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  A Primer on How to Build a Village

 There are several elements that go into building a village.  One is the physical element, involving mechanical and materialistic issues. The others are the mental and spiritual elements concerning selection of settlers and ways and means of populating a given village.

The fact of the matter is that the NKR repopulation programs in practically all the villages are in serious trouble. This underscores the importance of giving careful consideration to the above-mentioned factors. Thus, it is necessary to learn from their experience and then talk about building a new village.

The village in question is Nor Jraberd in the Martakert region of Nagorno Karabakh Republic, targeted for refugees from the northern parts of the republic occupied by Azerbaijan since 1992.

The first step is becoming an interested villager.  How?  By going around, visiting refugee families in the area and getting firsthand information in order to chart your course of action.  Then, you try to get yourself registered as a resident of the village, and buy a parcel of land in order to build your headquarters.  If you think this is simply a matter of filling out some papers and/or paying a fee, you’re wrong!

Buying a parcel of land was out of the question, because the national cadastres were not in order and neither were those of the village.  To make matters worse, the Nor Jraberd applicants were not registered as a community.  As a result, all the natives of Jraberd who had applied to become residents of Nor Jraberd were not part of a community and therefore could not get any subsidies at all.

To address these issues, “interested villager” Mego Malkhassian, coordinator of the Nor Jraberd Repopulation Project (NJRP), a project of the Armenian General Benevolent Union undertaken a few years ago by several Canadian Armenian communities (mainly Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver), submitted applications at the National Cadastre in order for the proper real estate to be allocated for NJRP, and the proper real estate to be allocated for the village.  Then he submitted applications at the National Assembly for the Nor Jraberd Community to be recognized and incorporated as such. 

While these applications were waiting for the National Assembly’s seal of approval (a formality), Malkhassian invited the NKR Prime Minister Arayik Harutunyan to come to Nor Jraberd and assess the situation for himself. 

FOUNDING OF NOR JRABERD ON OCTOBER 19

On October 19, PM Harutunyan came to Nor Jraberd with some government ministers and assistants.  A traditional warm reception was organized, featuring the offering of bread and salt.  It was documented by local media and television.  After exchanges, along with questions and answers, October 19 was declared the official Nor Jraberd Founding Day, celebrated with brandy, chocolates and the requisite toasts.  Not surprisingly, Malkhassian became the first officially registered citizen of Nor Jraberd.  Although he lives most of the year thousands of miles away, near Montreal, he’s always in the village mentally and spiritually. 

On this momentous occasion, Malkhassian gave a presentation, in which he set forth the next steps involving applying to Energo Artsakh for electric power, to the regional government of Martakert and Dr. Sergey Ohanyan, president of the Martakert Regional Government, for support in the creation of a health center, and to various ministries for water and sewer, telephone connection, gas link, post office, roads, etc.

PM Harutunyan was so impressed with the presentation that he promised to have an electric line installed from a distance of 7.5 kilometers, with a sub-station, by the end of this year.

An important factor in this equation is the drafting of an actual plan for the village.  The plan, which was drafted by Mher Melkoumyan on site, calls for 100 homes (semi-detached, to reduce the cost of hooking up utilities), a botanical/memorial garden (proposed name is Hrant Dink Memorial Park), nursery/kindergarten, elementary school, outdoor sports complex and athletic field, club, municipality building, post office, bank, clinic, store, transformer substation, milk-processing station, church, cemetery, drinking water central tank and farmer’s market. (See accompanying sketch).  There will be eight sections of roads, which could be named according to the cities and entities supporting this project:  Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, AGBU, etc. 

The next step is to present this plan to the appropriate ministries in order for them to develop a general plan for the village.  Once a general plan is drawn up and approved, NKR PM Harutunyan has promised to match, tit for tat, whatever the NJRP committee does in terms of home construction.

Estimated costs for some of the most urgent components of Nor Jraberd village are as follows:  municipality building -- $30,000 USD; elementary school -- $60,000; elementary and high school -- $120,000.  Also needed is an ambulance for Nor Jraberd and surrounding villages, at a cost of $15,000, as well as a pharmacy/medical clinic and emergency clinic at $15,000 each.

Putting an exclamation point on the Founding Day celebration, Malkhassian, together with the appointed interim Mayor of Nor Jraberd, Elbrus Putaghyan, arranged a meeting with the neighboring village mayors and asked them to participate in an inter-village sports competition.  Challenge cups were arranged for and the coordinators for sports and cultural committees were appointed.  The schedule calls for the final games to be played during the NJRP committee’s official visit in the fall of 2008.  

An encouraging development during all this was the show of interest in Nor Jraberd by the NKR government, which was manifested in the provision of a mini-bus to drive the school-age children to school in Nor Haykajur.  (Previously, they had been forced to walk seven kilometers each way, summer and winter.)

By now, the reader of these lines will have realized that, just like the human body, a village too needs its mental, spiritual and physical health to be balanced and well developed in order to lead a normal life.

Firstly, the basic need of good-quality settlers is their mental health.  This need has to be addressed by the municipal government of the village, through a full gamut of social programs, kindergarten and school.

Secondly, the spiritual well-being of the community will be achieved, once the children are leading a normal life and their parents can have peace of mind.

Third comes the physical element, which is the least important.

And thus, in a healthy environment, with very little help from outside, the locals can create and develop themselves.

What these heroic people need in this war-ravaged country is hope. A normal life and the feeling that they are not forgotten, that they have friends.

The proof of this, to date, is that an outdoor sports facility has enabled them to have a sports program and challenge cups.  Now there are seven villages in the vicinity of Nor Jraberd that are buzzing with life and a spirit of competition.

To date, very few dollars have been spent in Nor Jraberd but the personal involvement of Malkhassian and others has created a strong feeling of trust, which, in turn, has revived hope and confidence in the future.  As a result, many original Jraberdtsi families, which had become dispersed, even as far away as Moscow, are approaching Malkhassian with applications to be reaccepted into the bigger Jraberd family.

For further information about the Nor Jraberd Repopulation Project (NJRP), go to http://norjraberd.org/Aboutus.htm or contact Mego Malkhassian at megom@sympatico.ca