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Bareka­ma­van, a village on the border between Armenia and Azer­bai­jan, regularly comes under fire. Unfor­tu­nate­ly for Barekamavan’s besieged residents, this is not their only problem, and with people moving away, the village faces extinc­tion.

[Read in Armenian — Հոդվածը հայերեն կարդացեք]

Bareka­ma­van means ‘the village of friend­ship’ in Armenian. This is the name of a village in Tavush Province, north-eastern Armenia, which lies on the border with Azer­bai­jan. Sometimes people in Tavush call the village by its former name, Dostlu, which means friend­ship in Azer­bai­jani. But there is no longer any friend­ship between Armenians and Azer­bai­ja­nis in Bareka­ma­van, and the village itself is on the brink of dis­ap­pear­ing. The main reasons are the periodic shelling from Azer­bai­jan and a bleak economic situation.

Bareka­ma­van is pinned to the side of the mountains; on the other side, lies the Azer­bai­jani village of Kamarli. The nearest Armenian villages of Koti and Dovegh are about 10 kilo­me­tres from Bareka­ma­van. Sur­round­ed by hills and forests to the west, to the east lies a mountain dotted with landmines, military posts, and barbed wire fences. From there, the village lies directly in sight of the Azer­bai­jani soldiers.

In the centre of the village stands a brand new church, the legacy of one of Barekamavan’s residents who moved to Russia. Nearby stands a memorial to people from the village who died in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. These are the only new struc­tures in Bareka­ma­van.

In the village centre, a few dilap­i­dat­ed buildings house the village admin­is­tra­tion, post office, and school. On the sur­round­ing hills half-destroyed houses without roofs can be seen — a reminder of the 1992–1994 war. Embedded in some buildings are the traces — either complete or partial — of shells. Some are no more than gaping holes. Residents know prac­ti­cal­ly by heart which damage was caused in ‘that war’ and which in ‘this one’.

‘The moving force of the community’

According to former head of the Bareka­ma­van village council, Garik Abazyan, 393 people were reg­is­tered as living in the village as of 1 January. In reality, no more than 150 people (around 60 families) are permanent residents, mostly elderly people. Only 20 families have children of school or preschool age. Others have moved to Russia, Yerevan, or Ijevan, the admin­is­tra­tive centre of Tavush Province. Some also got to Russia sea­son­al­ly for work.

For a second year in a row the village school has taken in no new children. Only 19 children attend the school, even though there are 17 teachers and staff. Nev­er­the­less, the village admin­is­tra­tion displays a USAID poster with the rather ambiguous slogan: ‘Youth — the driving force of the community’ which in the local language could also be trans­lat­ed as ‘Youth — the moving force of the community’.

‘I myself also moved my family to Yerevan — away from the bullets. Before, when I was the head of the village council, my wife and children lived in Bareka­ma­van despite every­thing. Now the situation is different, it makes no sense to leave them here risking their lives. Just a few days ago the village was fired on again from that peak’, Garik says, pointing to the east towards an Azer­bai­jani military position.

The 35 year old is convinced that in the event of a repeat of last August’s heavy bom­bard­ments, nobody will stay in the village. Back then, the villagers rallied their faith and hope for a better future, which helped them to endure the shells falling on their roofs and the bullets whistling through the streets. Today that faith and hope have all but dis­ap­peared.

A ministerial benefactor

Faith in a better future had been placed almost exclu­sive­ly in former Defence Minister Seyran Ohanyan. Through his efforts, the ministry had taken charge of Bareka­ma­van, paying for the residents’ elec­tric­i­ty, and providing the village with two high-capacity ZIL 131 lorries, which are necessary for people living in moun­tain­ous areas like Bareka­ma­van. The Ministry even obtained a flock of 100 sheep for the villagers, to replace ones that had been taken by Azer­bai­jan.

According to many of the villagers, Ohanyan didn’t only focus on the welfare of Bareka­ma­van, but other bor­der­line villages in Tavush Province as well.

‘Of course in a country like Armenia, it was not possible for such an honest person [like Ohanyan] to hold onto his position for long. That was why he was removed from his position, and now our bene­fac­tor has gone over to the oppo­si­tion, and nobody has any use for us — espe­cial­ly the gov­ern­ment’, says Abazyan.

‘Farmlands under fire’

The villagers own 340 hectares of private land, but since 1991 not a single hectare has been cul­ti­vat­ed, because the area regularly comes under fire and parts of it are mined. The villagers can only cultivate 55 hectares of land which lies in their household plots. However, this land is not suf­fi­cient to provide them with their liveli­hoods.

The only other jobs in Bareka­ma­van are the afore­men­tioned school, with a staff of 17, the village council, with its three employees, and the post-master. Three villagers also serve on a con­trac­tu­al basis in the nearby military base.

Several of the men go to Russia for seasonal work. Others survive on state pensions or social welfare payments from the Cal­i­for­nia-based Paros social fund.

‘At least in Yerevan they are not shooting at us’

By Bareka­ma­van standards, Abazyan’s family is quite well off — his parents keep a herd of 45 cattle in the mountains. And now Garik is preparing cattle feed for the winter. However, having prepared the hay, Garik will return to Yerevan again.

When asked what he does there, the young man shrugs his shoulders, ‘what is there to hide — my parents help us out, my wife’s parents help too. That is how we live. At least in Yerevan they are not shooting at us. There at least I don’t have to fear for the lives of my family. There is some kind of future. It’s better than living here under fire…’

Garik lost his position as head of the village council after Armenia’s 328 councils were amal­ga­mat­ed into 34 ter­ri­to­r­i­al units, with eight villages in Tavush incor­po­rat­ed into one admin­is­tra­tive unit centred around the town of Noyem­beryan.

Under this programme, Bereka­ma­van no longer has a village head, only a municipal rep­re­sen­ta­tive, who occa­sion­al­ly appears on the village council. However, Garik is convinced that the programme failed in its main objective of saving money, as according to him, the three workers on the village council receive the same salary as before. Only their name and status has changed, but not the cost of main­tain­ing the insti­tu­tion.

In fact, the new system has only added to the problems of this remote bor­der­line village in the Tavush mountains. The municipal rep­re­sen­ta­tive can only issue cer­tifi­cates of residency to the villagers. For every­thing else, the people of Bareka­ma­van have to travel to the town of Noyem­beryan, 20 kilo­me­tres away. That is where they go to receive medical assis­tance. And as there is no public transport running to and from Bareka­ma­van, the villagers have to find other ways of getting there.

Irregular water and no gas

The next biggest problem after the Azer­bai­jani bullets and unem­ploy­ment, is the almost complete lack of irri­ga­tion or even drinking water. There are several springs in the vicinity of Bareka­ma­van, but water comes irreg­u­lar­ly, par­tic­u­lar­ly in years of drought. This year the villagers have been lucky — there is water in the springs, they just need to carry it to their homes in buckets and canisters.

In terms of the gas supply to the village, a wholly inter­est­ing, para­dox­i­cal situation has occurred. Under the gov­ern­ment-approved programme to bring gas supplies to Bareka­ma­van, the Inter­na­tion­al Fund for Agri­cul­tur­al Devel­op­ment spent ֏10 million ($21,000) extending a pipeline to the village from nearby Koti. However, there is no money for gas meters or pipes to bring the gas from the mains in Bareka­ma­van into people’s homes, and Gazprom-Armenia, which has a monopoly, will not install them at their own expense.

As a result, there is gas in Barekamevan, but none of the villagers can access it in their homes. And this despite the state programme for supplying the bor­der­line villages of Voskepar, Baganis, Voskevan, Koti, and Barekamevan with gas saying that the state itself should be paying for residents’ gas.

Some residents of Bareka­ma­van have begun dis­man­tling their homes with a view to selling the parts as building materials. To find a buyer for a home in a bor­der­line village under fire is impos­si­ble. But according to the villagers, you can fetch as much as $1,000 for the materials from a dis­man­tled home…

[Read OC Media’s report from Azer­bai­jan: Living on the the Armenian–Azerbaijani border: alone and under fire]

[Read OC Media’s report from Nagorno-Karabakh: A year after the war in Nagorno-Karabakh’s frontline village of Talish]

[See Saferworld’s photo report from Azer­bai­jan: A snapshot of life along the Azerbaijan–Armenia border]