On April 14, a huge sink hole closed a stretch of the Yerevan-Ijevan highway near the village of Hovk, just north of Dilijan. It came as no surprise that the road gave way. I had written about the impending threat six months ago in several Armenian papers. »»»»»

“Whenever they shoot towards the fields, I put on some music and turn it up real loud; so they don’t hear the shots,”says Parandzem Aghasyan, Principal of the nursery in the village of Chinari.

The village of Chinari is the furthest settlement in the district of Berd, located in the eastern most part of Tavush Marz straddling the border with Azerbaijan. »»»»»

There are 400 households in the village of Gosh in Armenia’s northeastern Tavush province; 1,200 residents in all. Housing appears to be a pressing problem facing the village, but the extent of the problem differs, according to whom you speak to.

There’s a neighborhood in the village that residents call “Verin Tagh”. It lies in a sinkhole zone. »»»»»

An official from the Berd district, who wished to remain anonymous, argued that if water pipes aren’t built in the next 15 years for gravity-fed irrigation water, emigration numbers will rise substantially. Presently, not only is there no construction of irrigation pipes, but the pipes operating in the Soviet-era which now lay idle, are being pilfered. »»»»»

Of the four districts in Tavush Marz, Berd is the most remote. One could say the district is cut off; a no man’s land. Local villagers have a hard time selling their crops and dairy products in the large markets. It’s 62 kilometers from the town of Berd, the former administrative district center, to the present regional center of Ijevan, and 199 kilometers to Yerevan.

The highway linking Yerevan with Berd is in pretty decent shape except for the pot-holed stretch through the village of Vazashen. Once you leave Berd, however, the 20-25 kilometer stretch of road linking outlying villages to the former district center is almost impassable. »»»»»

The football field in the town of Noyemberyan reminds one of an unmowed, overgrown field more than anything else. The rusty gate encircling the field is passable to animals and humans alike. I make my way forward along a narrow path through the tall grass and briar patches. There’s a huge mound of dirt by one of the goalposts; the remnants of construction work done a few years back. Garbage is strewn along one of the sidelines, tossed there by the town’s commercial stores. Most of it is burned there on the spot. This football field, located in one of the town’s most visible sites, is indeed an eyesore. »»»»»

There are two roads leading to Sevqar. I am taking the one from Sarigyugh that takes you down into the village. Cows had taken over the village’s only football pitch and were contently grazing on the field’s overgrown grass. They would soon break out of their defensive positions and cross the mid-field line. Village Mayor Vladimir Margaryan said that there’s no coach to teach the kids how to play the number one sport in the world. »»»»»

On March 12, 2008, at around 2:00pm, 53 year-old Henrik Abovyan was shot in the left shoulder by Azeri fire along the border in the village of Koti. Mr. Abovyan, a resident of the village of Berdavan in the Noyemberyan district drives a tractor. When I visited him in hospital, Henrik told me that military officials had instructed him remove irrigation pipes along the border’s danger zone. Two hours after being shot he was taken to the Noyemberyan hospital for medical treatment. »»»»»

There is no public bus service from the town of Noyemberyan to the hamlet of Debedavan. You can pay 350 drams, around one dollar, for a bus that will take you from Bagratashen and drop you off some five kilometers from Debedavan. You’ll have to chose how to traverse the rest; either by foot or taxi. To meet the villagers of Debedavan you’ll have to go to the community’s only drinking water fountain outside the municipal office, where residents line up from early morning on to fill up their buckets. »»»»»