Koutakan Mayor Aharon Abrahamyan says that 500 hectares of the community’s 1,230 hectares was privatized back in the early 1990s. The land was divided up amongst 40 families. Another 700 hectares was leased to twelve individuals.
On the night of February 23, a young woman died in the Armenian mountain village of Koutakan while waiting for an ambulance that never came.
Today nearly nothing remains from the once-prosperous village of Geghakar, one of the most neglected in the province of Gegharkunik. Situated in the mountain slopes, it is cut off from the outside world for 2–3 months, particularly during the winter season, as the road is closed from the snowstorms.
Viktoria Shourkova, a resident of the Gegharkouniq village of Tretouk, has only one dream – to have a home of her own.
Armenia’s tax authorities have come down hard on 78 year-old pensioner Raya Prazyan. For the past two months they’ve been withholding 10,000 AMD of her 31,000 monthly pension as administrative penalties.
This is the fifth year that 14 year-old Rouben Boudoyan won’t be going to school. Instead, he’s become a shepherd in the Gegharkounik village of Metz Masrik.
At first the man refused to answer my questions; either out of embarrassment or fear. Maybe he couldn’t hear, I thought.
The occasional work she does find in the village is cleaning out the cow dung from neighbours’ barns. She can earn up to 3,000 AMD per job, sometimes a bit more.
Gevorg's girlfriend's parents don't want their daughter to see or marry him because he has lost an arm.