“They talk of normalizing relations with Turkey but haven’t even solved the water problem here” The dome and cross atop the Saint Gregory the Enlightener Church in the village of Haykadzor have been damaged by gunfire. The credit for this act of “bravery” belongs to a Turkish brigand who didn’t like the way the cross shone under the moonlight. The shots rang out from a distance not more than 200 meters from where the border lies. This all took place back in the 1990’s; right after independence. In popular parlance they were the “topsy-turvy” years. Turkey had already managed to close its border with Armenia. The Turkish brigand also probably thought that he would show the world how mighty his country was by letting off a few rounds in the direction of the Armenian church. Saint Gregory the Enlightener, built during 980-985, is the only holy site in the border village of Haykadzor. In fact, it doesn’t lie in the village itself but on the other side of the barbed wire petition; in no man’s land. Pilgrims and the village faithful visit the church only on the main feast days, and that’s after obtaining the permission of the Shirak Primate and the Gyumri border patrol officials. The Armenian-Turkish border is only 60 meters away. Out of the 140 families that once lived here, only 77 now remain due to a number of problems that were never taken care of in this border village. Only 69 children attend the local school. Zorik Sargsyan will probably move his family out of the village in two years. “We’ve heard that the school will be cut to eight grades. What can I do? They talk about normalizing relations with Turkey but for years on end they haven’t been able to do anything about supplying the village with water so that people aren’t forced to leave.” Ishkhan Sargsyan, Zorik’s father, who traces his lineage to Moush, isn’t against normalizing relations with Turkey but states that the Genocide and Karabakh must be of primary importance. “You know, young woman, that Georgia isn’t such a big deal that we should place all our hopes there. We need more at one decent neighbor,” concludes Grandpa Ishkhan. We are the ones protecting your precious border The young and middle aged folk in Haykadzor appeared pretty vocal in their opposition to the normalization process and didn’t see anything good coming out of the opening of the border. 35 year-old Vrezh Abrahamyan was quite concerned that the village would become a ghost town. “The problems here in the village are so many that we aren’t concerned if the border opens or what the Turks have written on the opposite mountain or whether I should hate them or love them. My village is slowly losing its people and there will be no one left in a few years. What freekin border are you talking about? We are the ones protecting your precious border. Maybe they want to open the border so that we will leave and have the Turks move in. Is that what they want?” The young mayor of Haykadzor, Roudik Gevorgyan, said that he has warned the government that village residents would move out if the drinking water problem wasn’t fixed. “I have been living in this village for 30 years and I can tell you straight-up that a border without people cannot be defended, even though the border patrol office is close-by. Many in the patrol are from this village anyway. We have a few groups that patrol the village at night. In these parts, you sleep with one eye open. But our government can’t find the resources to help us solve the water and transportation problems we face here.” Every day, some 20-30 people make the round trip to Gyumri on the one bus that services the four area villages. They cannot take advantage of the train, the cheapest form of transportation. The minibus ticket to Gyumri costs 400 AMD while it only costs 170 by train. “We want to build a railway platform so that the train can also stop near the village. I am ready to invest 1.2 million AMD to build a small enclosed platform so that people don’t disembark right onto the tracks. All it takes from the government is to map out the best site and for the railway to give its permission, which it has been holding up for the past 15 years. And I’m not the only village mayor that’s been pursuing the matter.” The government has allocated the Haykadzor Municipality the sum of 5 million AMD to begin drilling operation for water.  According to preliminary cost estimates, such a project calls for 19 million. “I have placed a bid to start work but no company will agree to complete the project for a mere 5 million. And the worst thing of all is that in a few years the village will be empty all due to a few million AMD. No wonder that local residents, living in such conditions, aren’t all that worked up about the border opening.” The Turks will sweet-talk our women into leaving In Haykadzor, they picture the situation after the border is opened to be the same as that in Akhourik, a village further north along the border. That’s to say, there will be a crossing point and a customs house. Hovhannes Smbatyan, for one, believes such an outcome will be a good thing. “I believe that if the border opens and people can come and go, it will be good for us. Various items will become cheaper and people her can finally start to live a better life. Otherwise, we have to go all the way to Poti and get fleeced by the Georgians.” Sasha Yeghoyan has another concern on his mind. “In the long-run, does it pay for the hungry folk around her to make friends with the Turks? They have a flattering tongue and one day, sure ‘nuf, they’ll be sweet-talking our women and girls to go with them to Kars and Istanbul for a better life,” says Grandpa Sasha, “Our side is weak when it comes to upholding morality. Even now, there are those who leave and I’m afraid that their numbers will increase later on. No, I do not agree that the border should be opened. If it must then there should be restrictions placed on the Turks.” Seven years ago there was talk in the air of turning the village of Haykadzor into a tourist hub and a number of projects were on the drawing board. Local residents remember that the Knights of Vartan, a fraternal organization in the U.S., was keen on the idea. 120 new homes and a hotel were to have been built so that tourists coming here to gawk over fragmentary traces of western Armenian culture would have a place to spend the night. Sadly, this grandiose scheme, just like many smaller and more necessary ones, has remained on paper.