The bordering village of Barekamavan is the most remote village of the region of Tavush. It is 37km away from Noyemberyan and 60km away from Ijevan, the capital of the region. After Armenia became independent, there has been a mass emigration from Barekamavan – in the 1980s, the eight-year school of Barekamavan had 330 students, now only 35 students study at the secondary school of the village. The building of the secondary school is in a very bad shape, it needs renovation.
Armen Gevorgyan, the Minister of Territorial Administration, declared the year 2010 Barekamavan’s year. In the framework of that, the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund financed the fall-seeding of a-few-dozen hectares of land with wheat and the harvest was distributed among the residents of Barekamavan. The village continued to exist with its manifold problems – drinking water, lack of pastureland, irrigation water, natural gas, lack of jobs etc.
Armen Gevorgyan, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia and the Minister of Territorial Administration, was in Barekamavan on July 16 during his visit to the region of Tavush. The website of the regional administration of Tavush informs, “A. Gevorgyan was in the bordering community of Barekamavan, where the drinking water pipeline for the
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community has been putinto operation, improving the water supply for two neighborhoods. The work has been done for 20 million AMD provided by urgent second program. It is planned to provide the community with gas – 6.2 million AMD will be provided by the urgent third program to build the internal network of gas pipelines. Issues of strengthening the school building that is in disrepair and of having a building of the community center were raised. Issues of increasing the school’s seismic stability and its renovation, as well as possibilities of locating the community administration in the existing buildings, were discussed.”
Hrachik Virabyan, a tractor driver of Barekamavan who called Aravot’s journalist, was very worried. He said that he was talking from inside the village, where his angry fellow villagers were gathered. H. Virabyan informed that the state land resources beyond the administrative borders of communities had been expanded by a Cabinet decision. So, 120ha of meadowland used by Barekamavan and located on Mount Shlorkut were given to the community of Jujevan.
Residents of Barekamavan say that there has been no meadowland and pastureland left in the village; they lost the existing pasturelands and meadowlands during the construction of border positions in Barekamavan. Those 120ha of meadowland on Mount Shlorkut made it possible for the residents of Barekamavan to store winter food for their cattle. Hrachik Virabyan and other residents of Barekamavan are concerned that an individual or a company can sign a long-term agreement and can rent 120ha of meadowland on Mount Shlorkut for 20-25 years. They have expressed that concern to Armen Gevorgyan who visited the village. The latter expressed readiness to support the residents of Barekamavan to privatize those meadowlands for a price twice cheaper than cadastral one.
After the Deputy Prime Minister had left, on the next day it was clarified that the price of privatizing 1ha of land on Mount Shlorkut was $2000. The residents of Barekamavan live from hand to mouth in hard social conditions. They said that they couldn’t pay even half of it – $1000 for 1ha – to privatize the meadowlands.
“If we don’t manage to keep those 120ha of meadowland, there will be no village of Barekamavan,” Hrachik Virabyan said on behalf of his fellow villagers.
Azerbaijan creates good social conditions for its bordering villages, grants manifold privileges to its residents and our population of the border area is bowed by troubles. The cover of the soldier defending the border of the Motherland is the villager – what will happen, if the villager emigrates?
Voskan SARGSYAN
