MP Tigran Torosyan: “People must understand officials are not here to hand out favors”

Trying to reach the village of Vardenis, Aragatzotn Marz, especially during the winter, is an arduous and nearly impossible journey. Roads leading to the village, located just five kilometers from the town of Abaran, are covered with slick ice from the hardened snows.

When the snowfalls are light, the roads are usually cleared pretty quickly, but the snow is swept along the roadsides, making turning impossible on the two-lane road. One of the drivers must park the car along the snow covered roadside and then, with some elbow grease from the passengers, push the car back in the other direction. This is what happened to us when we allowed a passing car to overtake us. A group of men from Vardenis had gathered next to a non-descript one story building they call the cultural center. When we entered the smoke filled room, there were about fifty men inside playing backgammon and cards. There were two former village mayors in the crowd.

Former Vardenis mayors now unemployed

Djivan Sargsyan was mayor of Vardenis from 1996-2002. He’s now unemployed and passes the time of day playing backgammon with other men from the village. During our conversation, he had only praise for current Mayor Kamo Petrosyan, saying that the new man has already done more than he ever did. “Today, it’s become the accepted norm that all taxes in the village are collected. Back in my day, we just couldn’t do that,” said Mr. Sargsyan The former village mayor points to government subsidies for the tax collection success story, arguing that without government assistance no community leader could ever manage to collect taxes. Another Djivan, this time Asatryan, served as Vardenis mayor from 2002-2008. He said that he pulled out of the local race two years ago because it was becoming next to impossible to manage a community with such few resources. “I you go pay a visit to someone’s home the first thing you pay attention to is the how clean the place is and the woman who runs the household. This here is like our living room because everyone from the village meets here. Take a look around and you’ll get a good idea of what shape the village is in,” Mr. Asatryan said, pointing towards the cultural center. He said that the list of problems facing Vardenis is a long one Land aplenty but farming just not profitable Vardenis has about 650 hectares of tillable land, 100 hectares of natural meadow and 500 hectares of pasture. “The village has a good amount of land, but residents just don’t have the means to buy seed and fertilizer to work the land and make a profit. We sow our local seed and pray for rain. There’s practically no irrigation water to speak of. We even use drinking water to irrigate the gardens by our homes,” Mr. Asatryan said. He told the story of how the entire village flew in a panic the day the meadow grasses were being mowed for harvesting. The combine, made in 1985, conked out after just one hectare and remained out of order for days. We asked Mr. Asatryan if the village couldn’t get the needed equipment on credit. He answered that there wasn’t one person in Vardenis able to make such a purchase. We also asked if he had followed up on a list of issues that his predecessor had presented to Lyova Khachatryan, the local Member of Parliament. “What do you expect us to demand of him; he’s just one individual. You’re correct he should raise these issues in parliament. This is his second term in office. But he says nothing about the problems here. The only development was the 1.5 kilometer gas pipe they installed back in 20007. Lyova Khachatryan had something to do with that small event,” he said.

Village remains without gas

Gas for heating and cooking has been the main problem in the village and remains so today. Residents burn dried dung for their winter heating needs. Those better off can afford to buy wood.

Valery Safaryan, one of the unemployed men, who had gone to the cultural center to shoot the breeze, told us that the village had loads of uncultivated land. “Even the young people have nothing to do and drift around aimlessly. Those who can, leave the village. All of us would leave if he had the chance,” he said.

“No government official has ever visited the village to ask how we are coping. The only time we see a politician is before an election to ask for our votes. You don’t see these guys for the next four years,” said Hendo, a village resident.

Residents claim MP Khachatryan practices “favoritism with funds”

I asked if they ever got in touch with their representatives. “Geez, give me a break. The minute we turn our backs they tear up the petition we just handed over. Nothing gets done. Why should they even read the damn thing? They come and hand out money at election time and figure they’ve solved the problem,” answered Hendo. When we asked how much the politicians hand out Hendo replied, “5,000 AMD, the same amount they gave you.” Vardges Manoukyan, another resident, said that they have petition MP Lyova Khachatryan several times but that nothing has yet to be done. Mr. Manoukyan was worried about the village school. The building is structurally unsafe. He confessed that it’s with some trepidation that he sends his grandchild to first grade since the building could collapse at the slightest tremor. “Every official invests in their home town. It’s the same with Lyova Khachatryan. He takes care of Yerndjatap. He’s built a fabulous cultural center in the village and the gas flows freely. No one cares about us,” Mr. Manoukyan said. He wasn’t the only one critical of the discriminatory largesse handed out by the local MP. “Our regional governor is from the Talin region. They all direct the bulk of state funding to their districts. It’s the same with the regional governor. Perhaps, if our esteemed president would just send a fact-finding team around to the villages, it’s just possible that they’d have a change of heart, a feeling of remorse, and make changes to actually help rural folk,” said resident Artur Grigoryan.

Former NA Speaker Torosyan – Villagers should pester their elected representatives

He noted that while MP Tigran Torosyan, the former parliament speaker, traces his roots to Vardenis, he’s never publicly acknowledged the fact and has done nothing for the village. When asked, MP Torosyan didn’t deny the connection to Vardenis but added that it was his ancestors that lived there ninety years ago and that today, he has no dealings with the village. “Officials aren’t there to do favors for anyone. They have their elected MP, village mayor and regional governor. These are the officials they should be contacting regarding the problems they face,” MP Torosyan told Hetq. MP Torosyan said that one of the unfortunate aspects of the country is that members of parliament usually funnel government money and projects to their home towns. Other districts go without as a result. We asked MP Torosyan why he hadn’t channeled any government projects to Vardenis, given that he is the only official to ‘hail’ from the village. “Since the good people of Vardenis have yet to understand that it’s their local mayor who must seek solutions for local problems, they’ll always wind in the same predicament,” he answered. We didn’t get to see the mayor of Vardenis. He was in Ashtarak on business. We did get to speak with Parandzem Gevorgyan, the municipality’s staff secretary. She basically repeated what we had heard from local residents. Mrs. Gevorgyan pointed out that farming was no longer cost-effective since the government had halted subsidies for fertilizer. The cost, at 7,500 AMD a sack, is prohibitive for most “Forget about the fact that we have no seed to plant.  Our MP knows what’s going on in this village. We’ve petitioned him on many occasions but what can he do?” Mrs. Gevorgyan answered in despair.