Recently a young man from Barekamavan made a marriage proposal to a girl living in one of the villages in Noyemberyan. Even though the boy caught the girl’s fancy, she accepted the proposal with one condition - that once married they wouldn’t live in Barekamavan.

The suitor proudly proclaimed that I shall never leave my native village. Sadly, there are few young people willing to remain in Barekamavan; only 25 are left.

The suitor proudly proclaimed that I shall never leave my native village. Sadly, there are few young people willing to remain in Barekamavan; only 25 are left.

Barekamavan is a village located in the administrative district of Noyemberyan. The village sits in a valley some 33 kilometers from the district hub. Five days a week there’s a bus that sets off from the neighboring village of Koti that makes a stop in Barekamavan on the way to Noyemberyan. A roundtrip ticket costs 1,200 drams.

Barekamavan borders on three large villages in the Ghazakh region. The doors of 100 homes out of the 220 in Barekamavan (the old Armenian village of Taknadzor) are locked-up. 80% of the residents are elderly. There are only 44 students attending the high school. Back in 1970 there were 47 students just in the first grade alone. Currently, 63 former residents of Barekamavan are pupils in a village school located in the Belgorod region of Russia and 130 in the Stavropol region.

Village Mayor Hovik Gharakeshishyan states that there are 33 Barekamavan residents now enrolled in various colleges and universities in Moscow. It is unlikely that they will ever return to the village given the difficult conditions that exist.

Another issue concerns the village school. Students studying English, Russian and chemistry are either from Yerevan, Vanadzor or Noyemberyan.

The young teachers of these subjects chose to be sent to this isolated village as a substitute for military service. Their minimum required posting in the village is soon approaching. A change in the law will no longer allow people to substitute teaching in the village as required military service.

Thus, residents of Barekamavan have no idea how they’ll be able to attract teachers to the village school.

Young residents of this isolated village have no entertainment or leisure outlets. The Cultural House is a 50 year-old building with a collapsed roof. The Municipality has been forced to relocate the library’s 4,000 books to the safekeeping of the school building. While residents can tune into numerous TV broadcasts from Georgia and Azerbaijan, the only Armenian broadcasts available are the satellite transmissions of Armenian Public TV in addition to the Russian “Planeta” channel. Mayor Gharakeshishyan states that during the presidential election campaign he asked Prime Minister Sargsyan to increase the number of available Armenian channels in the village. Specialists have arrived and have reviewed the situation. The Mayor is hopeful that this issue will soon be resolved.

On top of all the other difficulties the village faces there is the constant threat of gunfire from the Azeri border. Many residents have been killed, wounded or taken for ransom, even after the 1994 ceasefire. Residents stated that the latest round of gunfire happened just one week ago. While the villagers should be seeking solace from working the land, the resources to do so are lacking. Official statistics cite the population of the village as 585 but in reality the figure is 340. The village has 480 hectares of arable land of which 70 hectares are personal plots and 60 hectares are communal. This land lies close to the border and is either surrounded by mine fields or is directly in the sights of Azeri gunners. Thus, most of the land goes uncultivated. The 60 hectares of communal land also isn’t worked since there is no combine equipment. The Mayor says, “For seven years we planted grain fields but our village was the last to be serviced by the combine, when the wheat had already fallen from the husk.” Now the villagers use those lands to plant hay and other animal fodder.

Another concern is the total lack of irrigation water. In 2004 with funding from the United Nations Norwegian Refugee Council a pipeline was installed to carry water from a spring atop the village. The quality of the completed project was far from adequate. The Mayor says he never signed off on it because the welding on the pipe connections was so poor that the sections came apart. Today, the pipeline remains unused with the sections scattered about the hilltops. Despite these harsh conditions, village residents still manage to eek out a living and pay taxes.

Last year’s budget was successfully carried out. The 2008 budget is 5.5 million drams of which some 4.2 million is government supplements. The Village Council remains partially vacant. Only 4 residents have sought to become members. Other than finalizing the village budget, the periodic sessions of the Council adopted resolutions regarding the ongoing work of projects financed by the Municipality, financial assistance to extremely needy individuals, the allocation of bee hives to five families as a poverty reduction measure, the allocation of land on which to erect satellite relay stations for Karabakh Telecom and ArmenTel, amongst others. Today Council Members are touring various neighborhoods of the village and talking to the residents in order to decide where the financing from the Armenian social investment fund should be spent in the future - on a pipeline to supply both irrigation and potable water from an artesian well or to erect a community office headquarters?

Everyone in the village, however, agrees that reconstruction work on the Bardzryal St. Khach Monastery must be completed. This unique monument located on a wooded promontory close to the Azeri border is a tower-like polyhedral mausoleum of the pre-Christian era. During the Middle Ages across was mounted in the arched window and a stone cross was placed as an altar, which transformed the mausoleum into a chapel. In 2004, the state budget allocated 20 million drams for the chapel’s renovation. Builders from Alaverdi are carrying out the work conscientiously but the funding isn’t sufficient. The roof remains incomplete and incoming rainwater continues to damage this famous structure. While our less than friendly neighbors distort history, we leave the renovation of this monument, that fixes its gaze on the border and which is witness to a centuries-old history, incomplete.

Truly, the nation both begins and ends at the border. Shoulder-to-shoulder with the soldier that defends that border are the people. And these people deserve much better.

I take my leave of Barekamavan with a certain feeling of guilt. It’s as if I’m abandoning a friend helpless on the battlefield.