DESTROY…DESTROY…UNTIL THE END!
Larisa Paremuzyan

201 0/03/29 | 16:02

Feature Stories marzes

This is the story of yet another private enterprise, a holdover from
the Soviet era of manufacturing, which has met its demise. Its owner,
Hovik Galinyan, is taking it apart, piece by piece, and selling the
parts as construction material.

The factory, located in the town of Akhtala, Lori Marz, used to
employ 500 people. Built in the waning years of the Soviet Union,
it would buy, reprocess and bottle the fruit and vegetables grown
by the villagers of Shnogh, Metz Ayrum, Tchotchkan and neighboring
rural settlements.

In 1996, the plant was privatized and bought by Hovik Galinyan.

The dismantling of the plant is a source of consternation among
the local populace. They had always held out hope, however faint,
that times would eventually change for the better and that the plant
would once again start up reprocessing the agricultural produce of
the region and offer people much needed jobs.

Clinging to this vision of a brighter future, the villagers of these
communities set about restoring the peach and other fruit orchards
that had gone uncultivated for many years.

When he asked plant owner Hovik Galinyan why he was dismantling an
otherwise technically sound structure, he answered that while he had
done all he could to restart operations at the plant, his efforts
had come to naught.

"All my efforts during the past few years to operate the plant with
loans and such, have failed. Moreover, much of the valuable equipment
has been looted. All that remains are the walls. But they even started
to rip them apart and carry them off. Thus, I am now forced to do the
same and sell what remains as construction material." Mr. Galinyan
said.

The dismantling of the canning factory speaks volumes about the lack
of attention paid by the Lori Regional Administration to the economic
development of the region and making headway in creating new jobs.

What makes the situation even more absurd is the fact that every
year the Lori Regional Administration drafts economic development
programs that it presents to the state government for consideration;
proposals that talk about the need for restoring orchards and building
a reprocessing plant.

What is beyond doubt is that in the years to come, these villagers will
face similar problems selling the produce of their newly replanted
orchards as the villagers of Arevatzak, Aygehat and Karmir Aghek
now face when it comes to selling their potato crop. The Akhtala
reprocessing plant, had it not been dismantled, could have been a
prime market for these goods.

In the accompanying photos, the readers will see that next to nothing
is left of the plant. It’s difficult to say if local villagers will
ever get a new plant to replace the one that is now just a memory.

What’s most sad of all is that no one at the Lori Regional Authority
or in the state government has so far understood that tearing things
down comes easy and that building is the hard part.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress