It has already been a few months that the notion of staging a mass wedding ceremony in Karabakh this fall has taken the populace by storm. The man who came up with the idea is the famous businessman and benefactor Levon Hayrapetyan. Everyone here is filled with great excitement preparing for unique event. It is unique not only because couples planning to marry will receive financial assistance from the sponsors but also from the government. Thus, they will not be burdened with the large expenses involved in the wedding ceremony.

Sponsors will be granting $2,000 to the couples and the government, in addition to helping out with grants of 300,000 drams, will also be providing gifts of $500 towards the purchase of wedding attire and rings.

The number of customers flocking to shops catering to couples planning to get wed has risen dramatically. So much so, in fact, that old gowns and other items of clothing since retired to storage have been put back on display for the “young couples”.

All this commotion is not only the result of the planned collective wedding event but also due to the government’s program unveiled in January of this year that calls for providing gifts of 300,000 drams to newly wed couples. To this end the Karabakh government has earmarked 450 million drams out of the 2008 state budget to be allocated to some 1,500 couples. However, it is already apparent that the number of couples that will register to get married this year will exceed this number. This became clear back in April when figures at the NKR National Statistical Agency showed the number of couples registering for marriage at 1,887. This compares to 224 couples during the same period in 2007. Interestingly, a portion of these 1,887 couples have already gotten hitched but the marriages were never properly registered in order that they are able to take advantage of the government’s largesse. In 2007 there were 519 marriages registered in Karabakh and 827 in 2006.

Given the figures already recorded for this year one can extrapolate that 2008 will go down as a record year for marriages in Karabakh.

While not all young couples are taken with the prospect of getting married in a mass ceremony, preferring a private setting, the vast majority are keen on becoming the first participants in this newly forming tradition.

Levon Hayrapetyan, the brain behind the program, continues to invest in his native village of Vank and in other parts of Karabakh. A charitable fund bearing his name has been established where benefactors form the Diaspora who also wish to contribute can make donations. Preliminary figures show that there are many who have expressed a desire to help out.

The plan conceived by Mr. Hayrapetyan will most likely take place at the beginning of October in three separate locales; the capital Stepanakert, the old town of Shushi and the historic monastery of Gantzasar. A special committee consisting of able individuals from a variety of backgrounds has been formed to organized and oversee the logistics of the event. The committee is reviewing the applications of couples who have registered with the Wedding Registrar during June 28 - July 15. In the words of Srbuhi Arzumanyan, the NKR Vice-Minister for Social Welfare, 690 couples have petitioned various regional offices in the above mentioned time frame.

According to the requirements specified those couples in which one individual was divorced after January 1, 2008 and those couples with children cannot participate in the joint wedding ceremony. Also couples, where the ages of both man and woman is over 40 at the time of registration, cannot participate. Given that these guidelines have been previously announced the chances of such refusals is quite slim. Thus, it is safe to assume that come October some 700 couples will take part in the ceremonies.

Construction work at the three locales is already underway to assure a proper setting for the ceremony. In Shushi and Gantzasar the church courtyards are being spruced up while in Stepanakert the steps leading from Rebirth Square to the athletic stadium are being repaired. It is planned that after the completion of marriage ceremony in Shushi and Gantzasar the couple will be taken to Stepanakert where they will walk down these same steps leading to the stadium where the main event will take place.

Vice-Minister Arzumanyan mentioned that after the nuptials a wedding dance party will take place in Rebirth Square after which the couples will make their way to the sports stadium, by way of a parade, to be presented their marriage certificates and Gold Bank cards with $2,000 in the account. The ceremony will close with a display of fireworks.

This spectacular ceremony will be photographed from a helicopter flying overhead. A number of news reporters from abroad will also travel to Karabakh to cover the event for their readers back home.

As Srbuhi Arzumanyan noted during our conversation, the aim of the event is not only to encourage marriages within the framework of the program to spur childbearing but to connect those participating benefactors “to Karabakh and the land underneath”. This objective particularly holds true for those benefactors who serve as the “godfather” for one or more of the couples. Karabakh officials also note that a number of “surprises” are also in store during the ceremony.