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GETIK: A VISIT TO A SHRINKING COMMUNITY
ArmeniaNow
08.08.11 | 09:50
NAZIK ARMENAKYAN
By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow reporter
Life in Getak village, 120 km from Yerevan, is not easy..
A warm sun gathers young and old men in the center of Getik village
where they discuss their problems: lack of potatoes and wheat, they
burn dried manure instead of gas, animals give little milk, they
cannot pay off credits, and they haven't received their pensions yet...
Getik is one of the villages of Jambarak region, Gegharkunik province.
Peasants of the village, some 120 km north of Yerevan, are desperate.
Each spring, a few families lock the doors of their houses and leave
the village.
Enlarge Photo "We are not from the same house, but we are in the
same situation", says Saribekyan. (Photo: Arayik Saribekyan (right),
Samvel Saribekyan (left)).Head of Getik village Ashot Dalakyan says
that his village has shrunk year by year, and that migration has
naturally slowed, but has not stopped.
Of its official 130 families (with 530 residents), 30 houses have
been locked shut. Last year Getik had six births; one child went to
the first grade.
The roads leading to Getik are not in good order. It takes an hour
and ten minutes to drive from Yerevan to Jambarak, then one hour -
from Jambarak to Getik a distance of only 12 kilometers.
"The roads are very bad; factories make no investments here,
considering the region to be risky, close to the border. I want to
say at least something good, but I cannot find it to say. We keep
two animals for a whole year to slaughter and sell them in the end
in order to buy a pair of shoes and macaroni," says Getik resident
Arayik Saribekyan.
Being inspired with the winter warm sun, Arayik laid a table in the
yard of his house. There are only home-made vodka, pickles, bread
and cheese on the table. Glasses are being filled and emptied. And
then the famous Armenian 'anush lini' is pronounced. Cheers.
"Look at our village this way and you will understand yourself how
people live here. Houses are in poor condition, roofs are destroyed,
worn out... There are villages which at least have a good appearance,
whereas our village looks very poor, too. Nobody knows where we live,"
Arayik says.
Samvel Saribekyan, who visited Arayik from the neighboring village
of Ttu Jur, says that the situation is the same in all villages of
the region, the problems are identical.
"As the Armenian saying goes, "we are not from the same house, but we
are in a common situation." This happens to us now," Saribekyan says.
Arayik's wife, 43-year-old Siranush Ohanyan, who joins the conversation
with a tray full of coffee cups, says that a peasant's work is a
thankless task. And if a year is unfavorable (in terms of weather),
then they become completely helpless.
"This year we sowed hectares of fields with wheat, we spent 200,000
drams ($560) on it, but we hardly got 50 kg wheat. And one kilo costs
100 drams, so we will get only 5,000 drams ($13) for our wheat crop,
and that's it. How can villagers live then? Those who leave Armenia
searching for migrant work do not come back. Two more years, and all
doors of Getik village's houses will be locked," Siranush says.
Cattle-breeding is the main business in Getik. Some of the village's
men are contract-based employees in the military units near their
village, some three kilometers from the Armenian-Azeri border (Getik
is not considered to be a border village, however).
Many detachments from the village participated in the Karabakh war.
"If we pass that hill, we will see the Azeri's post. During those years
[Karabakh war years] we kept thoseposts'," Arayik says.
Siranush interrupts her husband, "During the war they kept it [the
village] at the expense of their lives, they were awarded with medals,
but now nobody cares how these people live. It is a pity that one
day we also will leave Getik."
"If it were necessary even now, we would defend [our village] again,"
Arayik says.
Only 120 hectares of 336 hectares of Getik's arable lands is being
cultivated.
"These people fight with the weather every year, they are tired; the
cost of the crop does not correspond to the market price. (She says
that last year it cost villagers 80 drams per kilo to grow potatoes
for which they got only 25 drams per kilo for the crop). And this
year our villagers did not plant potato, and its price reached 180
drams per kilo," Dalakyan says.
The number of people, who deal with cattle-breeding, decreases in
the village. 'Ashtarak Kat' major dairy company buys milk from the
villagers. It has a large dairy workshop in Jambarak.
"There is a concern that the workshop may be closed, because people
have quit cattle-breeding. They get rid of the animals due to their
poor social conditions. For example, they have four cows, their
debts increase, therefore they slaughter one of the cows [to pay off
the debt]; and this happens every year. Those who had ten cows ten
years ago, now they have only three," says driver of 'Ashtarak Kat'
Karo Yavriyan.
Getik's residents are desperate of their situation. Their present
is sad, their future indefinite. Head of the village Dalakyan says
that the government must support community development programs in
the village, that they cannot do anything all alone by themselves.
And Arayik Saribekyan, addressing the journalists who visited the
village, said, "It is good that you have come, at least, you have
remembered the residents of this village, and at least you have come
and asked us how we are..."
ArmeniaNow
08.08.11 | 09:50
NAZIK ARMENAKYAN
By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow reporter
Life in Getak village, 120 km from Yerevan, is not easy..
A warm sun gathers young and old men in the center of Getik village
where they discuss their problems: lack of potatoes and wheat, they
burn dried manure instead of gas, animals give little milk, they
cannot pay off credits, and they haven't received their pensions yet...
Getik is one of the villages of Jambarak region, Gegharkunik province.
Peasants of the village, some 120 km north of Yerevan, are desperate.
Each spring, a few families lock the doors of their houses and leave
the village.
Enlarge Photo "We are not from the same house, but we are in the
same situation", says Saribekyan. (Photo: Arayik Saribekyan (right),
Samvel Saribekyan (left)).Head of Getik village Ashot Dalakyan says
that his village has shrunk year by year, and that migration has
naturally slowed, but has not stopped.
Of its official 130 families (with 530 residents), 30 houses have
been locked shut. Last year Getik had six births; one child went to
the first grade.
The roads leading to Getik are not in good order. It takes an hour
and ten minutes to drive from Yerevan to Jambarak, then one hour -
from Jambarak to Getik a distance of only 12 kilometers.
"The roads are very bad; factories make no investments here,
considering the region to be risky, close to the border. I want to
say at least something good, but I cannot find it to say. We keep
two animals for a whole year to slaughter and sell them in the end
in order to buy a pair of shoes and macaroni," says Getik resident
Arayik Saribekyan.
Being inspired with the winter warm sun, Arayik laid a table in the
yard of his house. There are only home-made vodka, pickles, bread
and cheese on the table. Glasses are being filled and emptied. And
then the famous Armenian 'anush lini' is pronounced. Cheers.
"Look at our village this way and you will understand yourself how
people live here. Houses are in poor condition, roofs are destroyed,
worn out... There are villages which at least have a good appearance,
whereas our village looks very poor, too. Nobody knows where we live,"
Arayik says.
Samvel Saribekyan, who visited Arayik from the neighboring village
of Ttu Jur, says that the situation is the same in all villages of
the region, the problems are identical.
"As the Armenian saying goes, "we are not from the same house, but we
are in a common situation." This happens to us now," Saribekyan says.
Arayik's wife, 43-year-old Siranush Ohanyan, who joins the conversation
with a tray full of coffee cups, says that a peasant's work is a
thankless task. And if a year is unfavorable (in terms of weather),
then they become completely helpless.
"This year we sowed hectares of fields with wheat, we spent 200,000
drams ($560) on it, but we hardly got 50 kg wheat. And one kilo costs
100 drams, so we will get only 5,000 drams ($13) for our wheat crop,
and that's it. How can villagers live then? Those who leave Armenia
searching for migrant work do not come back. Two more years, and all
doors of Getik village's houses will be locked," Siranush says.
Cattle-breeding is the main business in Getik. Some of the village's
men are contract-based employees in the military units near their
village, some three kilometers from the Armenian-Azeri border (Getik
is not considered to be a border village, however).
Many detachments from the village participated in the Karabakh war.
"If we pass that hill, we will see the Azeri's post. During those years
[Karabakh war years] we kept thoseposts'," Arayik says.
Siranush interrupts her husband, "During the war they kept it [the
village] at the expense of their lives, they were awarded with medals,
but now nobody cares how these people live. It is a pity that one
day we also will leave Getik."
"If it were necessary even now, we would defend [our village] again,"
Arayik says.
Only 120 hectares of 336 hectares of Getik's arable lands is being
cultivated.
"These people fight with the weather every year, they are tired; the
cost of the crop does not correspond to the market price. (She says
that last year it cost villagers 80 drams per kilo to grow potatoes
for which they got only 25 drams per kilo for the crop). And this
year our villagers did not plant potato, and its price reached 180
drams per kilo," Dalakyan says.
The number of people, who deal with cattle-breeding, decreases in
the village. 'Ashtarak Kat' major dairy company buys milk from the
villagers. It has a large dairy workshop in Jambarak.
"There is a concern that the workshop may be closed, because people
have quit cattle-breeding. They get rid of the animals due to their
poor social conditions. For example, they have four cows, their
debts increase, therefore they slaughter one of the cows [to pay off
the debt]; and this happens every year. Those who had ten cows ten
years ago, now they have only three," says driver of 'Ashtarak Kat'
Karo Yavriyan.
Getik's residents are desperate of their situation. Their present
is sad, their future indefinite. Head of the village Dalakyan says
that the government must support community development programs in
the village, that they cannot do anything all alone by themselves.
And Arayik Saribekyan, addressing the journalists who visited the
village, said, "It is good that you have come, at least, you have
remembered the residents of this village, and at least you have come
and asked us how we are..."