A CRY FOR HELP FROM THE BORDER VILLAGE OF HAYKADZOR
Yeranuhi Soghoyan
20 09/10/19 | 18:04
"They talk of normalizing relations with Turkey but haven’t even
solved the water problem here"
The dome and cross atop the Saint Gregory the Enlightener Church in
the village of Haykadzor have been damaged by gunfire.
The credit for this act of "bravery" belongs to a Turkish brigand
who didn’t like the way the cross shone under the moonlight. The
shots rang out from a distance not more than 200 meters from where
the border lies. This all took place back in the 1990’s; right after
independence. In popular parlance they were the "topsy-turvy" years.
Turkey had already managed to close its border with Armenia. The
Turkish brigand also probably thought that he would show the world how
mighty his country was by letting off a few rounds in the direction
of the Armenian church.
Saint Gregory the Enlightener, built during 980-985, is the only holy
site in the border village of Haykadzor.
In fact, it doesn’t lie in the village itself but on the other side
of the barbed wire petition; in no man’s land.
Pilgrims and the village faithful visit the church only on the main
feast days, and that’s after obtaining the permission of the Shirak
Primate and the Gyumri border patrol officials.
The Armenian-Turkish border is only 60 meters away.
Out of the 140 families that once lived here, only 77 now remain due
to a number of problems that were never taken care of in this border
village. Only 69 children attend the local school. Zorik Sargsyan
will probably move his family out of the village in two years. "We’ve
heard that the school will be cut to eight grades. What can I do? They
talk about normalizing relations with Turkey but for years on end
they haven’t been able to do anything about supplying the village
with water so that people aren’t forced to leave."
Ishkhan Sargsyan, Zorik’s father, who traces his lineage to Moush,
isn’t against normalizing relations with Turkey but states that
the Genocide and Karabakh must be of primary importance. "You know,
young woman, that Georgia isn’t such a big deal that we should place
all our hopes there. We need more at one decent neighbor," concludes
Grandpa Ishkhan.
We are the ones protecting your precious border
The young and middle aged folk in Haykadzor appeared pretty vocal in
their opposition to the normalization process and didn’t see anything
good coming out of the opening of the border.
35 year-old Vrezh Abrahamyan was quite concerned that the village
would become a ghost town. "The problems here in the village are so
many that we aren’t concerned if the border opens or what the Turks
have written on the opposite mountain or whether I should hate them
or love them. My village is slowly losing its people and there will
be no one left in a few years. What freekin border are you talking
about? We are the ones protecting your precious border. Maybe they
want to open the border so that we will leave and have the Turks move
in. Is that what they want?"
The young mayor of Haykadzor, Roudik Gevorgyan, said that he has
warned the government that village residents would move out if the
drinking water problem wasn’t fixed. "I have been living in this
village for 30 years and I can tell you straight-up that a border
without people cannot be defended, even though the border patrol
office is close-by. Many in the patrol are from this village anyway.
We have a few groups that patrol the village at night. In these
parts, you sleep with one eye open. But our government can’t find the
resources to help us solve the water and transportation problems we
face here."
Every day, some 20-30 people make the round trip to Gyumri on the
one bus that services the four area villages. They cannot take
advantage of the train, the cheapest form of transportation. The
minibus ticket to Gyumri costs 400 AMD while it only costs 170 by
train. "We want to build a railway platform so that the train can
also stop near the village. I am ready to invest 1.2 million AMD to
build a small enclosed platform so that people don’t disembark right
onto the tracks. All it takes from the government is to map out the
best site and for the railway to give its permission, which it has
been holding up for the past 15 years. And I’m not the only village
mayor that’s been pursuing the matter."
The government has allocated the Haykadzor Municipality the sum of
5 million AMD to begin drilling operation for water. According to
preliminary cost estimates, such a project calls for 19 million. "I
have placed a bid to start work but no company will agree to complete
the project for a mere 5 million. And the worst thing of all is that
in a few years the village will be empty all due to a few million AMD.
No wonder that local residents, living in such conditions, aren’t
all that worked up about the border opening."
The Turks will sweet-talk our women into leaving
In Haykadzor, they picture the situation after the border is opened
to be the same as that in Akhourik, a village further north along the
border. That’s to say, there will be a crossing point and a customs
house. Hovhannes Smbatyan, for one, believes such an outcome will be
a good thing. "I believe that if the border opens and people can come
and go, it will be good for us. Various items will become cheaper
and people her can finally start to live a better life. Otherwise,
we have to go all the way to Poti and get fleeced by the Georgians."
Sasha Yeghoyan has another concern on his mind. "In the long-run, does
it pay for the hungry folk around her to make friends with the Turks?
They have a flattering tongue and one day, sure ‘nuf, they’ll
be sweet-talking our women and girls to go with them to Kars and
Istanbul for a better life," says Grandpa Sasha, "Our side is weak
when it comes to upholding morality. Even now, there are those who
leave and I’m afraid that their numbers will increase later on. No,
I do not agree that the border should be opened. If it must then
there should be restrictions placed on the Turks."
Seven years ago there was talk in the air of turning the village of
Haykadzor into a tourist hub and a number of projects were on the
drawing board. Local residents remember that the Knights of Vartan,
a fraternal organization in the U.S., was keen on the idea. 120 new
homes and a hotel were to have been built so that tourists coming
here to gawk over fragmentary traces of western Armenian culture
would have a place to spend the night. Sadly, this grandiose scheme,
just like many smaller and more necessary ones, has remained on paper.