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. That’s why the field remains uncut. He claimed that two weeks ago some unidentified guys came and dismantled the fence surrounding the pitch and carted off the square bars to fashion horseshoes. I asked him if there were many horses in the village, but got no response. Mayor Margaryan chimed in that the fence’s metal frames could also be used for window framing. All this is taking place not in some faraway village but in a community of 2,350 souls located alongside the state highway not 25 kilometers from the regional capital of Ijevan. Sevqar is the fourth largest village in the district of Ijevan. Its mayor claims that it was the largest village in the district during the 19th century but that it has experienced a mass exodus over the intervening years. Mayor Margaryan points to a large private house made of “touf” stone. All the windows are broken. “Residents of this house and three neighboring ones have left,” he says. Houses dismantled for construction material The mayor tells me that residents of a few homes on the outskirts of the village, on the Sarigyugh road, who live in Yerevan or abroad, not being able to sell their property, have dismantled their houses to sell as construction material. As a result of the exodus, a portion of the privatized fields aren’t cultivated. The Azerbaijani border lies seven kilometers from Sevqar. Of the village’s 5,400 hectares of land, 540 lie in the dangerous border zone and remain uncultivated. More than half of this land was once used to grow grapes, peaches, pomegranates, pears and apples. The village has no irrigation system so most of the land is unproductive. 16.8 million drams of this year’s village budget of 28.7 million is a state supplemental payment. Private revenues amount to 8.8 million drams but the tax collection process isn’t easy. “As of June 1, 2009, 6.5 million in taxes should have been collected but we’ve only managed to raise 2.2 million,” says Almara Aghasaryan, the municipality’s accountant who is hopeful that come the fall harvest the village will make some headway in the matter. Of the village’s 943 hectares of tillable land only 400 are presently cultivated. 70 hectares is sown with fall wheat, 35 for alfalfa and smaller crops of corn and tobacco. Since all this uncultivated land doesn’t produce any revenue stream, yearly land taxes collected miss the target by 1.5 million drams. There’s an outstanding property tax liability of around 14 million drams that dates back to the 1990’s and 41 million in unpaid land taxes from 1994. Some 8 million of this total debt was incurred after 2002, during the tenure of Vladimir Margaryan. In the mountain meadowlands some 25-30 kilometers from Sevqar only a portion of the grasses are reaped and baled since fuel and transportation costs make the process unprofitable. 13.5 million drams, or more than half the village’s budget, is allocated to the municipality’s 13 employees (music school, library, cultural center, and mayor’s office) and for social benefits. When we asked the mayor how much of the budget was earmarked for development projects in the village the mayor responded that 3.54 million drams was to be spent for major renovations on the kindergarten building. More than 10 times this amount had originally been earmarked for this project but was drastically scaled back due to the economic crisis. The village presently has no operating kindergarten. It was shut down during the Azeri cross-border shelling in the early 1990’s. When cell phone coverage became available, the ArmenTel building became free and plans are to convert it into a kindergarten after some cosmetic repairs are made. Until the kindergarten comes on line, village children attend classes at the “Family and Children Assistance Center” run by the “Hope Bridge” organization. Fifty-three of the children who attend classes there are preschoolers. Available drinking water is a major problem in Sevqar. This year a two kilometer water pipe will be laid to supply drinking water to eighty-five homes. The cost will be picked up by a humanitarian organization whose name the mayor couldn’t remember. “We neither have drinking or irrigation water,” complained Amalya Tarakhchyan, who came to Sevqar as a new bride. She told us that they ferried water in pots from a spring in the village center Mayor Margaryan told us that neighborhood residents where the faucet is located can carry the water to their homes some 100 meters distant. He said that half the village collects water from forest streams or uses rain water for irrigation, laundry and other household usage. The rest of the village gets supplied with drinking water once every three days for about one hour. Everyone else is forced to go carry water from the village spring by hand or some type of vehicle. Mayor Margaryan was hopeful that as part of the Millennium Challenge program. a pipe conveying water from the “Seven Springs” located 16 kilometers away would be built. If realized, water would not only be supplied to Sevqar but to the neighboring communities of Sarigyugh and Nerkin Tzaghkavan. Sevqar has earmarked 1 million drams for the project. Finding solace in past glories While in Sevqar I got the impression that the village was more concerned with reliving its glorious past than looking ahead towards its future. Sevqar has produced such luminary figures as Sargis Tzovanyan, a notable freedom fighter nicknamed “Sevqar Sako”, and General Hovhanes Varshamov. Their chiseled busts are prominently displayed in the village square. Mayor Margaryan proudly pointed to the spring fountain named in honor of “Sevqar Sako” next to the home of his relatives. Excerpts penned by Jivan and Avetik Isahakyan in his memory are on display nearby. The municipality is now in the process of reconstructing the old spring, which will solve the drinking water issue of the neighborhood and will supply water to animals grazing in the nearby fields. The village has received official backing. 82 year-old Aramayis Bazinyan tells us that the village was supplied with natural gas in 2007-2008 due to the efforts of District Deputy Mikayel Vardanyan. He was also responsible for the renovation of the bombed out cultural center where a samba dance group practices on the second floor. A harvest combine and tractor were also made available, to be used jointly by Sevqar and a few neighboring villages. But Sevqar continues to face numerous problems. The grimy, small shops and stalls located in the middle of the village are a reminder of the difficult times facing Sevqar. Why aren’t they given a proper facelift? Stall owner Roza Mardoumyan is quick to answer. “I have more than 1 million drams in unpaid customer credit,” she says, pointing to a thick notebook of names and figures.