AGARAK SITUATED ON THE ARAX BANK
Arm/arm
3 Dec 04
Construction of Gas Pipeline Promises Temporal Jobs to Meghri
Residents
Meghri region’s residents are obviously encouraged by the construction
of Iran -Armenia gas pipeline that officially began on November
30. The pipeline will reach Qajaran from Agarak. The construction of
the pipeline stretching 42 kms will last 2 years. New job positions
will be created for Meghri residents, although temporal.
Armen Sargsian, mayor of Agarak, said that Meghri region has never
been provided with gas before and the population used liquid
gas. “First of all we are interested in the construction of the
pipeline. Besides the fact that Armenia will have an alternative gas
pipe line, in 2-3 years Agarak residents will have natural gas at
their homes,” he said.
Agarak is the farthest settlement from the capital. It is far from it
for over 400 km. Opposite Agarak are the Arax River and the Iranian
highlands. The first wooden cottage was built on the left bank of the
Arax in spring of 1949. That was the beginning of the town’s
construction. Agarak would nothave been built if there were no
molybdenum and cupper mines in the surrounding territory of the city.
“About 1000 people are working at Agarak’s cupper and molybdenum
plant. In fact, the town was founded on the basis of the plant. The
residents of the city came from all the regions of Armenia. In
general, if we compare the social conditions in Agarak with those in
Meghri or other towns of Armenia, the conditions in Agarak are much
better. Only the plant gives about 60-70 million AMD of salaries to
the citizens per a month. A part of the residents work at the customs’
office or other service spheres,” Mayor Sargsian says.
Zarmandukht with her family is engaged in hotel business. This family
has made their house a hotel. “We always have guests, they are mainly
lorry drivers. Especially, there are many guests during the hot
summer nights when the drivers look for a shelter to hide from the hot
weather. Certainly, there are also many guests in winter when the
roads are blocked and the drivers have to pass the nights in our hotel
and set off for Yerevan in the morning”, Zarmandukht says.
To reach Yerevan from Agarak one needs almost a day. Formerly, when
there was no war, Agarak dwellers and the residents of Meghri region
used to use Nakhijevan road and the railway. Today, it’s even useless
to talk of opening the road. Even if it is opened, the trains will not
run, as the rails are stillbeing stolen and sold.
Mayor Sargsian says that then the road good from the viewpoint of its
shortness and fastness. “Yes, we still remember that good and short
road, but the Azeri don’t awoke other good memories for Agarak
dwellers,” he says. It’s worth mentioning that there were many Azeris
living in Meghri in the Soviet times. The residents of Niuward
village didn’t want to leave their homes and move to Azerbaijan even
when the Karabakh war had already began. And only in 1991, when it was
already a year that all the Azeris left Armenia, the Azeri dwellers of
Niuward moved to Azerbaijan.
The social conditions in Agarak are much better than in other remote
settlements of Armenia, but the town still has many problems to
solve. The town has problems with drinking water supply, no Armenian
TV channel or radio station is properly broadcasted in here, there is
no mobile or internet connection either.
The dwellers of the town are engaged in their everyday work and they
donâ=80=99t pay that much attention to the talks about “handing Meghri
to Azeris.” Theysay that they are firmly standing on their land and
can’t live without seeing the Arax everyday. Indeed, the nature has
created a miraculous scenery here. The Arax passes by the bottoms of
the highest mountains that resemble camels inthe dim of the morning
light.
By Tatoul Hakobian, Agarak-Yerevan