Sayat Melkonyan, a resident of Yerevan, is a specialist in ethnographic dance and song. He's worked with the “Akunk” troupe and has directed his own “Karin” and “Mush” ensembles. With his wife Karineh he also gave lessons in ethnographic dance and song. Eight years ago Sayat and his family moved to the New Shahumyan region of Gharabakh.
“I'm from Yerevan, I was born and raised there, but now I'm a Karabakhtsi,” said Ashot Simonyan from Movsesashen.
For eight years Iskhan Hovannisyan has been the village mayor of Verin Shen in the region of Nor Shahumyan. He recounts that when water was piped into the village ten years ago it was forcasted to serve the needs of eighteen families. Today, the amount of water isn't sufficient. There are certain neighborhoods that receive no water at all.
Last August Hetq investigated the situation in the Kashatagh region of Karabakh and described for its readers the criminal actions of the head of the regional administration, Hamlet Khachatryan. The actions of his administration and the policy carried out by the government of Nagorno Karabakh have led many settlers to emigrate from this region. Many of these settlers were Armenians who had been forced out of different regions of Azerbaijan.
Some dozen villagers are sitting on a log in the center of the village. Soon, the whole village has gathered around the log, which is a few meters away from a spring out of which flows a mere trickle of water.
We obtained the document pictured here in Berdzor. As you can see, this license gives Yurik Petrosyan, the director of Jupiter, Ltd. permission to dismantle the reinforced concrete structures of damaged houses in several settlements to use the material for construction work elsewhere in the region.
“They came in the middle of winter and shut off our electricity. What Turk would do that?” asked Nazo – Nazareth Liparityan – who moved to Ditsmayri from Beirut in 1999.
Tsaghkaberd, the largest village in the Kashatagh region of Nagorno Karabakh, has about 1,000 hectares of arable land. 600 hectares is allocated to the villagers for cultivation, but only few of them are able to make use of their land.
In Berdzor, the regional center of Kashatagh, life has become sort of sleepy. People have grown lazy – it can be felt even in the way they walk and talk. It is not like it used to be, that's for sure. In the villages located some tens of kilometers from Berdzor, they have given in to disappointment.
Videos
Photos
