Oshagan, Aragatsotn Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 1999

It seems like everybody loves villages in Armenia, and who can blame them? Indeed, when Yerevan gets too much most of the city’s population takes time out by relaxing in them if not holidaying in Sevan or Batumi and Kobuleti. Even so, I don’t get nearly enough opportunity to visit them anymore despite their being the main reason why I moved to Armenia in 1998.

In 1994 I spent 10 days working in Nagorno Karabakh and not even 2 days in Yerevan, and it was the villages that made me realize I would be back. Photographically, they offer far more opportunities, especially for people shots. The same was true when I visited Armenia in June 1998 to research the Yezidi minority in the country.

Yet, even so, conditions in many villages can be bleak. For those that are reliant on agriculture for their existence, recent drought can devastate communities if there isn’t proper irrigation and sometimes even if there is. Likewise, many young men have been forced to move to Yerevan or travel to Russia in order to find work.

I’ve already posted about how towns and villages on the border with Azerbaijan are in a pitiful state.

All of this makes me glad to see that next month’s Armenia-Diaspora Conference will focus on development of the Republic’s regions. I’m also pleased to discover that there’s also a Rural Poverty Eradication Program that is definitely worthy of support.

Sustainable development has many objectives and development policies and direction are interdependent. Our plan will seek to provide a cohesive framework to development in rural Armenia to enable villages to become economically self-sustaining, and to provide them with multifaceted, concentrated human, financial and technical support.

[…]

A public-private compact led by the Government of Armenia will include the large Armenian Diaspora, as well as Armenia’s business community and international agencies. Together, they will form an international governing body made of up officials, experts and donors who will provide general oversight, monitoring and evaluation. The UNDP and the Armenia Fund are both prepared to partner in channeling funding and participating in program implementation.

We are presently conducting a preliminary needs assessment of the 159 border villages, based on methods utilized by international organizations. This is being accompanied by a study of all relevant government agencies to identify the international assistance currently provided to each of these villages by the donor community including the World Bank, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the United Nations, the Armenia Fund, the Armenian government’s own budget, and other individual programs.

Anyway, now that the Yorkshire Kurd himself, Nahro Zagros, is back in town to research the ethno-musical traditions of Armenia’s largest minority I hope to get out to where the Yezidi take their sheep and cattle up on Mount Aragats sometime this week. Given that the regions and villages of Armenia are so photogenic, I’m looking forward to the opportunity.

Almost certainly, there will be more Yezidi kids snapped enroute as I did in Alagyaz as well as Barozh and Shamiram. No doubt that when my Mum gets here from England next week I’ll take her out of the city as much as I can.

Khndzoresk, Siunik Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2000

Oshagan, Aragatsotn Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 1999

Yezidi, Alagyaz, Aragatsotn Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 1998

Yezidi, Armavir Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 1998

Me, Khrmort, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh © Unknown / Oneworld Multimedia 1994

Khrmort, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 1994

Refugee from Shahumian, Silikyan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 1994