An Azeri village in Georgia
16.10.2009 From Karajala, Arzu Geybullayeva and Onnik Krikorian
Our correspondents from Baku and Yerevan, Arzu Geybullayeva and Onnik
Krikorian, visited an ethnic Azeri village in Karajala, eastern Georgia.
A photo-reportage
A warm welcome
It was around two in the afternoon when Onnik Krikorian, a journalist
and blogger based in Yerevan, and I left our hotel and headed south from
Telavi (Georgia) to the small, nearby village of Karajala. We chose to
visit this particular village because it is one of the many villages in
Georgia populated by ethnic Azeri. And while our highest expectations
were to take a few pictures and perhaps speak with some of the local
folks, we never thought we would be so lucky as to find ourselves, just
half an hour after our arrival, in the midst of preparations for a local
wedding. Two complete strangers, we were greeted warmly and invited to
the wedding ceremony that was set to take place that evening.
Karajala
video reportage The village of Karajala is only 15 minutes from a small
city of Telavi (pop: 21,800) and is easy to get to. Its current
population is about eight to ten thousand; mostly ethnic Azerbaijanis
(though, by now, most have Georgian passports) and a few Georgian
families. By now, most of the Azeri families have been there for several
generations, but they still associate strongly with Azerbaijan, and also
with Turkey. There is also the religious factor. `We are still Muslims’,
said one of the local women we met on the street.
Traditions and language have also remained the same. `We would never let
our daughter marry a Georgian boy, or vice versa’, said another local
woman from the village, citing religion as the reason. Marriage age is
set quite early for both girls and boys – between 15 and 20 – reminding
me of other villages in Azerbaijan I have visited before. But not
everyone wants this. The brides’ younger, 15-year-old sister said she
didn’t want to get married so early. She is not the only one. Rasim, the
grandson of the village chief, currently age 16, wants to continue his
education in Tbilisi where he would like to attend medical school.
All of the villagers spoke Azerbaijani and Georgian. In fact, I had a
hard time understanding some of it in spite of the fact that I am
Azerbaijani myself. The main language spoken by Azerbaijanis in Karajala
is a local dialect influenced by Georgian, but it was still easy to
communicate most of the time. The younger generation of villagers used
the Azerbaijani and Georgian languages more interchangeably than their
elders did.
A majority of the village population earns a living through trade.
According to the Ilyas, the ex-principal of the local school, `Karajala
is the village with the highest tax payments because people do trade
here and we have a higher income than the other 24 villages in Telavi.’
His only complaint concerned the roads. Indeed, while driving to the
village, we saw roads in poor condition. Roads inside the village were
also in poor condition. And water, too, seemed to present another
infrastructural problem. There is no constant, running water source
apart from open water spigots on the main streets.
We also witnessed residents whose living conditions weren’t good. A man
called Agali Sardarov, 69, wanted to show us his house where he lived
with his wife. The one-story house looked run-down. On the inside, Agali
showed us the uneven, holey floors that his wife had covered with
blankets. The place was damp and, inside, one felt weighted down. `Two
months ago, a young woman came to my house, looked around, took some
notes, and after that, the little assistance of 54 Lari [about 20 Euro]
that I had been receiving stopped coming in’ said Agali, with tears in
his eyes. We left his house with mixed emotions of despair, sadness and
uneasiness. However, the words of comfort we received from the ex-
school principal gave us hope: `we are united and help each other no
matter what happens’.
Back to preparations
According to Azerbaijani traditions, weddings consist of two ceremonies:
first, the `girl’s wedding’ and then, the `boy’s wedding’. The girl’s
wedding is usually much smaller with fewer guests, mostly close friends
and family. The boy’s wedding comes second and, traditionally, has been
the occasion when the bride dons a white dress and a much larger group
of guests arrives. Nowadays, the two sides prefer to have just one
wedding and rarely hold two different weddings.
But that didn’t seem to be the case in Karajala. The wedding we were
invited to was the girl’s wedding. By the time we got back to the
village for the boy’s wedding, there were already around three hundred
guests there. We were greeted with much warmth and were immediately
invited to sit at a table and enjoy the feast. Even though it rained all
day that day and there were big puddles in the yard, people were dancing
and enjoying the occasion. `It’s too bad it rained, otherwise it would
have been totally different’ said one of the bride’s relatives.
Impressions
Returning to the hotel from the village, I felt exhilarated. Not only
did the visit exceed my expectations, but I also came back with many
stories to tell. After all, it is not everyday that you get to
experience something so colorful and become, if only temporarily, a part
of an ethnic community.
—
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
