stay here. My husband and Ido whatever we can to make ourchildren inclined to establishingtheir lives in our homeland,” concludedVicky.f
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