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A VISIT TO MEGHRI: REPORTER EXPLORES TOURISM POTENTIALITIES IN ARMENIA'S SOUTHERNMOST REGION
By GAYANE MKRTCHYAN
http://armenianow.com/news/41217/armenia_meghri_hotel_small_district_tourism
NEWS | 19.11.12 | 15:24
Photo: Gayane Lazarian/ArmeniaNow.com
Meghri by night reminds an amphitheatre lost in lights. Rows gradually
lead to the top and merge into the outline of scattered mountain
peaks in the dark sky.
Enlarge Photo Meghri's Small District (Pokr Tagh)
I am staying overnight at Areviq guesthouse (B&B) in the town's Small
District (Pokr Tagh). The other part is Big District (Mets Tagh).
There is only a pedestrian road to the guesthouse - the short street
with narrow old-fashioned houses ends at the entrance of Areviq.
Hotel manager Armine Petrosyan bought one of the houses in Small
District and turned it into a bed-and-breakfast hotel, which they say
is more like a "people's house" (during the Soviet times people's
houses were originally leisure and cultural centers built with the
intention of making art and cultural appreciation available to the
working classes).
With her background in architecture Petrosyan researched the Small
District and submitted a business proposal to UNESCO on boosting
Meghri's economy through restoration and utilization of the town's
cultural heritage. At this point the project is in UNESCO donor
booklet.
"This house and the one next to it where we have opened a crafts
workshop have been purchased with Izmirian Foundation's financial
support. I am trying to reintroduce the idea of the "people's house"
with all its traditions. The Small District has preserved its unique
architectural profile due to the fact that vehicles have failed to
intrude, it has not been distorted or subjected to urban development,"
says Petrosyan.
The house now hosting Areviq once belonged to prominent Mezhlumyan
family of doctors. This was a district of wealthy people and was once
considered town center with a hospital, a library, 17th-century St.
Hovhannes (St. John) church. Many of the houses are on the verge of
collapse, but even so they stand out for classical decor of doors and
windows - mostly wooden, elaborately carved and arched. The interior
includes decorated fireplaces and wooden ceilings.
Petrosyan is not a native of Meghri, but does her best to save the
Small District with its residential houses of cultural-historical
value. She believes it can become a hospitality center to offer -
if developed - eco-, agro-, and cultural tourism opportunities given
its urban atmosphere. Her future plan includes parks, tea-houses,
and restaurants offering national cuisine.
"I have come to understand the political and economic value. This
sector is highly important for Armenia and has to be activated and
consolidated. We you want to stick paper to the wall, you fix the
corners and edges, not the center, right? And in Armenia we are only
fixing Yerevan, but that's not the proper way," she says.
Meghri in the morning is orange: the sun shining brightly, the colorful
fruit set against the vivid green in orchards, the autumn hues turn
Meghri into a dream town. Women of Small District dry persimmons in
their courtyards. Many have peeled and threaded the dark brown fruit
like beads and hung them like chains.
"Megri's natural-climatic conditions are found nowhere else in
Armenia. And that's the best advantage - figs, pomegranates, persimmon,
kiwi grow there, which in itself is a sight worth seeing.
These mountains and rocks create good opportunities for developing
adventure tourism," says Armen Shahbazyan, in charge of OSCE PIP
office in Syunik.
Enterprise Development and Market Competitiveness project (in
cooperation with United States Agency for International Development)
and OSCE Office in Yerevan's Project Implementation Presence (PIP)
in Syunik have included Meghri in their joint project aimed at
tourism development.
The town with population of 4,800 and on a 400-kilometer distance
from Yerevan is Armenia's southern gate. The state border and the
River Arax separate it from Iran.
Meghri-based tour guide Lilit Khachatryan says Armenia's profile
starts or ends with Meghri. The sources of employment here are wine
and preserve making factories, and Agarak copper-molybdenum combine
10 km from Meghri.
"People mostly earn their living by selling fruits and dried-fruits.
Food in Meghri is especially expensive," says Lilit. "The state doesn't
allow us to purchase staples imported from Iran directly at the border,
meaning it passes by us, then Meghri residents go to Yerevan, buy it
for high prices, bring back and resell it for even higher prices."
In the Big District persimmon "chains" are hanging in the balconies
of residential buildings. When passing by private houses and greeting
the owners (usually out in their courtyards), they see you are not
local and invite you in to show their hospitality by treating you to
the treasures of this fertile land.
"Our rocks and mountains are rough, but people, in contrast, are
tolerant, hospitable and open-hearted. Meghri has huge potential for
tourism, which would also boost the economy and make Meghri people's
life better," says Khachatryan.
Shahbazyan believes the fact that Megri borders with Iran has to be
made proper use of.
"Regional packages [for tourists] are quite common now. They will come
see Meghri and continue to Iran. Another advantage is that they travel
to Yerevan via Meghri. During Nowruz [Iranian New Year] if we manage
to keep them at least a day longer in Meghri it would mean inflow of
money directly to Meghri. We have to think how to interest them. We
could hold one of Iranian singer's concerts here," says Shahbazyan.
While international structures are thinking of ways to boost tourism
in the south end of Armenia, people have their daily troubles to take
care of by their own formula of overcoming the challenges of life in
a remote land.
Taxi driver Davit Hambartsumyan says "some are poor, some are better
off. Or, rather, we work hard, but don't earn well. We wake up early
in the morning, spend the whole day on the run, return home in the
evening, and what's the benefit? Nothing."
"No use, no profit," unanimously say also the women of Meghri, who
are trying to earn their families' living with the harvest from their
orchards - they barter fruit for cabbage, carrots, beets and potatoes
with villagers from other provinces.
Meghri has wide opportunities not only tourism-wise. With investments
a number of branches of economy can be developed, which in turn would
create new jobs.
"Otherwise, young people are moving from Meghri. There is no community
development project to keep people here. And for how long can people
survive by selling fruits and dried-fruits?" says Khachatryan.
By GAYANE MKRTCHYAN
http://armenianow.com/news/41217/armenia_meghri_hotel_small_district_tourism
NEWS | 19.11.12 | 15:24
Photo: Gayane Lazarian/ArmeniaNow.com
Meghri by night reminds an amphitheatre lost in lights. Rows gradually
lead to the top and merge into the outline of scattered mountain
peaks in the dark sky.
Enlarge Photo Meghri's Small District (Pokr Tagh)
I am staying overnight at Areviq guesthouse (B&B) in the town's Small
District (Pokr Tagh). The other part is Big District (Mets Tagh).
There is only a pedestrian road to the guesthouse - the short street
with narrow old-fashioned houses ends at the entrance of Areviq.
Hotel manager Armine Petrosyan bought one of the houses in Small
District and turned it into a bed-and-breakfast hotel, which they say
is more like a "people's house" (during the Soviet times people's
houses were originally leisure and cultural centers built with the
intention of making art and cultural appreciation available to the
working classes).
With her background in architecture Petrosyan researched the Small
District and submitted a business proposal to UNESCO on boosting
Meghri's economy through restoration and utilization of the town's
cultural heritage. At this point the project is in UNESCO donor
booklet.
"This house and the one next to it where we have opened a crafts
workshop have been purchased with Izmirian Foundation's financial
support. I am trying to reintroduce the idea of the "people's house"
with all its traditions. The Small District has preserved its unique
architectural profile due to the fact that vehicles have failed to
intrude, it has not been distorted or subjected to urban development,"
says Petrosyan.
The house now hosting Areviq once belonged to prominent Mezhlumyan
family of doctors. This was a district of wealthy people and was once
considered town center with a hospital, a library, 17th-century St.
Hovhannes (St. John) church. Many of the houses are on the verge of
collapse, but even so they stand out for classical decor of doors and
windows - mostly wooden, elaborately carved and arched. The interior
includes decorated fireplaces and wooden ceilings.
Petrosyan is not a native of Meghri, but does her best to save the
Small District with its residential houses of cultural-historical
value. She believes it can become a hospitality center to offer -
if developed - eco-, agro-, and cultural tourism opportunities given
its urban atmosphere. Her future plan includes parks, tea-houses,
and restaurants offering national cuisine.
"I have come to understand the political and economic value. This
sector is highly important for Armenia and has to be activated and
consolidated. We you want to stick paper to the wall, you fix the
corners and edges, not the center, right? And in Armenia we are only
fixing Yerevan, but that's not the proper way," she says.
Meghri in the morning is orange: the sun shining brightly, the colorful
fruit set against the vivid green in orchards, the autumn hues turn
Meghri into a dream town. Women of Small District dry persimmons in
their courtyards. Many have peeled and threaded the dark brown fruit
like beads and hung them like chains.
"Megri's natural-climatic conditions are found nowhere else in
Armenia. And that's the best advantage - figs, pomegranates, persimmon,
kiwi grow there, which in itself is a sight worth seeing.
These mountains and rocks create good opportunities for developing
adventure tourism," says Armen Shahbazyan, in charge of OSCE PIP
office in Syunik.
Enterprise Development and Market Competitiveness project (in
cooperation with United States Agency for International Development)
and OSCE Office in Yerevan's Project Implementation Presence (PIP)
in Syunik have included Meghri in their joint project aimed at
tourism development.
The town with population of 4,800 and on a 400-kilometer distance
from Yerevan is Armenia's southern gate. The state border and the
River Arax separate it from Iran.
Meghri-based tour guide Lilit Khachatryan says Armenia's profile
starts or ends with Meghri. The sources of employment here are wine
and preserve making factories, and Agarak copper-molybdenum combine
10 km from Meghri.
"People mostly earn their living by selling fruits and dried-fruits.
Food in Meghri is especially expensive," says Lilit. "The state doesn't
allow us to purchase staples imported from Iran directly at the border,
meaning it passes by us, then Meghri residents go to Yerevan, buy it
for high prices, bring back and resell it for even higher prices."
In the Big District persimmon "chains" are hanging in the balconies
of residential buildings. When passing by private houses and greeting
the owners (usually out in their courtyards), they see you are not
local and invite you in to show their hospitality by treating you to
the treasures of this fertile land.
"Our rocks and mountains are rough, but people, in contrast, are
tolerant, hospitable and open-hearted. Meghri has huge potential for
tourism, which would also boost the economy and make Meghri people's
life better," says Khachatryan.
Shahbazyan believes the fact that Megri borders with Iran has to be
made proper use of.
"Regional packages [for tourists] are quite common now. They will come
see Meghri and continue to Iran. Another advantage is that they travel
to Yerevan via Meghri. During Nowruz [Iranian New Year] if we manage
to keep them at least a day longer in Meghri it would mean inflow of
money directly to Meghri. We have to think how to interest them. We
could hold one of Iranian singer's concerts here," says Shahbazyan.
While international structures are thinking of ways to boost tourism
in the south end of Armenia, people have their daily troubles to take
care of by their own formula of overcoming the challenges of life in
a remote land.
Taxi driver Davit Hambartsumyan says "some are poor, some are better
off. Or, rather, we work hard, but don't earn well. We wake up early
in the morning, spend the whole day on the run, return home in the
evening, and what's the benefit? Nothing."
"No use, no profit," unanimously say also the women of Meghri, who
are trying to earn their families' living with the harvest from their
orchards - they barter fruit for cabbage, carrots, beets and potatoes
with villagers from other provinces.
Meghri has wide opportunities not only tourism-wise. With investments
a number of branches of economy can be developed, which in turn would
create new jobs.
"Otherwise, young people are moving from Meghri. There is no community
development project to keep people here. And for how long can people
survive by selling fruits and dried-fruits?" says Khachatryan.