Residents of Kotayk's Nournous village point to the private house being built by Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan as a "must see" local attraction.

This fact was noted to us by a villager who lives opposite the sprawling house as we passed by.

The man said that no one in the village has seen PM Sargsyan visit the site and that the construction is being supervised by an in-law.

On the day we arrived, Nournous residents were going to the polls to elect their community leader even though they were convinced that any solution to the village's problems would have to come from higher up.

The village lacks a municipal office. The mayor and staff work out of a cultural center built in the 1950s.

Deputy Mayor Hrant Martirosyan told us that the Hayastan All Armenian Fund had promised to sponsor the construction of a municipal office. If the financing comes through, Martirosyan was hopeful that they could also build a kindergarten.

He said that only 10% of the arable land is being cultivated because there is a lack of farm equipment.

"We have only one tractor built in 1960. It can hardly move, let alone plough the fields," Martirosyan joked.

Listing the difficulties faced by local farmers, he said that it cost 110,000 AMD to irrigate one hectare of land per year. The average revenue that one hectare yields is less that the water bill, claims Martirosyan.

The official says that some 30-40 residents, mostly young people, leave the village every year. Currently, Nournous has a population of 640.

Martirosyan describes the village as "growing old" and we witnessed this for ourselves as we milled about one of the polling stations. Most of the voters were elderly residents.

In the May 5 election, Mnatsakan Gevorgyan beat Vanichka Voskanyan, his only rival, by a whopping 253 to 10 votes.

Only slightly more than half of the village's 438 eligible voters went to the polls to elect Gevorgyan, who formerly held the post.

Many of the village's senior residents have been forced to take out bank loans to keep their heads above water.

Even Deputy Mayor Martirosyan has taken out a loan. He bought bees with the money and now sells honey to sustain his family.

Martirosyan grows rye and barley on his three hectares but says that farming is no longer profitable.

"After paying for water, fertilizer and equipment, there's nothing left," he complains.

His fruit trees were severely damaged in the recent spate of hailstorms that struck the region.

After constantly complaining throughout our conversation, Martirosyan struck a lighter tone and joked, "I'll soon have honey to sell. Hopefully the bees will give me a decent yield in order to pay off the loan."

Photos by Eric Grigorian