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LACHIN: THE EMPTYING LANDS
By Onnik Krikorian in Lachin
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
Sept 28 2006
Landmines, neglect and uncertainty result in an Armenian exodus from
strategic corridor.
Suarassy, a mine-infested region.
Relics of war, south of Lachin.
Growing up in Ditsmayri, near Zangelan, Kashatagh Region.
What is left of the village of Malibeyli. All photographs by Onnik
Krikorian.
The local residents of Suarassy seem oblivious to the hidden danger
as they herd cattle down a road known to have been mined during the
Armenian-Azerbaijani war of the early Nineties. Despite the mangled
military lorry rusting in a ditch to one side, none of their cows
have so far detonated seven anti-tank mines still believed to be
buried underneath, so they reckon the road is safe.
Less than a metre away is forest and grazing land laden with at
least 900 anti-personnel landmines. Yura Sharamanian, operations
officer for the HALO Trust, compares the minefield to Cambodia and
says that the British de-mining charity considers Lachin to be the
most mine-infested region in Karabakh and surrounding regions, which
were fought over during the 1991-4 war.
Although considered by the international community to be occupied
Azerbaijani land, this territory is now marked on Armenian maps as
Kashatagh. Also including the formerly Azerbaijani regions of Kubatly
and Zangelan as well as Lachin itself, Kashatagh stretches down to
the Iranian border in the south.
This strip of land between Armenia and Karabakh is one of the key
points in dispute in the unresolved Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
And it is also home to a few thousand hardy Armenian settlers who
have moved here since the 1994 ceasefire.
However, it is not just the danger of landmines that threatens the
existence of new settlements in the Kashatagh region. Although a 2005
census put the official population of Kashatagh at 9,800 Armenians,
with 2,200 residing in the town of Lachin, the actual figure is now
believed to be around fifty per cent less.
Five years ago, Kashatagh's population was estimated by local
officials to be approximately 15,000. Before the Karabakh war, the
three Azerbaijani regions of Lachin, Kubatly and Zangelan had 129,000
residents, with over 60,000 Azerbaijanis and ethnic Kurds living in
the Lachin region alone.
Officials in the administrative town of Lachin, now renamed Berdzor,
are reluctant to admit out loud that these reports are true, but
privately confirm that the number of settlers is far below that
officially quoted. None estimate the population at over 6,000 and
most soon forget to maintain the official line that most of the new
settlers are refugees from Azerbaijan. Instead, they admit that most
are from Armenia proper.
Zorik Irkoyan, chief specialist at the education department for the
new Kashatagh region, for example, is a journalist from Yerevan who
was involved in the military operation to take the town. He says that
few refugees were among most of the new arrivals in Kashatagh.
"Not many came because they were used to their life in Baku and
Sumgait [in Azerbaijan]," he said. "Many now feel safer in Armenia,
and like a million other Armenians, some have left for Russia. Some
might have moved here because of the social conditions in Armenia
although others did not. I can't guarantee that I will always live
in Lachin, but there is a connection with this land."
Some new arrivals are indeed refugees from Azerbaijan and Karabakh,
as well as the Diaspora, but most are vulnerable families from
Armenia. They were attracted by the promise of land, livestock and
social benefits averaging 4,000 Armenian drams (about ten US dollars)
per child.
But, since 2004, residents of Lachin say that government money is
being reduced and people are moving away. Even Robert Matevosian, head
of resettlement for Kashatagh, admits, "Recent reports [highlighting
out-migration] are raising various issues and concerns that do exist."
Samuel Kocharian, director of the AGAPE Children's Home that
accommodates socially vulnerable children, is more open. "The process
of resettlement started on a large scale at the beginning because
of patriotism," he said, "but now, with the same enthusiasm and on
the same scale, Kashatagh is emptying." Like others in the region,
he estimates the population of the region to be about 5-6,000 people.
The most likely reason is not hard to spot. In the ongoing peace
negotiations over the future of Nagorny Karabakh, the Armenian
government seems committed to returning almost all of the seven
territories surrounding Karabakh currently under Armenian control. In
the event of a deal, Lachin is set to remain as the crucial land link
between Armenia and Karabakh - but it remains uncertain how wide the
"Lachin Corridor" would actually be.
This is bad news for those Armenian nationalists who want to resettle
the Kashatagh region - although it will encourage those who support
a peace settlement as it means relatively few Armenians will have to
make way for returning Azerbaijanis under a future deal.
The region is now administered by the internationally-unrecognised
Nagorny Karabakh Republic. Kocharian says the Armenian and Karabakh
authorities do not want settlements outside a 20-30 km radius of
Lachin and are obviously reluctant to finance any new construction
projects, saying that only a small amount of the 750 million drams
(around 1.7 million dollars) allocated to the entire region for house
construction has actually been spent.
Moreover, while many homes in Lachin proper have been refurbished at
the expense of the local authorities, little or nothing has happened
in the villages. Sources in the Kashatagh administration speaking to
IWPR on condition of anonymity confirm this.
Others also say that initial promises to provide free electricity up
to 200 kw per month for two years to new arrivals were broken at the
beginning of the year. Gagik Kosakian, deputy governor of the region,
does not deny this, saying, "Electricity used to be cheaper than it
is today and this allowance was stopped at the beginning of 2006.
However, electricity is still cheaper than in Armenia."
Karegah, three km from Lachin, has been presented to visitors as a
model village in the region, but its head, Marine Petoyan, is concerned
about its future. Sixty per cent of the village comprising 65 mainly
refugee families has no water, and 25 families have already had their
electricity cut off because of non-payment of outstanding debts.
"There was also a bus for schoolchildren which was used by others as
well, but it's been six months since it last operated," she said. "No
money for petrol was provided."
On September 28, Jirair Sefilian, a former military commander from
the Karabakh war, called for the resignation of Kashatagh governor
Hamlet Khachatrian for alleged mismanagement, saying that 52 villages
in the region had neither electricity nor water.
IWPR was detained and prevented from visiting other villages
surrounding Lachin by officers of the Nagorny Karabakh National
Security Service, NSS. Samvel Kocharian says he believes this was
because "conditions were very bad in those villages [in 2001], but you
should understand that they don't even exist now. The further away
you get from Berdzor [Lachin] the more they are forgotten and the
remotest villages are in a really bad condition. The closest regions
of Goris in Armenia and Hadrut in Karabakh have grown and developed
in the past ten years, but there's been no change here.
"When the living conditions are improving there, and when people are
lied to for 12 years with promises that a house will be built for
them one day, it's only natural that they want to leave."
Onnik Krikorian is a British-born freelance journalist
living and working in Armenia. He has a blog from Armenia
at http://oneworld.blogsome.com with many photographs from
Lachin/Kashatagh.
By Onnik Krikorian in Lachin
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
Sept 28 2006
Landmines, neglect and uncertainty result in an Armenian exodus from
strategic corridor.
Suarassy, a mine-infested region.
Relics of war, south of Lachin.
Growing up in Ditsmayri, near Zangelan, Kashatagh Region.
What is left of the village of Malibeyli. All photographs by Onnik
Krikorian.
The local residents of Suarassy seem oblivious to the hidden danger
as they herd cattle down a road known to have been mined during the
Armenian-Azerbaijani war of the early Nineties. Despite the mangled
military lorry rusting in a ditch to one side, none of their cows
have so far detonated seven anti-tank mines still believed to be
buried underneath, so they reckon the road is safe.
Less than a metre away is forest and grazing land laden with at
least 900 anti-personnel landmines. Yura Sharamanian, operations
officer for the HALO Trust, compares the minefield to Cambodia and
says that the British de-mining charity considers Lachin to be the
most mine-infested region in Karabakh and surrounding regions, which
were fought over during the 1991-4 war.
Although considered by the international community to be occupied
Azerbaijani land, this territory is now marked on Armenian maps as
Kashatagh. Also including the formerly Azerbaijani regions of Kubatly
and Zangelan as well as Lachin itself, Kashatagh stretches down to
the Iranian border in the south.
This strip of land between Armenia and Karabakh is one of the key
points in dispute in the unresolved Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
And it is also home to a few thousand hardy Armenian settlers who
have moved here since the 1994 ceasefire.
However, it is not just the danger of landmines that threatens the
existence of new settlements in the Kashatagh region. Although a 2005
census put the official population of Kashatagh at 9,800 Armenians,
with 2,200 residing in the town of Lachin, the actual figure is now
believed to be around fifty per cent less.
Five years ago, Kashatagh's population was estimated by local
officials to be approximately 15,000. Before the Karabakh war, the
three Azerbaijani regions of Lachin, Kubatly and Zangelan had 129,000
residents, with over 60,000 Azerbaijanis and ethnic Kurds living in
the Lachin region alone.
Officials in the administrative town of Lachin, now renamed Berdzor,
are reluctant to admit out loud that these reports are true, but
privately confirm that the number of settlers is far below that
officially quoted. None estimate the population at over 6,000 and
most soon forget to maintain the official line that most of the new
settlers are refugees from Azerbaijan. Instead, they admit that most
are from Armenia proper.
Zorik Irkoyan, chief specialist at the education department for the
new Kashatagh region, for example, is a journalist from Yerevan who
was involved in the military operation to take the town. He says that
few refugees were among most of the new arrivals in Kashatagh.
"Not many came because they were used to their life in Baku and
Sumgait [in Azerbaijan]," he said. "Many now feel safer in Armenia,
and like a million other Armenians, some have left for Russia. Some
might have moved here because of the social conditions in Armenia
although others did not. I can't guarantee that I will always live
in Lachin, but there is a connection with this land."
Some new arrivals are indeed refugees from Azerbaijan and Karabakh,
as well as the Diaspora, but most are vulnerable families from
Armenia. They were attracted by the promise of land, livestock and
social benefits averaging 4,000 Armenian drams (about ten US dollars)
per child.
But, since 2004, residents of Lachin say that government money is
being reduced and people are moving away. Even Robert Matevosian, head
of resettlement for Kashatagh, admits, "Recent reports [highlighting
out-migration] are raising various issues and concerns that do exist."
Samuel Kocharian, director of the AGAPE Children's Home that
accommodates socially vulnerable children, is more open. "The process
of resettlement started on a large scale at the beginning because
of patriotism," he said, "but now, with the same enthusiasm and on
the same scale, Kashatagh is emptying." Like others in the region,
he estimates the population of the region to be about 5-6,000 people.
The most likely reason is not hard to spot. In the ongoing peace
negotiations over the future of Nagorny Karabakh, the Armenian
government seems committed to returning almost all of the seven
territories surrounding Karabakh currently under Armenian control. In
the event of a deal, Lachin is set to remain as the crucial land link
between Armenia and Karabakh - but it remains uncertain how wide the
"Lachin Corridor" would actually be.
This is bad news for those Armenian nationalists who want to resettle
the Kashatagh region - although it will encourage those who support
a peace settlement as it means relatively few Armenians will have to
make way for returning Azerbaijanis under a future deal.
The region is now administered by the internationally-unrecognised
Nagorny Karabakh Republic. Kocharian says the Armenian and Karabakh
authorities do not want settlements outside a 20-30 km radius of
Lachin and are obviously reluctant to finance any new construction
projects, saying that only a small amount of the 750 million drams
(around 1.7 million dollars) allocated to the entire region for house
construction has actually been spent.
Moreover, while many homes in Lachin proper have been refurbished at
the expense of the local authorities, little or nothing has happened
in the villages. Sources in the Kashatagh administration speaking to
IWPR on condition of anonymity confirm this.
Others also say that initial promises to provide free electricity up
to 200 kw per month for two years to new arrivals were broken at the
beginning of the year. Gagik Kosakian, deputy governor of the region,
does not deny this, saying, "Electricity used to be cheaper than it
is today and this allowance was stopped at the beginning of 2006.
However, electricity is still cheaper than in Armenia."
Karegah, three km from Lachin, has been presented to visitors as a
model village in the region, but its head, Marine Petoyan, is concerned
about its future. Sixty per cent of the village comprising 65 mainly
refugee families has no water, and 25 families have already had their
electricity cut off because of non-payment of outstanding debts.
"There was also a bus for schoolchildren which was used by others as
well, but it's been six months since it last operated," she said. "No
money for petrol was provided."
On September 28, Jirair Sefilian, a former military commander from
the Karabakh war, called for the resignation of Kashatagh governor
Hamlet Khachatrian for alleged mismanagement, saying that 52 villages
in the region had neither electricity nor water.
IWPR was detained and prevented from visiting other villages
surrounding Lachin by officers of the Nagorny Karabakh National
Security Service, NSS. Samvel Kocharian says he believes this was
because "conditions were very bad in those villages [in 2001], but you
should understand that they don't even exist now. The further away
you get from Berdzor [Lachin] the more they are forgotten and the
remotest villages are in a really bad condition. The closest regions
of Goris in Armenia and Hadrut in Karabakh have grown and developed
in the past ten years, but there's been no change here.
"When the living conditions are improving there, and when people are
lied to for 12 years with promises that a house will be built for
them one day, it's only natural that they want to leave."
Onnik Krikorian is a British-born freelance journalist
living and working in Armenia. He has a blog from Armenia
at http://oneworld.blogsome.com with many photographs from
Lachin/Kashatagh.