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Azerbaijani Border Villages Living On The Edge

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  • Azerbaijani Border Villages Living On The Edge

    AZERBAIJANI BORDER VILLAGES LIVING ON THE EDGE

    Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
    IWPR Caucasus Reporting #736
    May 29 2014

    Residents were happy to get a new road linking them with the rest of
    Azerbaijan, but they lost their water supply in the process.

    By Afgan Mukhtarli - Caucasus

    Residents of an Azerbaijani village close to the border with Armenia
    say they feel neglected by their government, and have seen little
    of the large sums of money earmarked for impoverished frontier areas
    like theirs.

    Gushchu Ayrim, in the Qazakh district in northeast Azerbaijan, was
    once considered prosperous but is now barely surviving. It was badly
    damaged by fighting during the Nagorny Karabakh war of the early
    1990s. Worse was to come, as residents found themselves surrounded
    on three sides by Armenian-held land, restricting their movement and
    leaving them constantly at risk of cross-border gunfire.

    A 1994 ceasefire brought the Karabakh war to an end, but there has been
    no progress towards a political settlement, and shots are frequently
    fired across the front lines, in both directions.

    The Azerbaijani government is trying to throw villages like Gushchu
    Ayrim a lifeline with millions of US dollars in infrastructure
    spending. Last year, it replaced the rough track leading to the village
    with 30 kilometres of asphalted road. The government's procurement
    agency, say the government spent 11 million manats (14 million dollars)
    on the project.

    However, the villagers say they ended up worse off than before after
    their water supply was accidentally cut off by the road-builders. The
    mains pipe bringing spring water to the village was smashed to pieces.

    "There's a spring on the edge of the village, right on the border
    with Armenia. The water from this spring flowed to the centre of the
    village, to the cafe," local resident Khanim Ismayilova told IWPR.

    "When they were building the road, it ended up being bulldozered. They
    gave us an asphalt road, but what are we supposed to do for drinking
    water?"

    Her neighbour Nuru Hajiyev said the loss of the water supply was
    especially hard to take since getting the road had been such an
    achievement. Before it was laid, it was often impossible to travel
    out of the village in autumn and winter.

    "We wrote and wrote everywhere, even to the president and the first
    lady. Finally, they found the money and the road was repaired,"
    he said. "But now we don't have any water, since no one thought to
    repair the pipes."

    Hajiyev said that when he asked the local authorities to carry out
    the necessary repairs, "they promised to do it, but they haven't kept
    their word".

    The villagers have to get their water from sources in the surrounding
    hills, sometimes several kilometres away. Many use donkeys to transport
    the water, but Irada Iskanderova does not have one so she has to
    carry it herself.

    "If the water was just for drinking, we could carry as much as we need
    on donkeys. But we need a lot of water to wash clothes and ourselves,"
    she said. "How are we to irrigate our plants and water our animals?"

    Her neighbour Emil Iskandarov described the particular risks of
    keeping livestock over the dry season.

    "Everyone has two or three animals, and it's hot in summer and we'll
    have nothing to give them to drink," he said. "We'll have to take them
    to the spring, right on the border, and it's dangerous there. There
    are landmines, and the Armenians might open fire at any moment."

    The mayor of Gushchu Ayrim, Elman Nasibov, said villagers were
    overlooking all the good things the government had done for them.

    "We have a new road and a new health centre. A new school building
    is being built, and it will be opened by this September," he said.

    "Damaged houses are being repaired. Problems are being solved all
    the time, and the water problem is going to be solved, too."

    The physical risks and underdevelopment characteristic of border
    villages are forcing people to leave in search of work elsewhere,
    mostly in the capital Baku.

    "Villagers are leaving areas near the front line because of the social
    problems," Natiq Jafarli of the opposition REAL movement told IWPR.

    "As part of its regional development plan, the government has...

    assigned two billion manats [to border areas]. But like many others
    before it, this programme has not been completed, and many problems
    remain."

    Last month, Qanira Pashayeva, a non-aligned member of parliament,
    proposed a package of benefits for frontier villages - free utilities,
    free education, and incentives for businesses that created workplaces.

    Her proposal was backed by Aydin Mirzazade from the ruling Yeni
    Azerbaijan party.

    Addressing parliament, Mirzazade added his own ideas - freeing farms
    and businesses from taxes, and paying teachers and healthcare workers
    higher salaries to encourage them to stay.

    Afgan Mukhtarli is a journalist in Azerbaijan writing for
    www.civil-forum.az.

    http://iwpr.net/report-news/azerbaijani-border-villages-living-edge

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