Khndzoresk, a village just outside Goris in Syunik, is unique in the region. Over the past few years, the community has experienced a growth in population of some 300. Community Mayor Seryozha Hayrapetyan stated that practically no one has left the village during the ten years he’s been in office. He added that many who had left have now returned to Khndzoresk.

Mayor Hayrapetyan argued that even more would return if the community had the resources to allocate plots of land to them. “At one time, Khndzoresk owned the most land of any community in the republic. To utilize the arable land more efficiently, they even established a new village – Lower Khndzoresk. However, years after privatization, the community can’t meet the demand for land.

“More people would return if we had land to allocate” 

“Young families just starting out and people from other communities go to the municipality with their requests for a piece of land. But we can’t meet their requests. The main reason is that most of the 900 hectares of communal land held in reserve is sold off by auction. What’s not taken into account is who needs the land more. Those who can pay a higher price are the ones who wind up as landowners. This is what the law stipulates, but it’s not always justified,” says Mayor Hayrapetyan. Local budgetary revenues, particularly land taxes, have been fully collected in Khndzoresk this year and it just goes to prove that they now the true price of land in the village and are able to parlay this into maximum returns. Credit debts will also be collected by year’s end. Speaking about the collection of land taxes, Mayor Hayrapetyan noted that the tax regulations change yearly but that the amount of tax remains the same. “Our land tax calculations are essentially formulated on the basis that taxpayers have to pay the same tax amounts even though the revenues they derive from the land have dropped from prior years.” The mayor claimed that residents of Khndzoresk are a responsible lot and that local officials have been successful in organizing the collection of taxes on an equitable basis.

Mayor boasts, “People pay taxes on time”

“People round here don’t like stuffing their pillows with money, walking around with patched-up clothes or evading taxes,” Mayor Hayrapetyan joked. If taxes are collected on time, the community wouldn’t be able to allocate 10 million AMD yearly for the village kindergarten, attended by 60-70 children. The village has been able to tackle the other issues it faces with investment coming from international agencies. Village roads have been paved with assistance from IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development). Next year, with monies from the Asian Development Bank, the trunk road linking Khndzoresk to the Artsakh highway is scheduled to be repaired as well. The internal water distribution system in the village is also high on the list of priorities to be addressed. Once repaired, Khndzoresk will have water round the clock. With resources from Armenia’s Social Investment Fund, there are plans to repair the village cultural center. During the Artsakh War it was temporarily used to house Russian troops and refugees fleeing Azerbaijan.

Needs of Artsakh War vets being overlooked

In Khndzoresk, they don’t speak about the war in the past tense. To commemorate the twenty Khndzoresk residents who gave their lives defending the country, a monument is being erected in the village center. Community officials pay great attention to the needs of the families of fallen war vets, as well assisting those disabled in the war. However, these same officials say that the federal government neglects the plight of those who fought in the trenches, defending the borders of Armenia, and came out unscathed. Officials argue that many have medical issues that need to be addressed as well. “After the Great Patriotic War, the notion of ‘war participant’ entered common parlance. The Soviet Union granted these people certain allowances and cash awards. In this respect, nobody remembers those who volunteered in the Artsakh War,” stated Mayor Hayrapetyan, who also participated in the war and was injured. The mayor argued that “Local Self-Governance” laws limited the powers of the community executive in a certain sense, especially when it came to allocating social insurance payments. “There are people whose privatized lands are third or fourth grade quality. They don’t cultivate these plots and are in desperate socio-economic straits. But they aren’t given any benefits. Then there are others who are fairly well off, who receive regular assistance from relatives aboard, but don’t own any land. And these people get social benefits from the state. The community head is much more familiar with the situation on the ground than any outside official writing benefit checks. The community would be better served if the laws were changed to allow local mayors to assume this function,” stated Mayor Hayrapetyan.

Mayor wants more hands-on authority

On the other hand, the mayor confessed that there are times when community heads overstep their authority; for example, when issues arise between a community resident and a regional or federal agency. The most pressing of these, according to the mayor, results from villagers taking out loans and then not being able to pay back what’s owed. In the mayor’s estimation the only solution to the problem is for the credit lenders to extend the payment deadlines. But he says that creditors haven’t agreed to relax their loan payment schedules, even when urged to do so by local officials. While talking about the state of “Local Self-Governance” in Armenia, Mayor Hayrapetyan referred to the working experience he has obtained in his travels to England, America, Czech Republic, Russia and Ukraine. “What’s amazing, for example is that   for a Czech community of 100,000, the entire municipality staff is comprised of a mere fifteen people. The reason is that all the agencies in the municipality perform their jobs effectively and that municipal employees are educated and responsible. Government runs smoothly. What really threw me for a loop was the fact that deer were roaming freely through the street in total safety. I’m sure that nobody ever thought of poaching them.” According to the mayor, the community has reached out to tap the resources of former Khndzoresk residents now living overseas in an attempt to tackle some of the social issues facing the village. “Naturally, almost every community has its share of benefactors that have since moved away. But allow me to state with a fair degree of pride that many of the problems once facing Khndzoresk have been addressed with the generous assistance of those village sons now living elsewhere,” beams Mayor Hayrapetyan. He has trouble remembering all their names but particularly notes the names of benefactors Razmik Ghaldountsi and Senik Tchoulhakyan. “We have no other options today but to pool all our resources and tap into every potential assistance source to be able to fulfill our campaign pledges at the minimum level. So that we can hold our heads high as we walk through the village. So that each resident can believe that local officials are actually looking out for their best interests,” concluded the Mayor of Khndzoresk.