HOMELAND, BUT NOT “HOME”: SYRIANS FINDING IT HARD TO SETTLE IN KARABAKH
[ Part 2.2: “Attached Text” ]
akh_resettlement
SOCIETY | 19.07.13 | 15:41
NAZIK ARMENAKYAN
ArmeniaNow
By GAYANE MKRTCHYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
“Should Armenians live in their motherland?”
Many Syrian-Armenians facing the need to settle in Armenia permanently
give vague responses to this difficult question, trying to decide
whether to stay or to leave, and if leave, then for where?
Enlarge Photo Sepuh Qeshishyan with doughter Enlarge Photo
Hakob Artin from Qamishli city with his Greek wife Ghada Ferhat
“My grandfather is buried in Aleppo. In his will he asked to transfer
his remnants to Armenia and bury here, but even we – living ones –
come and find no place for us. If we bring our grandparents’ remains,
what shall we do with them? In his will he was teaching us to love
our motherland and settle here,” says Sepuh Keshishian, 58, who for
the past month and a half has been staying at a guesthouse in Berdzor,
Nagorno Karabakh, with his wife and two young children.
The Keshishian family is from Syria’s Kurdish Ras al-Ayn city,
where they were one of only ten Armenian families, and had a house,
animal-breeding farm, a cafe. They left all of it behind, and just
like their ancestors, took the road of refuge, although this time
to their motherland. Sepuh says in 2004 he visited Berdzor together
with a few other Diaspora Armenians, it was then that he decided to
go and settle there.
“I bought a house, a garage, but for different reasons the local
authorities of that time took the house back from me, I even suffered
financial damage. I have the garage in my property, and if they give
us a house, I might stay and found a business,” he says. “It is hard
to see our future here. The locals want to run away, be it Hayastantsi
[Armenians of Armenia] or Karabakhtsi [Armenians of NKR], they sell
their houses and escape to Russia.”
Rather far away from the guesthouse there is a newly built priory
hosting Hakob Artin from Qamishli city, his Greek wife Ghada Ferhat
and their two children.
“At the Ministry of Diaspora we were asked if we would like to go to
Karabakh. To the question “what’s in Karabakh?” were told ‘a house,
a job, livestock’. We had no idea about Karabakh. For a year we lived
in a guesthouse, now we live in a priory, where living conditions are
better. They did not give us a cow, said ‘you have two children’. I
am the car mechanic of Ishkhanadzor village with a salary of 100,000
drams ($250), but have not received it for three months now. Food is
a big issue, we have to buy everything and are living in hardship,”
says Hakob.
Hakob’s family is one of the four who took an agricultural loan from
Artsakh bank – two million drams ($5,000) each with zero interest
rate. They sowed barley, but the hail destroyed the crops.
“People said it would be all right. We were promised that one hectare
would yield one ton of crops, but we got only 40 kilos, as a result
we now owe to the bank and I have no idea how to pay it back.
The $2,000 we had with us is long gone. If they give us a house
and enough work to suffice for food and clothes, that would be ok,
we would stay and live here. But right now it is only about trying
not to starve,” says Hakob with frustration.
His wife Ghada says in broken Armenian, that all day long they recall
how they used to live and compare to how they live now. With laughter
at their own predicament they say their life has turned by 200 degrees.
“I made rice dolma [stuffed vine leaves] today. I go to the market,
bring the things we need if I find. There is not much at the market,
or if there is, it’s too expensive. Qamishli’s market was rich,
you could find everything for very affordable prices,” says Ghada.
The priory is hosting another family: Shamiram Vardanian has resided
here for nine months together with her four children. They locked
the doors of their house and a shop they owned in Qamishli and left.
Shamiram’s kitchen has the inviting smell of eastern spices. She has
made rice, chicken and potatoes.
“Once the war is over, I am going back, there is nothing here for us
to stay and live. We differ from the locals with our customs, our
language, our cuisine. We were born there, we lived there. Yes we
are Armenian, we know our homeland is here, but living is hard. The
locals, too, say it is hard, but they at least have their own places
to live. If it’s hard for them, imagine how hard it is for us. All
of their men are gone to Russia,” says Shamiram. “True, it is better
than the war, we are living peacefully, without fear, but we have to
be able to have a life.”
They are yearning for re-finding their lost homes here, in the
motherland, have a small business to earn their living. Keshishian,
with his businessman’s sense, says Berdzor has a ‘treasure’,
especially for animal husbandry, but he is reluctant about investing
in agriculture.
“For strangers like us it is very difficult here and very risky to
take a bank loan and invest in agriculture with no guarantees of good
weather conditions. Also, we keep hearing stories of people who lost
their businesses because of high taxes or they say if we work they
will take it away from us as soon as the business runs well. We hear
and fear. Nonetheless, there is wealth here, then why aren’t there
jobs?” says Keshishian, who works as the guesthouse guard with 36,000
drams ($90) salary per month.
“I have come with an expectation that they would give me a house,
and that I could found a small business. But if they do not, and I
cannot afford buying one myself, I will sell the garage and leave.
There is no way back [to Syria], our life there is over, so I would
probably move somewhere close to Yerevan, say, Masis or Abovyan towns,”
he says.
Robert Matevosyan, head of the re-settlement department of Kashatagh
administrative district, told ArmeniaNow that those are groundless
speculations and that there are numerous examples of when Diaspora
Armenians have succeeded in business there. He denies the claims of
immigration from the region as well.
In 1992 (during the war), Armenian forces took control over Berdzor
(Lachin) town and the Lachin corridor, which was also called the
“road of life”, since it was the only land communication between
Karabakh and Armenia. Zangelan, Kubatlu and part of Lachin (which are
among the seven disputed regions around former Autonomous Republic
of Nagorno Karabakh have been re-arranged into Kashatagh region with
3,376 sq.km total area, and the re-settlement of this area is of
strategic importance. By the 2011 data of the NKR labor and social
affairs ministry, 8,500 people reside in Kashatagh.
This southwestern part of Karabakh has now 38 Syrian families, nine
of them in Berdzor, the others in Kovsakan, the second largest city,
and Ishkanadzor of Kashatagh region. Two private houses are being built
in Berzdor, sponsored by benefactors, and two more are sponsored to
be built. The construction of multi-storey dwellings in Kovsakan and
Ishkhanadzor is expected to be completed in two months.
An urban settlement is planned to be developed in Kashatagh with all
its respective infrastructures.
“We are solving two important issues: first, that we are the owners of
these lands and by the appropriation of them we answer the political
question; second, that we are using these lands for food provision and,
in general, economic purposes. We have to have a standard settlement,
rather than one for only 10-15 families,” said NKR Prime Minister
Ara Harutyunyna during a meeting in Kashatagh.
http://armenianow.com/society/47851/syrian_armenians_kashatagh_nagorno_karab