I’ve just come back from a quick drink with Tom de Waal, Caucasus Editor of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, before he had to shoot off for some reception, and IWPR’s Armenia Country Director, Seda Muradyan. Beforehand, Tom launched the Russian translation of his book on the Karabakh conflict, Black Garden: Armenia and […]
Suarassy, Kashatagh Region, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2006
According to military maps 8 anti-tank mines were laid on this 500 meter road. One detonated when a truck passed over it and as a result HALO Trust won’t drive their vehicles along this road until it’s been thoroughly checked. Local settlers, […]
Meghvadzor, Kashatagh Region, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2006
Another minefield close to Meghvadzor, but this time being cleared. Again, the mines were anti-personnel. However, not as large as the minefield we were later to visit. Anyway, HALO Trust is based in Stepanakert, capital of the self-declared Republic of Nagorno Karabakh […]
Meghvadzor, Kashatagh Region, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2006
One of the main purposes of my return visit to Lachin was to look at the work of the HALO Trust in the region. The international mine clearance charity have been working in what is now known as the Kashatagh region for […]
Internally Displaced Person (IDP), Berd, Tavoush Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2004
As Nessuna has just got back from Berd in the old Shamsadin district of what is now the Tavoush region and is planning to post something on her visit, I thought I’d post a photo from my second visit to the town in 2004. Seemingly cut off from the rest of Armenia, like other urban centers such as Chambarak in the old Krasnosyelsk district, being situated close to the border with Azerbaijan hasn’t done anyone any favors.
Cross border shelling, landmines and a general lack of investment has resulted in a huge exodus from what is considered a vitally strategic area. In an article on landmines in Armenia in 2002, I wrote more about this.
Because those displaced by cross-border skirmishes, landmines and poor socio-economic conditions have found temporary accommodation in nearby villages, the low visibility of the problem has manifested itself as a lack of attention. The Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Internally Displaced People (IDPs), Dr. Francis Deng, highlighted those concerns when he visited Armenia in May 2000.
Gagik Yeganyan, Head of the State Department for Migration and Refugees, says that for the past two years, authorities have started to take the matter seriously. “On 14 December 2000, a plan for the Post Conflict Rehabilitation of the Bordering Territories of the Republic of Armenia was approved by the Government,” he explains.
More than 23,000 houses, 78 education centers, 62 medical centers, 512km of potable and 724km of irrigation pipes, and 575km of roads were damaged by cross-border shelling and the total cost to rehabilitate the border is estimated at over $80 million. Under the Government initiative, an estimated 39,000 people will return to their homes and conditions for 28,000 who have returned already will be improved.
However, the regional authorities estimate that as much as 9,000 hectares of Tavoush is mined, fuelling concerns that the landmine problem in Armenia is greater than many realize. According to Jemma Hasratian of the Armenian National Committee of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), it is difficult to fully estimate the extent of the problem given that both regular and irregular forces were responsible for laying mines and few accurate maps exist.
“Nobody knows how many mines there are,” she says, “but we’re working with the figure of 50,000.”
However, although international organizations such as the Norwegian Refugee Council and World Vision have started projects in place like Berd, the socio-economic conditions are still bleak. Siranoush, the little girl in the photograph above, perhaps represents that best. When I visited Berd for the second time, Edik Baghdasarian wrote the following about her. Really, this beautiful kid was living in squalor.
Poverty has settled in, right in the center of Berd, in the eight shacks of the settlement known as the Janjanots (fly trap), in the rooms of the ten families living in the Berd Hotel, in the eyes of beggar children and in the eyes of angelic, four-year-old Siranuysh, who never gets to eat anything but bread.
Grigor left school after the third grade. “Why did you quit school?” I ask.
“I didn’t want to go, ” he answers tersely.
“What are you doing now?” I persist.
“I work at Samvel’s shop. I unload flour and other things.”Grigor makes 500 drams (about a dollar) a day, and helps his family out. There are eight children in the family, living in a one-room shack, with no toilet, no running water. Their mother, Emma Shahnazaryan, is mentally ill. When we visit the house at nine o’clock in the morning, the children are still asleep, and the mother is baking bread in the oven. The youngest is four-year-old Siranuysh, who looks at us with her sad eyes, trying to understand why her mother woke her up.
The oldest son, Tigran, is in the Army, the rest are at home. None of the six school-age children goes to school. There are plenty of reasons - no clothes, no schoolbooks, no food, no apartment.
Back in 2002, the Armenian Government planned to rejuvinate the region along the border with Azerbaijan, but in 2004 there was very little sign of that. Last year when I visited the town again with UNICEF perhaps the road from Ijevan was in a lot better shape, but that was about all. Therefore, I’m looking forward to reading Nessuna’s impressions from her weekend trip, but also to returning to Berd again in the next month or so.
Incidently, pics from my 2004 visit are available on the Hetq Online site.
