Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR)
July 14 2005
SPECIAL REPORT: ARMENIAN-AZERI TRADE SURVIVES
Wholesale market in Georgia provides an outlet for commerce between
divided Armenians and Azerbaijanis.
By Farman Nabiev and Gegham Vardanian in Bagratshen, the Red Bridge
and Sadakhlo
At eight in the morning, the border guards open the gates and a crowd
of over 1,000 people, some bent over under the weight of heavy sacks,
surge across the frontier between the Armenian village of Bagratshen
and the Georgian village of Sadakhlo. Some try to push their way
through, but Georgian border guards force them back. “You’re behaving
like sheep, wait a little and everyone will get through,” one shouts.
Once through the gates, the traders find themselves at the immense
international market in Sadakhlo, which is otherwise a typical
village, tucked into the wedge of territory where Georgia, Azerbaijan
and Armenia meet.
Despite all the major events that have shaken the South Caucasus over
the last decade – continuing hostility between Armenia and Azerbaijan
over the disputed territory of Nagorny Karabakh that has shut down
all official contact between the two countries, the Rose Revolution
in Georgia and the anti-smuggling crackdown that followed it – the
Sadakhlo market continues to function as a trading entrepot for
Azerbaijanis and Armenians.
Persistent predictions that the market would close have never been
borne out.
According to the Armenian State Customs Committee, 5,500 people visit
Sadakhlo market every week. The official data suggest that the market
was the source of 1.8 million US dollars’ worth of goods imported to
Armenia last year, but the real figure is thought to be much higher.
The market is run by Georgians run the market, while 95 per cent of
the buyers are Armenians. The sellers, by contrast, are Azerbaijanis.
Many are locals, part of an ethnic Azerbaijani community that forms
the majority in this part of southern Georgia.
Others are traders from Azerbaijan itself, like 38-year old Veli, a
refugee from Azerbaijan’s Kelbajar district, which has been occupied
by Armenian forces since 1993.
Veli and his fellow traders travel eight to ten hours every week from
the town of Mingachevir in central Azerbaijan, bringing jackets which
they have bought on credit.
“Previously, I used to bring cotton fabric and it sold well too. Now
I’m transporting leather jackets,’ said Veli. `I buy them in
Mingachevir at 38 dollars a time, and sell them at 43 dollars here.
That earns me barely 120-130 dollars per month. Of course, if there
were work at home, I wouldn’t travel to Sadakhlo every week.”
All business at Sadakhlo is done in one swift weekly session,
beginning after sunset on Mondays, so that by noon on Tuesdays,
everyone has left.
Lilia, who runs a small shop in the Armenian capital Yerevan, has
come here every Tuesday for the last two years to buy children’s,
men’s, and women’s clothes and underwear.
“I buy things very quickly, as I know who’s selling what goods,” said
Lilia, 43. `The Azerbaijani sellers know me too. They immediately
offer me everything that is new. In addition, we agree on prices
quite quickly too.’
Like Lilia, most of the Armenians come to the Sadakhlo market without
any goods to sell. The exception at this time of year is apricots,
which you can buy in Yerevan at 20-25 cents per kilo – and then
resell in Sadakhlo at 50-60 cents.
Sadakhlo market is vast and untidy. Goods are heaped on broken
counters. The air is full of dust as there is no asphalt, and when it
rains, the streets turn to mud. The stalls are jammed together,
barely allowing space for one person to squeeze through.
The people of Sadakhlo live largely off business generated by the
market. Traders are packed like sardines into tiny rooms rented out
by locals, with hardly enough room for two beds and a bedside table.
The traders rent the rooms for between 30 and 50 dollars a week, a
sizeable sum since they only stay there for one or two days.
Locals in Sadakhlo say trade has fallen recently, partly because of
Georgia’s crackdown on crooked customs officials, and also because
the Azerbaijani authorities are doing all they can to stop goods
being exported to Armenia via Georgia.
Bairam, a 45-year-old resident of Sadakhlo, says turnover at the
market has dropped drastically and prices have risen. “However,
purchasing capacity has not declined at all. The Armenians feel a
great need for food and clothes,” he said.
Varuzh lives in the Armenian town of Alaverdi, and has been driving
buyers to the border for ten years. He too notes a slump, “trading
was busier before, and there were more people. You’d have found it
difficult to move around the market. The number of our passengers has
fallen, too.’
Veli, the Azerbaijani jacket merchant, says that business is still
good, but that it’s been more of a challenge since Georgia’s change
of regime in 2003, because the government now enforces the customs
laws.
He says that before the Rose Revolution you could smuggle as many
goods as you wanted into Georgia, “We just paid a small bribe on the
border without even filling in a declaration.” Nowadays, in order to
get five or six jackets across the border checkpoint between
Azerbaijan and Georgia, Veli hands them out to passengers in the bus,
asking them to put them on even if the weather is hot.
The once-shabby border checkpoint at the Red Bridge now looks quite
presentable and is kitted out with modern equipment. There are even
enough refrigerators to hold several thousand tons of food, fruits,
vegetables, and other perishable goods.
But most of the traders are unhappy with the heavy customs tariffs.
“I don’t earn enough to pay 34 per cent customs duty,” complained
Veli.
Despite the Georgian government’s efforts, smuggling continues here.
Near the Red Bridge, IWPR contributors watched as a border guard and
women dragged canisters of diesel fuel across the border. A local
Georgian explained that 20 litres of diesel costs three times as much
on this side of the border as on the Azerbaijani side.
If customs is increasingly an issue, language is not. Zhanna, an
Armenian refugee from Azerbaijan’s Shaumian district who now lives in
Armenia, comes here every week. She can speak Azerbaijani, while
Armenian and Russian are also heard at the market.
Almost every time she comes here, Zhanna buys the popular AzerCay tea
produced in Azerbaijan and much in demand in Yerevan. “When you buy
things, you don’t even think about who’s selling you shirts,
underwear or tea. It is not so important whether they are made in
Azerbaijan or Turkey. The main thing is to buy things quickly and at
good prices,” she told IWPR.
Buying goods in Sadakhlo and reselling them back in Armenia earns
Zhanna no more than 200 dollars per month, despite the eight-hour
trips from Yerevan to the border and back and the sleepless nights.
It seems the market will continue working as long as people can earn
an income from it. By 1130 am on Tuesday, Zhanna has bought all the
goods she wants and plans to sleep on the bus on her way back home.
“We’ll be in Yerevan before 1630,’ she said. `I’ll even have some
time to go to the bazaar and trade for a couple of hours.’
Farman Nabiev is editor of the Mingachevir Ishiglari newspaper in
Azerbaijan. Gegham Vardanian is a journalist with Internews in
Yerevan, Armenia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress