Arkady Narinyan's family was deported from Baku in 1989 and settled in the village of Pambak in the provincial region of Gegharkunik. Arkady teaches Military Science in a school, earning 70,000 drams a month. The family owns 1000 square meters of land in the form of a vegetable garden near his house. The household consists of seven members - Arkady, his parents, wife and three children. Arkady's family had a very difficult time adjusting to life in the village, but managed to settle down in the end. "We grow potatoes, beans, cabbage and tomatoes in our vegetable garden and barely manage to make ends meet. We also have a field which we sowed this year, but I regret doing that now, because there's been a drought - there was absolutely no rain - and we won't harvest anything," said Arkady.

There is not enough irrigation water all the fields; the water main is old and in need of repair and most of the pipes have been stolen. The others have also sown like Arkady and remained empty-handed, because there was no way to irrigate the fields. There should be a "water program", Arkady says; the development of this village depends on it. Otherwise, the villagers spend money to sow their fields, but receive nothing in return. "There are people who have sown four or five hectares; some have even sown 10 hectares of land. But it's all dried up. It was better last year, even though there was a hailstorm which damaged the crops. At least there was rain, and there was some harvest. The drought this year was horrible. The land had not been cultivated for six or seven years. Some fifteen or twenty people leased land this year to grow some crops, but to no avail. Most of the people laid their hopes on their orchards, but the situation there this year is not very good, either. They were damaged by hail - there are no walnuts and the apricots were completely ruined by the cold spell in early May. Many people have given up hope for this year and are desperately hoping for good weather next year," said Arkady Narinyan.

Arkady says the village contains more poor people than middle-class citizens. Around twenty families consist of solely of old people who have no livestock. Even some of the younger people cannot afford to keep enough livestock to feed the family - fodder is not easy to find. Around fifteen families have haymaking facilities. But these are located some fifteen kilometers from the village, in the mountains. They climb the mountains on foot and harvest the hay with great difficulty. Transporting the hay any other way would be too expensive.

"If there were milk and fruit processing companies established here, there would be jobs," said Arkady. He took a loan this year from ACBA Bank to buy fodder for his animals. "29 per cent is a very high interest rate, but there was nothing else I could do," he said.

Sargis Gyulumyan, a father of seven, worked at Armentel's Vardenis station and serviced telephones in Pambak and Tsapatagh. He lost his job several weeks ago. The 41-year old man lives in a dilapidated house in urgent need of repair; his only source of income is a very small orchard and a state allowance for his children. They receive 50,000 drams in allowance, but leave two months' worth to the social workers every year. Sargis does not know what to do, because it is not possible to feed a family of nine on this money alone.

Shusanik Baghdyan, a mother of six children aged six to fifteen, does not have a house of her own. "I'm on the street. The government says, 'Bring a document stating that you don't have a house.' When I got married in 1992, I was registered at my in-laws' address." Shushanik's family does not have a vegetable garden, or any other property other than a cow and two goats which they keep in her mother's stable. The family lives with Shushanik's brothers.

Shushanik's husband is unemployed; she has a job cleaning a school. Her salary of 24,000 drams added to the 40,000 drams from the state make up the family's income. "The Vardenis social workers demand two months' worth of the allowance - 80,000 drams - in pay every year. They threaten to have my allowance cut off I don't make this payment or give in to such demands. You only get ten months of allowance a year, and they get the rest. Our family lives on that allowance and my salary. They say that Aghvan Vardanyan is a good minister; I would like to see him and tell him about this," said Shushanik as she posed for a picture with Elmira Naghdalyan, the widow of a freedom fighter.

P.S. The Armenia-Diaspora conference scheduled for the fall must set the strengthening of Armenia's villages as one of its goals. If this is not to be just another formality, with big ideas and promises on paper only, then we recommend that officials and anyone interested pick up a map of Armenia and take a look at the villages that lie between Lake Sevan and the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, in Gegharkunik. Tour through the villages on that map and talk to the people there. After that, you'll know what needs to be done.