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CONSOLIDATING COMMUNITIES: PILOT PROJECT MERGES SMALL VILLAGES
http://armenianow.com/society/51435/armenian_villages_tsakhadzor_dilijan_jermuk_meghri
SOCIETY | 17.01.14 | 23:26
Photolure
By GAYANE MKRTCHYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
The Ministry of Regional Administration of Armenia will be carrying out
the pilot projects of the community merging program for 14 communities
in Tsakhkadzor, Dilijan, Jermuk and Tatev.
Deputy minister of regional administration Vache Terteryan says first
of all the state subsidy issue to small communities (with 30, 40 or
50 residents) has to be solved. By the law on "Financial Leveling",
communities are given state subsidies for keeping personnel and for
taking care of other community expenses.
"The subsidy goes to keeping the existing personnel of a 'non-existing'
community, which is nonsense; when we talk so much about community
merging, first of all that issue has be solved in terms of
organizational side of things. There cannot be a community with
no permanent population, or when during the major part of the year
permanent residents do not live there, but we view it as a community,
keep a staff there; even if we keep maintaining personnel it should
be done differently than in other communities," says Terteryan.
Armenia's southern gate, Meghri region is planned to be merged into one
big community to include the town of Meghri, Agarak and the adjoining
rural communities. The residents there are unhappy with the idea and
are planning to protest it. The deputy minister has given assurances
that nothing will be done without prior discussion with the population.
"It is about merging to make less but bigger communities, we will try
to convince the local population, not the representatives, but the
very population, that that's the right thing to do and a referendum
will be held," says Terteryan.
Syunik province's Shishkert village, which is 150 km from Kapan, has
been merged with Tsav community, which is 12 km from Kapan. However,
18 residents of Shishkert, opposing the idea, keep stubbornly residing
in their home village.
"They made it so that this village vanished from the map, but I
will continue living here, proving that the village exists. And I
am Lavrenty Grigoryan, 68 years of age," says beekeeper Grigoryan,
with frustration.
Shishket is under the supervision of Tsav's village head. They receive
their pensions in Tsav, go for shopping to Tsav.
"During the soviet years the village had over a hundred households,
and over the recent years some 18 or 19 families used to live in the
newly-built houses, but they, too, have left. There is no school,
so partly they leave because of that, others to find jobs. Slowly
there is almost nobody left, no village. It's only this few of us,"
says Hmayak Galstyan from Shishkert.
During the 2012 presidential campaign, President Serzh Sargsyan
reflected on the community merging program.
"If there is a village today with 5,000-6,000 residents, with gas
and irrigation water supply, schools are reconstructed and there
is a kindergarten, I'd like it if the 10-12 families residing some
seven kilometers higher would come down to live in that village until
we are able to also lay gas pipes to that village, too, or build a
school there. The problems are so numerous, it's too early to think
about those issues..." said the then presidential candidate Sargsyan,
running for his second term in the office.
Among the members of the five families 60-year-old Valya Balayan
is the most stubborn. She has married-off her daughters, but keeps
living here together with her husband and three sons. Balayan has
different demands from the President.
"Let Serzh (President Sargsyan) do something, look after our youth,
I will wed them, they'll have families, children, a school would open,
a shop would open, why leave when they can live in their homeland? If
they move to Russia, who is going to work our land, protect our border,
if something happens now, won't my three sons be the first to go?" she
says with both pride and frustration.
http://armenianow.com/society/51435/armenian_villages_tsakhadzor_dilijan_jermuk_meghri
SOCIETY | 17.01.14 | 23:26
Photolure
By GAYANE MKRTCHYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
The Ministry of Regional Administration of Armenia will be carrying out
the pilot projects of the community merging program for 14 communities
in Tsakhkadzor, Dilijan, Jermuk and Tatev.
Deputy minister of regional administration Vache Terteryan says first
of all the state subsidy issue to small communities (with 30, 40 or
50 residents) has to be solved. By the law on "Financial Leveling",
communities are given state subsidies for keeping personnel and for
taking care of other community expenses.
"The subsidy goes to keeping the existing personnel of a 'non-existing'
community, which is nonsense; when we talk so much about community
merging, first of all that issue has be solved in terms of
organizational side of things. There cannot be a community with
no permanent population, or when during the major part of the year
permanent residents do not live there, but we view it as a community,
keep a staff there; even if we keep maintaining personnel it should
be done differently than in other communities," says Terteryan.
Armenia's southern gate, Meghri region is planned to be merged into one
big community to include the town of Meghri, Agarak and the adjoining
rural communities. The residents there are unhappy with the idea and
are planning to protest it. The deputy minister has given assurances
that nothing will be done without prior discussion with the population.
"It is about merging to make less but bigger communities, we will try
to convince the local population, not the representatives, but the
very population, that that's the right thing to do and a referendum
will be held," says Terteryan.
Syunik province's Shishkert village, which is 150 km from Kapan, has
been merged with Tsav community, which is 12 km from Kapan. However,
18 residents of Shishkert, opposing the idea, keep stubbornly residing
in their home village.
"They made it so that this village vanished from the map, but I
will continue living here, proving that the village exists. And I
am Lavrenty Grigoryan, 68 years of age," says beekeeper Grigoryan,
with frustration.
Shishket is under the supervision of Tsav's village head. They receive
their pensions in Tsav, go for shopping to Tsav.
"During the soviet years the village had over a hundred households,
and over the recent years some 18 or 19 families used to live in the
newly-built houses, but they, too, have left. There is no school,
so partly they leave because of that, others to find jobs. Slowly
there is almost nobody left, no village. It's only this few of us,"
says Hmayak Galstyan from Shishkert.
During the 2012 presidential campaign, President Serzh Sargsyan
reflected on the community merging program.
"If there is a village today with 5,000-6,000 residents, with gas
and irrigation water supply, schools are reconstructed and there
is a kindergarten, I'd like it if the 10-12 families residing some
seven kilometers higher would come down to live in that village until
we are able to also lay gas pipes to that village, too, or build a
school there. The problems are so numerous, it's too early to think
about those issues..." said the then presidential candidate Sargsyan,
running for his second term in the office.
Among the members of the five families 60-year-old Valya Balayan
is the most stubborn. She has married-off her daughters, but keeps
living here together with her husband and three sons. Balayan has
different demands from the President.
"Let Serzh (President Sargsyan) do something, look after our youth,
I will wed them, they'll have families, children, a school would open,
a shop would open, why leave when they can live in their homeland? If
they move to Russia, who is going to work our land, protect our border,
if something happens now, won't my three sons be the first to go?" she
says with both pride and frustration.