armenianow.com
July 30, 2004
Vacation Armenian Style: Living the dacha life
By Julia Hakobyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
For more than 20 years summer holiday has meant a cottage in Karashamb for
the Stepanyan family of Yerevan.
The family stays in the village almost every weekend in summer, enjoying the
pure mountainous air and the coolness of a fruit garden, where the hammock,
swimming pool and a brazier for barbeque provide a break from the working
week.
Dachaland
“Most of all we enjoy the gardening,” says Areg Stepanyan, 35 “and relaxing
taking care of fruit trees and flowers.”
The story of the family dacha, (as Armenians call the summer cottages) goes
back to Soviet times, when in 1983 Areg’s father Vigen Stepanyan, got a plot
of land in the unsettled area of Karashamb, 35 kilometers north of Yerevan
in the Kotayk region. Stepanyan, an employee of the Yerevan Computer
Research and Development Institute was granted land for building summer
houses along with 500 other employees of their Institute. Despite the area
was bare and rocky the families decided to convert the desert into a cozy
spot of comfort.
Dachas are built in all regions of Armenia and many Armenians are fond of
spending weekends far from the noisy and dusty city during the hot summer
season. Some come for fresh air, others for weekend parties, and others,
like the Stepanyans, for gardening.
The seasonal homes are as diverse as the occupants and range from sparse,
modest hovels to luxurious Western-styled villas.
Dacha season starts with the first warmth of summer and concludes with the
return of school and the cool breaths of Autumn.
“It is hard to believe than some 20 years ago nothing looked like it does
here today,” Areg says. “And it’s hard to believe that we made the stones
bloom.”
Areg was 14 when he saw the area of future summer residences. “It was a huge
trench surrounded by mountains, where there was no water, no soil, and even
the weeds hardly made a way to grow.”
Too much harvest for one family
It took the Stepanyans and other families some 10 years to build houses and
lay out gardens.
Today the area where the academicians breathed life into desert is
captivating and every weekend from the two-storied wide-roofed houses buried
in verdures are heard the joyful voices of people inspired by their
mini-holidays.
“Some people come to dacha only for barbeque, but not us,” Areg says. “We
love gardening and come here for gardening. My late father put so much
effort in each tree that gardening is now rather a family tradition.”
In summer season Areg, his family, his sister’s family and their mother come
to the dacha each weekend, and each week they leave it with buckets full of
cherries, apricots, peach, currants, and other fruits.
“We can buy it all from the market, but it is so much pleasure eating fruits
from your own tree,” says Areg’s mother Sonya.
The Stepanyans say that a harvest from a garden of 500 sq. m. is too much
for both families even after they make jams for winter and they gladly give
the fruits to their neighbors and friends.
We often invite our friends to spend a night or two in the dacha. When our
guests learn that we have a big garden and apart from having fun have to
take care of it many say ‘Oh, no, do we have to work too? We don’t like
gardening.’ But once they enter a garden they start to work,” says Sonya.
“Some see the dry trees and want to water them; others see branches cracking
with fruit. They confess that gardening is really a relaxing procedure and
it makes people feel very close to nature.”
From: Baghdasarian

RIA Novosti, Russia
July 30 2004
ARMENIA SEEKING EU MEMBERSHIP
YEREVAN, July 30 (RIA Novosti) – Membership in the European Union is
a strategic goal of Armenia’s foreign policy, Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanyan said in an interview for the French magazine Politique
Internationale.
In Mr. Oskanyan’s opinion, all countries of the South Caucasus are
seeking to integrate into the European Union. “We really want to
become part of the union to live side-by side with the other
twenty-five EU member states, keeping in mind that we still have a
long way to go,” he pointed out.
To the Armenians, integration into the EU is of particular
importance, as they see it as a return to the ancestral civilization
from where their nation emerged, Mr. Oskanyan said.
Speaking of the prospect of Turkey’s accession, the Armenian Foreign
Minister said it was a universally recognized fact that that country
could not join the European Union right away as it falls short of the
EU standards. It will take the Turks ten to fifteen years to effect
reforms that will enable them to meet admission requirements.

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
July 30 2004
OPPOSITION LEADER CALLS FOR PROTEST AGAINST ARMENIAN OFFICERS`
ARRIVAL IN BAKU
BAKU, 30.07.04. The Unified Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (UAPFP)
will be organizing a series of pickets outside the ministries of
Defense and Foreign Affairs, as well as the embassies of NATO member
states in Baku to protest against the participation of Armenian
officers in NATO training to be held in Azerbaijan this September.
MP Gudrat Hasanguliyev, chairman of the UAPFP, told a Tuesday news
conference that his party had applied to several international
organizations and some foreign embassies in Baku requesting them to
prevent the Armenian officers` visit to the Azerbaijani capital.
Hasanguliyev stressed that if the Azerbaijani community showed a
strong protest the relevant governmental bodies and international
organizations would give in.

armenianow.com
July 30, 2004
Vacation Armenian Style: A pilgrimage to the rock of ages
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
A big cave stands out against the background of a mountain opposite
the road leading to Geghard Monastery . Two holes like eyes seem to
peer from the rock keeping watch over the middle ages church. Anyone
who visits Armenia learns of Geghard. Not as many, however, know that
there was a time when the cave was a pilgrimage place where those who
managed to survive the impassible road lit candles for realizing their
dreams.
God made the cave; man made the rooms
It was (is) also a great retreat from summer heat and today has become a
leisure spot. Nobody promises ”rooms with European design and
twenty-four-hour hot and cold water”. But if your idea of a vacation (or
even a getaway) is untouched nature, relaxing sounds and the gurgle of a
river in an exotic environment, the Geghard caves offer it all. And Mother
Nature gives it for free.
For six years jeweler Robert Hovsepyan has been spending several rest days
in this cave and although he can afford to enjoy more comfortable vacations,
only here he finds complete harmony escaping from urban noise.
This time in his favorite cave he received his friend from Georgia painter
Maria Mehrabyan, who despite spending all her life in Georgia, has now
decided to settle down in her homeland.
This place is of particular importance for residents of the neighboring
villages. The cave, as they call it Tchgnavor’s Zagha (”cave” translated
from Turkish) or Kioroghli’s Zagha (”cave of a blind man’s son” from
Turkish), is a pilgrimage place for them.
”Even if somebody is planning to leave outside for work or is going to face
exams or he has a dream then they necessarily go to Zagha for lighting
candles and comforting their souls and only after that they do whatever
they’ve planned,” says 73-year-old Vazgen Kirakosyan.
The cave was once used by Geghard clerics who devoted themselves to an
ascetic life.
According to spiritual father of Geghard priest Ter Petros Malyan, there are
about 150 caves in the neighboring mountains of the church. There was a time
when these caves served clerics for a hermitage. They says there is even a
cave where Saint Grigor the Illuminator would live as a hermit.
Mountain-side solitude
According to Father Petros, these caves used to serve not only spiritual but
also defensive purposes. Armenian historian of 17th century Arakel
Davrizhetsi also bears record to that fact writing that during military
campaigns of Shah Abbas villagers were taking refuge in Tchgnavor’s Zagha.
However, cunning Persians burnt wet grass below the cave and smoke choked
women and children hiding in the cave. ”There were strange smiles on the
faces of choked people as if they were favored with eternal rest,” writes
the historian.
Of course, today this sad story has been forgotten and people hide in
Tchgnavor’s Zagha not from enemies but simply to escape from sun and
pollution and the routine life of the city.
For getting to the cave you have to walk a long road leading through thorny
briar bushes and over a stony river. If you can successfully overcome the
path then you reach the real challenge of climbing over the rock to reach
the cave entrance. The mania of reaching the cave fills even the most coward
visitors with courage. Regular visitors to the cave made the path easier in
some measure. They dug foot prints in the ground and fixed rope for safety
next to a 20 centimeter wide path leading over the rock.
After a few mountaineering jumps the rock is conquered and the huge cave,
which looked like a small hole when looking at it from afar, is before your
eyes with all of its beauty.
The cave is divided into several parts and only the first part is natural
while others were dug by visitors. Walls and ceiling of the middle-sized
rooms are completely covered in engraved graffiti, such as: ”One has to
have more power to live than to die”.
There was a time when clerics tasted that power of faith and life, isolating
themselves from comfortable life and settling down in this cave.
Big cave, small journalist
Robert Hovsepyan believes that in this cave people really experience new
feelings of self-assessment and self-knowledge and begin to look at life
with new standards.
”Many people like to visit this place. Sometimes it even happens when there
is no place to stay here,” says Hovsepyan, who passes through 40 centimeter
wide openings in the rock with the abyss below, as if walking around in his
house.
A most peculiar part of the cave is a place like a chair located on the edge
of rock fragment. It is a narrow ”armchair” dug in the rock, in which only
thin people can sit. The whole ”armchair” is in the air and it is
connected with the rock only by a small part. Its upper part pushes out
arch-wise and gives its guest a feeling of aloneness. This stone seat is
also an echo chamber sending even whispers circling back around its guest’s
ears. Perhaps it was meant for praying?
Almost every day guests go to Tchgnavor’s Zagha.
Varduhi Zohrabyan, a waitress at a café on the road to the cave says
tourists visiting them are very interested in that cave and even old
tourists venture to climb it.
”Every time I feel proud when foreigners say words of praise about our
Geghard and I also feel happy when they pay attention to the cave too,”
says Zohrabyan. “What do we have except for these beautiful, wonderful
monuments? We should be represented to the world by them.”

ArmenPress
July 30 2004
PRIME MINISTER RECEIVES NEWLY APPOINTED IRAN AMBASSADOR
YEREVAN, JULY 30, ARMENPRESS: Armenian prim minister Andranik
Margarian received today the newly appointed ambassador of Iran to
Armenia Ali Reza Haqiqian.
According to government press services, congratulating the
ambassador on his new tenure in our country, Margarian voiced hope
that Armenian-Iranian relations will continue to boost during his
term in office. He said history long friendship between the two
nations, historical cultural ties, mutually beneficial relations
between Armenia and Iran since Armenia’s independence are creating
good grounds for boosting relations.
Andranik Margarian noted that Armenia prioritizes both bilateral
and multilateral relations with Iran promoted by high level meetings
and exchange visits on both sides. In this context, the sides
underscored Iranian president Mohammad Khatami’ s visit to Armenia on
September 8-9, 2004.
During the meeting, the two men emphasized also that multifaceted
relations between Armenia and Iran not only are within the interests
of both country but are favorable for the whole region. Iranian
ambassador noted that his country is not only interested in the
regional peace but in domestic stability in Armenia and its economic
development.
The two men underscored May 13, 2004 agreement on building
Iran-Armenia pipe line and also building a hydro power station on
Arax river. The also attached importance to the 4th session of
intergovernmental committees held in Tehran on December 9-11, 2002
during which a number of important documents were signed.
At the end of the meeting, Andranik Margarian wished success to
the newly appointed ambassador in his mission in our country and
expressed his personal and the government’s commitment to support
him.

ArmenPress
July 30 2004
GOVERNMENT TO RELEASE AID TO DAMAGED COMMUNITIES
YEREVAN, JULY 30, ARMENPRESS: The government decided Thursday to
release a one-time financial assistance to residents of several rural
communities in Armavir province whose farms and houses were damaged
by strong hailstorms and winds on July 9. Each of 3,673 households
will get some 100,000 drams (less than $200) in assistance.
Also some 20 million will be released for repair of public
buildings, damaged in these communities. The overall amount of the
aid is 465 million drams.

ArmenPress
July 30 2004
ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT, WORLD BANK SEAL CREDIT PROJECTS
YEREVAN, JULY 30, ARMENPRESS: The Armenian government and World
Bank sealed today an agreement according to which the World bank will
allocate a US$10.15 million equivalent credit for the Public Sector
Modernization Project, a US$ 5.15 million equivalent credit for the
Armenia Social Protection and Administration Project, and a US$ 19
million equivalent credit for the Armenia Health System Modernization
Project.
The US$10.15 million equivalent Public Sector Modernization
Project will assist the government in its efforts to improve the
transparency, accountability, effectiveness and efficiency of public
sector management. This is the first World Bank-supported project
focused on public sector reforms. The project will support civil
service reforms, and will make specific innovations in core public
institutions, which should become a catalyst for further
modernization efforts.
The Health System Modernization project will assist the government
in improving the organization of the health care system to provide
more accessible, efficient and sustainable health care services to
the population, in particular to the most vulnerable groups; and, to
better manage public health threats.
The Social Protection and Administration project will assist the
government in improving the performance by the public employment,
pension and social assistance agencies in providing services to the
population. The performance will be improved through the introduction
of improved business processes, administrative procedures and
techniques designed to enhance social protection to poor and
vulnerable population groups. Social Protection management
modernization remains a key priority in Armenia. Recognizing the need
to protect poor and vulnerable groups, the Government is planning to
undertake a range of actions aimed at increasing efficiency and
sustainability of social protection programs The credits will be made
to Armenia on standard IDA terms, including 40 years maturity and a
10-year grace period.

Insurance Day
July 30, 2004
Armenian case enters final hearing
A hearing is being held today to give final approval for a $20m
settlement between New York Life Insurance and descendants of
Armenians killed almost 90 years ago in the Turkish Ottoman Empire.
The settlement relates to an estimated 2,300 policies sold by the
insurer to Armenians living in the Ottoman Empre in the late 1800s
and early 1900s.
>From April 1915 onwards, many of these policyholders were among the
1.5m slaughtered in attacks on Armenians within the empire.
California insurance commissioner John Garamendi, a leading figure in
the campaign to earn the settlement for descendants of those killed,
described the action as a “deliberate, systematic and
government-controlled genocide”. The settlement was given preliminary
approval at a hearing in January, and final approval is expected to
be given in today’s hearing.
Brian Kabateck, an attorney representing the plaintiffs and who is of
Armenian descent and lost family in the genocide, explained: “This is
the first time a court anywhere in the US or possibly the world has
formally recognised the Armenian genocide and the trauma and turmoil
that resulted.
“While this settlement is not repatriation for the genocide, as
lawyers, we can help bring recognition that further recognises the
Armenian genocide something the US and Turkey still refuse to do.”
Armenians have always maintained 1.5m people were executed by Turkish
authorities between 1915 and 1919 on accusations of helping the
invading Russian army. Although France and Russia have already
recognised the genocide, Turkey and the US have always rejected the
claims, saying Armenians were killed in civil unrest associated with
the collapse of the empire.
Mr Kabateck has said the settlement will mark a significant step in
the campaign towards getting the US to acknowledge the act as
genocide. Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry has promised to
formally recognise the Armenian genocide if he is elected.
Mr Garamendi is set to continue his prominent role in the process, as
he will be responsible for appointing a three-member settlement fund
board which will oversee the approval of claims. This board will also
be responsible for distributing £3m ($5.45m) of the settlement to
nine Armenian charitable organisations.

Agence France Presse — English
July 30, 2004 Friday
Castro’s Olympic warriors roar into Athens
by RON WALL
PARIS, July 30
Fidel Castro’s Olympic warriors are set to take Athens by storm as
Cuban boxers set out to show the Americans and east Europeans they
are still the best.
Cuban fighters have won 27 gold medals since the great Teofilo
Stevenson won the first of his three titles at Munich in 1972 and
that takes into account the boycotted Games of 1984 and 1988.
That is eight more than the US has managed in the same period, though
they boycotted the 1980 Games in Moscow.
Cuban coach Alcides Sagarra says Cubans fight to win.
“We are training to take all 11 gold medals at Athens. You don’t win
if you aim low,” he says.
Castro banned professional sport in 1962 but his unswerving support
of his ideological warriors ensures young Cubans all the help they
need.
“Our social system guarantees their development,” says Sagarra.
Ideology and tough training make the Cubans tough opponents ready to
defend their flag. Stevenson even turned down a fistful of money to
challenge Muhammad Ali.
And Sagarra believes Cuban ability to dance like a butterfly makes
them able to defend themselves like Muhammad Ali.
“European boxers use their strength. We’re more like salsa dancers.”
Cuba and Russia shared top gun status with three gold medals each at
last year’s world championships in Bangkok.
Kazakhstan proved a surprise package with two golds while hosts
Thailand picked up their first ever title.
The Cubans won seven out of 12 gold medals at the 2001 championships
and had to depend on reigning champions Lorenzo Aragon
(welterweight), Mario Kindelan (lightweight) and Odlanier Fonte Solis
(heavyweight) to keep them in the spotlight in Thailand.
They will have noted 2001 champion Yan Varelan Bateleny’s defeat to
Zou Shiming, a pencil-slim 22-year-old Chinese with quick hands and
feet, in the light flyweight division.
Russia’s Sergei Kazakov proved too strong on finals night but the
watching coaches were made well aware that a sleeping giant had been
aroused.
But the Cubans believe they have got back into shape in their
year-round training camp.
Athens prospects are headed by Kindelan and Guillermo Rigondeaux,
54kg, who won two of Cuba’s four gold medals at the Sydney Games four
years ago.
Kindelan, 31, plans to go out with a bang as he retires after Athens.
Rigondeaux wans to make amends for last year’s world championship
defeat to Agasi Mamedov of Azerbaijan which signalled his first loss
since 1996.
Mamedov had lost to Rigondeaux in the bantamweight final at the 2001
worlds and the quarter-finals of the Sydney Olympics.
The US saw eight of their boxers lose in the first round in Bangkok
amid allegations of biased judging and pleaded with the sport’s
governing body to clean up anti-American sentiment.
Armenian-born 18-year-old Vanes Martirosyan, who lost to Aragon in
the Olympic test event in May is confident he has learnt enough to
get the better of the Cuban the next time around.
Head coach Basheer Abdullah believes the Army, Islam and life on the
streets have given him what it takes to lead the US team to Olympic
glory.
And like Malcolm X he says he speaks the language of the people.
But, ultimately, it is up to everyone giving 100 per cent … and
trusting in God.
“Sometimes the judging is biased, politics are involved and some
people think the scoring system is bad but I don’t buy into any of
that,” he says.
And he says if his fighters stick to the Big Three they can win.
“Hands up, be first and stay in the centre of the ring. Our boxers
must add these three things,” he says.
Thai featherweight Somluck Kumsing, gold medallist at the 1996
Atlanta Games, brings the experience needed to survive in the Olympic
coliseum while 17-year-old Amir Khan of Britian has the cocky
assurance of youth.
Khan, who is fighting in the same category as world number one
Kindelan, says: “I know about Mario Kindelan, who won in the Olympics
in Sydney, and I think he’s beatable.
“I’ve also seen a couple from Asia and Africa and they looked good
but I think I’d be all right against them and beat any of them.”

armenianow.com
July 30, 2004
Vacation Armenian Style: Hankavan, the other “water world”
By Vahan Ishkhanyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
”When you plunge into hot water you find yourself right in a dream,” says
Russian language teacher Karineh Nersesova.
Nersesova is among those who have found the springs of the Hankavan Health
Resort, where pools and baths are naturally filled by mineral waters at
temperatures of 37-42C (about 100-110F).
Water is special in Hankavan
Hankavan village is located 80 kilometers north of Yerevan. It is the last
settlement of the gorge of Marmarik River. The gorge straggles out 40
kilometers long, all of it a recreation zone.
Bald on one side the other side is surrounded with mountains covered with
forests through which Marmarik River flows. Hankavan, about 1,900 meters
above sea level, is a king of the gorge surrounded with pine-trees where hot
waters spring from under the ground and where the head of Marmarik River is
located a little bit upwards towards the mountains.
Karmrakhayt (river trout) inhabit the part of Marmarik River flowing next to
Hankavan (this subspecies of trout can be found in high-mountain cold
rivers). However, it disappears in the waters of the river flowing two
kilometers downwards. The average temperature in summer is 18 0C (64F).
During Soviet times the health resort belonged to a medical institution for
high-ranking officials. The upper class of Armenia rested and received
treatment there, beginning in 1963.
Chief doctor Artashes Gevorgyan, who has held his post for 30 years, recalls
many high-ranking guests. Today, anyone can rest and receive treatment in
Hankavan for a cost of 6600 drams (about $13) per day, which includes
accommodation, meals and medical advice.
Hankavan mineral waters have healing properties and are believed to cure
diseases of liver, gall-bladder, pancreas and ailments of the nervous
system.
The alkaline waters contain potassium, calcium, iodine and other minerals.
”Our water differs from Jermuk despite Jermuk is also mineral,” says the
doctor. “For instance, people suffering from hypoxemia, or the lack of
acidity in the organism undergo treatment here while on the contrary in
Jermuk people suffering from hyperoxemia receive treatment.” People both
can drink the water as well as bathe in it.
Nersesova receives internal as well as external treatment.
”I heard people have a nice rest here but all my expectations were
surpassed,” she says. “The resort is clean, food is good, the environment,
forests, air and river are just wonderful,.
“My mother was an honored doctor and she worked at the polyclinic of KGB.
Every year she used to spend her vacations in resorts of Russia and Black
Sea. When she came here she never left for somewhere else after that. Every
year she began spending her vacations here. She used to say that Hankavan
was equal to all other places in everything. Treatment and rest just
wonderfully coexist here.”
Soak, but don’t linger
However, only carpeted stairs remind of the health resort’s former
luxuriance. The resort used to function all year, but now is open only two
months a year (July and August).
Baths are not filled with water in basement floors and a gallery where
patients once drank hot water has run dry, leaving only bright yellow
mineral traces.
The water springs have been privatized. A plant has been constructed on one
part. At the plant CO2 (carbon dioxide) is separated from mineral water and
sold to a company that produces ice and one to factories to use with milk
products.
The resort pays the plant for use of the waters.
”They use all the water, pour it into the river and don’t provide us with
it,” says Gevorgyan. “Last year I paid 100,000 drams (about $200) so that
they fill baths with water. During Soviet times mineral water belonged to
the health resort and only we had the right to administer it. They had to
come and ask us for water. But now everything has changed, now we ask for
water.”
Today, a half-hour in a pool costs 1000 drams (about $2) and a 30-minute
bath is 500 drams.
Visitors are cautioned that it is unhealthy to spend too much time in the
water.
“If you want you can stay here for an hour but it is dangerous to be in
water for more than ten minutes,” says attendant Serozh. “My friend, my duty
is to warn you and for the rest then it is your business.”
Serozh says he used to be confined to bed because of a spinal problem.
Mineral baths cured him he says and then he started working at the resort.
”There is no sanatorium now. It was a sanatorium 20 years ago,” says
regular visitor of the health resort, former head of collective farm Arshak
Harutyunyan.
He recalls how he was spending vacations with the former First Secretary of
the Armenian Communist Party Anton Kochinyan. ”Hankavan was his favorite
place. Every day he used to climb the peak of that mountain. He would say,
‘Arshak, let’s climb together,’ but I would answer, ‘no, Anton Yervandich, I
can not,’ then in the evening he would say, ‘Arshak, let’s drink,’ but I
would answer, ‘no, Anton Yervandich, I’m receiving treatment, I cannot
drink.’ Eh! What days we had and what is left now . . .”
Armenian-American businessman Vrezh Saryan purchased the health resort four
years ago. He was born in Armenia and 30 years ago he left for USA. He was
involved in honey business and achieved great successes. During Soviet times
when he was a child he was having rest in Hankavan’s pioneer camp. However,
he was attracted first to with Hankavan by the mineral waters.
Saryan wants to bring western -style attractions
”I saw mineral water health resorts in Turkish city Ponakyal and in Israel.
Americans made 99% of people receiving treatment there,” he says, ”and the
idea was born. We have such mineral waters in Armenia, so, we should do
something to make Americans come here for having rest and receiving
treatment.”
Saryan is planning big investments and dreams to turn Hankavan into a center
of international tourism. He says he will build cottages and a 2,000-seat
amphitheater like the Hollywood Bowl, which he’ll call “Hankavank Bowl”.
”It will be ready in 2006,” the owner says. “Placido Domingo promised me to
come and perform here. I hope James Brown will also come here. There will be
rock concerts too.” He is planning to construct the entire health resort in
American style. Vacationers will be moving around the territory in the golf
carts, one of which stands next to his house.
However, it is yet not decided how mineral water will be sent back to the
health resort again as all springs are privatized. ”There are problems
connected with water but authorities must help. I wrote a letter to the
president and he replied, ‘Saryan, you have no problems’,” he says showing
letter of the president’s advisor where it is promised to render assistance
to the program.
Hankavan village has also been turned into a recreation zone. Greeks were
former residents of the village. Now only about 20 are left, as most sold
their houses to Yerevantsis. In winters there are about 40 residents in the
village while in summers when holiday season begins the population increases
three to four times.
The Ghushoghlyan family from Yerevan has been spending its vacations in
Hankavan for 20 years. During Soviet times they were renting a room in the
village and later they purchased a house and added a second floor to it.
”We fell in love with Hankavan,” says Arevik Ghushoghlyan. ”Before, when
we were going somewhere for having rest, either to sea or somewhere else, in
August we were necessarily visiting Hankavan.” Her daughter, 12-year-old
Arpineh, has been having rest in Hankavan since childhood, ”I had always
been waiting for the day when we must have visited Hankavan. I always miss
the waterfall (of Marmarik River located upwards the village), hot water and
forests,” she says.
However, Hankavan is a neglected place anyway. After the Greeks had left the
village telephone wires were stolen and there is no telephone communication
there now. When the Ghushoghlyans want to call somewhere they either have to
walk 15 kilometers to get to Artavazd village (former Takiarlu) or to climb
the mountain peak to be able to talk with cell phone.
The last part of Marmarik gorge’s road is also wrecked. ”You know why road
leading to Tsakhkadzor is perfectly constructed (Tsakhkadzor is on the way
to Hankavan)” says Arevik’s mother Piruza. “Because representatives of
authorities are having rest there. And they don’t need Hankavan.”
A businessman, shareholder of ”Samsung” company, consul of Uruguay in
Armenia Armen Hayrapetyan constructed a villa in Hankavan. His house sticks
out among the more ordinary village houses. A tuff (stone) road leading from
the center of the village to Hayrapetyan’s house is now being constructed as
well as a wide playground in front of his house.
”During Soviet times we came to Hankavan and liked it very much,” says the
businessman’s father, professor Vladimir Hayrapetyan. “We bought a house,
reconstructed it and in summers we always spend two months here. Sometimes
we come here in winters. But there are problems. We don’t have them, we have
a car and can get to the city whenever we want but it is difficult for other
people.”