The men of the village of Aravus in Syunik Province have applied to the relevant bodies to be included in the militia and be allowed to guard, together with the border guards, the section of the border that passes near the village.
“Now the soldiers are standing there, but it is not the same as us standing with them; after all, we are people who have been through three wars, it will be safer. In front of us the Turks have 13 positions, in each position 30-40 people are standing, and besides that the detachment is 2 km behind the mountain from our village,” said Argam Hovsepyan, head of the Aravus community administration.
After the delimitation, the village of Aravus was deprived of its pastures. The border is only 100 metres from the last house of the village. Because of the lack of pastures, the villagers have sold most of their livestock — 75% of them. It was in the village of Aravus that an incident involving a shepherd was recorded a few days ago: Azerbaijanis threatened an Aravus shepherd with weapons at the border, tried to move him from near the border to their trench, then, hearing the voice of approaching villagers, struck the shepherd in the eye and left.
“Now we are standing there, they are grazing. We have asked the commander of the detachment to order us to go and stand 10 metres from their position, so that they cannot do anything. After the incident we also warn the soldiers, we go with the village boys and stand until they register it,” said Hovsepyan.
According to the head of the Aravus community administration, they have been promised that in a short time a commission will be created and demarcation and delimitation will be carried out, after which they hope that the lost pastures will be returned to them.
“Now they have taken 62 hectares of our arable land through GPS, these are our lands with certificates and maps. We are waiting; they said a commission is to come, probably from Moscow, to carry out demarcation and delimitation with our government using maps; we are also waiting. In July we must start the harvest; what are we to do? Our hopes are pinned on that ploughed and sown land. I ask every day, I tell the higher-ups, I have told the provincial administration, I have spoken with the commander of our detachment; they said a commission is coming,” noted Argam Hovsepyan.
There are about 40 households in the Aravus community, more than half of whom earn their daily living through livestock breeding.
