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Armenian conductor waiting for that train for 20 years

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  • Armenian conductor waiting for that train for 20 years

    Armenian conductor waiting for that train for 20 years

    http://www.armradio.am/en/2013/03/04/armenian-conductor-waiting-for-that-train-for-20-years/
    13:09 04.03.2013


    The halt of train services between Turkey and Armenia has created
    several tragic human stories; one of them belongs to Agop Gevorgyan.
    After train services were suspended, Gevorgyan was dismissed from his
    job as a train conductor and made a guard at Akhuryan train station.

    There were regular train services between the Akhuryan Train Station
    in the Armenian city of Gyumri and Turkey's DoÄ?u Kapı (East Gate)
    station in Kars province. However, upon the closure of the
    Turkey-Armenia border, train services were halted in 1993. With this
    suspension, serious victims of tragic human stories emerged both on
    the Turkish side and the Armenian side.

    The Hurriyet Daily News presents the story of Agop Gevorgyan.

    'Agop Gevorgyan was conducting the train to Kars' DoÄ?u Kapı Station
    every day for years. He carried the goods loaded from Armenia to
    Turkey. From Turkey, he would bring various food items to his country.
    During those trips Agop Gevorgyan became friends with many people,
    primarily with an official named Å?ükrü at the DoÄ?u Kapı station in
    Turkey. In March 1993, while Agop Gevorgyan was preparing for a Kars
    trip, he received an order, `You will not go today, services have been
    halted.'

    Gevorgyan first thought this would be a short-lived decision and
    expected the border to be opened soon. He waited for the start of
    train services with hope. Days went by and the order of `start
    services' never came. Gevorgyan's train never left the station to
    Kars. However, Gevorgyan never abandoned the Akhuryan train station.
    Because there were no train services, he was dismissed as a conductor
    and was made a guard. He said, `After the services were halted I
    started working as a guard in this station. Our time was spent
    sitting, most of the time idly. For 20 years we have been waiting for
    the train services to start. Over there, there are the lights of
    Turkey. We have been watching those lights for 20 years and waiting
    for the border to reopen. People in the Akhurik village situated
    around this station moved away.'

    With the closure of the border, Gevorgyan explained, those friendships
    he had formed in Turkey also ended: `I had a friend named Å?ükrü in
    Turkey. On those trips to Turkey, we would always get together.

    We would meet each other every day. Å?ükrü was a good friend of mine
    but when the border was closed, our connection was cut. I learned a
    few years ago that Å?ükrü had died. I was very sad. I would have wanted
    to see him again.' Gevorgyan said he was hopefully waiting for the
    train services to start.

    `It is very boring for us now to wait the entire day. ¦ It is time the
    border opens and I go back and forth to Turkey with my train.'

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