Barekamavan is a small Armenian village straddling the country's north-western border with Azerbaijan.

In the past 20 years since independence, the village has gotten smaller still.

You'll bump into former residents in the neighboring towns of Noyemberyan and Ijevan, in the capital Yerevan, and farther afield as well, in Stavropol, Moscow. Some have even made it to Europe and the States.

Loosely translated, Barekamavan means "District of Friends". It used to be called "Taknagyugh" (Hidden Village), and for good reason. It appears to be nestled it a small valley surrounded by forested hills.

It's so close to the border that you can hear the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer over on the Azerbaijani side.

In 1976 the local school, going up to the 8th grade, boasted 330 pupils. It's now a 12 year high school but enrolment has plummeted to just 34.

"Recently, there was one family that moved to Russia. Us old folk get by on our pensions, but what can the young people do? There's no work. The Turks have moved into our lands, but neither they nor we can extract any profit," says 82 year-old resident Hovhannes Chitchyan.

He was referring to the family of Armen Yesayan. When they moved, school enrolment dropped by another two pupils. And the exodus continues.

"Come back in five years and nobody will be left," says another old-timer, Volodya Gharakeshyan, aged 80.

He tripped a mine planted in one of the fields and his legs were wounded. Volodya gets by on just a 28,000 AMD pension.

Because the village is located on the border, in a danger zone, some 500 hectares of land lies fallow. The elevated portion of the village is out of harm's way and the villages graze their livestock here and grow what they can.

Village Mayor Garik Abazyan says that 400 people are officially registered as residents. The 30 year-old got married last year to a local girl who had been living in Moscow for the past 16 years.

There are two small stores in Barekamavan. One is owned by the current mayor, the other, by the former mayor.

It would be a stretch to call Mayor Abazyan's business a store. It's so tiny and carries only a handful of goods.

Both stores run tabs for the local residents since they can only pay cash when their pension checks arrive.

Right now, the village has no irrigation system. The International Fund for Agricultural Development allocated $2.9 million to bring water from the Noyemberyan mountains to a number of neighboring villages but Barekamavan was left out of the project.

The village even faces a problem with drinking water. Residents mostly get their water from some local springs.

In the center of the village lies the bombed out shell that once housed the cultural center and library.

On August 19, the newly built Saint Gregory Chapel was consecrated close by. It was funded by former village resident Tsolak Mikayelyan who now lives in Stavropol.

Villagers thank their generous compatriot for building a place where they can now pray.

Some 2 kilometres from the village, deep in the forest, is the Bardzryal Khach pilgrimage site. Originally a pagan mausoleum in the shape of a tower, the structure was "Christianized" in the Middle Ages – a cross was affixed to the window and a khachkar (stone cross) was installed inside to serve as an altar.

In 2004, a construction company from Alaverdi was contracted to renovate the site. Perhaps they should have left it alone.

The company did a Euro retrofit and failed to use the piles of old stones strewn about the site that had fallen from the structure over the centuries. Many of the stones even had episodic carvings.

RA Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan declared 2010 as "The Year of Barekamavan".

I asked the mayor what took place in the village last year. He told me that with assistance from the All Armenia Fund 60 hectares of land were tilled and planted and that the crop was distributed to villagers this year.

Mayor Abazyan also considers MP Mikayel Vardanyan to be a "friend" of Barekamavan. He pushed through 1.2 million AMD of investment in the village in the way of farming equipment.

The village of Barekamavan defends this strategic border region of Armenia.

But the village needs others to stand by its side in this important mission.

Resident Hovhannes Chitchyan says that the village could really use the investment of a visionary entrepreneur but that such people are few and far between.

"A few businessmen have visited the village. Then they stare long and hard at the border and say, 'What if the Turks open fire? My investment will go up in smoke.' Others don't even enter the village. They just look at Barekamavan's position and the Azeri villages across the mountains and turn around."

Over the past few years, a number of sturdy, undamaged houses have been dismantled for construction materials.

Family members no longer living in Barekamavan sell off the houses for around $1,000.

Is this the fate that awaits this Armenian village on the border – to be dismantled house by house and sold off as cheap construction material?

Where are our legions of armchair patriots when needed?

They are definitely not to be found in Barekamavan defending Armenia's border with Azerbaijan.