Wednesday, May 27 2015 05:37

 

84-year-old Garnik Rubenovich Ghazaryan lives in Tegh village, Goris. He dedicated most of his life to the work of local sovkhoz chief economist. Nowadays the old man is one of the most respected dwellers in the village. Locals and dwellers of neighbouring villages often turn to him for a counsel on any issue.  

 

“Though I was a good pupil and studied well I had to forget about school for four years when my father went off to war in 1941. I had to shoulder the duty of the head of the family. I would take care of my younger siblings, follow the plough, mow, feed the cattle, and grow wheat. The war crippled my father. He passed away in 1957”, the old man started his story.

 

Again young Garnik failed leaving school – at the age of 21 he was a ninth-grade student. It was then that he was conscripted into the armed forces for hooliganism. “I was way too pugnacious. Back in the day the service was 3-year-long, but I served 4 years. We were conscripted in April, but no one knows why that period didn’t count. Then I returned to school. I found there my first and only love – my future wife Nora. We eventually left school and got married. She gave me 2 sons and 3 daughters. We have 11 grandchildren; I have recently seen the birth of my first great-grandson”, he tells with a smile on his lips.

 

The marriage encouraged the young man to go onto further study at Yerevan Agricultural University. Garnik Rubenovich believes that the best professors in Armenia taught his generation. He is sure that nowadays our country lacks such specialists. After graduating the young man returned to Tegh where he worked as assistant to combiner for several years. “Then it was my turn to be somebody. I was the chief economist of our sovkhoz for many years. I was quite good at doing my work – both the superiors and villagers were pleased”, recalls the old man.      

 

Garnik Rubenovich tells that back in the day Tegh with the population of 3700 was the first village in Goris. The sovkhoz held 2300 ha of tilth. Only 450 villagers returned home out of those 1100 that had gone off to war. “The postwar years caused many hardships. The whole country was in ruins, let alone the village. Yet we worked our fingers to the bone. Due to our hard work we began living like normal people”, he tells proud-heartedly.

 

Garnik Rubenovich reverently speaks about “manly man” Dzhigarkhanyan, the president of the sovkhoz – Garnik worked under his supervision for 25 years. Ganrik Rubenovich also recalls the president, who was before Dzhigarkhanyan – that tough man once accused three villagers “of stealing only 3 kg of wheat” and had them imprisoned for seven years.   

 

Garnik Rubenovich tells that unlike his predecessor Dzhigarkhanyan never offended a villager. Every time he was told about wheat missing from sovkhoz warehouse, he would simply utter “let them drag the sacks then, whose feet will hurt afterwards – mine or theirs”? The chief economist was so well familiar with those words. “It was during his presidency when the clay houses of the village turned into solid-stone ones. That was a man!” tells Garnik Rubenovich adding that Dzhigarkhanyan had made people open their eyes.

 

When asked if he thinks that that sort of economy-ruining “charity” was one of the reasons for the collapse of the USSR, the old man confidently says: “Ehhh, you are too young, you know nothing. Gorbachev was the one to ruin the country. What do ordinary rural workers have to do with this?! How could some wheat and potatoes ruin such a huge country”?!

 

Karabakh war took 37 lives from Tegh village. 23 years ago the commando units of the village occupied the site from which the enemy had bombed Tegh village for several years. The commando units found there a map that featured their houses marked with Azerbaijani names. “They already divided among themselves the houses they hadn’t destroyed yet”, recalls the old man.

 

He tells that the villagers never lived along with the Azeri – there had never lived any in Tegh village. However, the village bordered with Azerbaijani Novruzlar, Sabukh, Dzhavazur villages. “We were good neighbours. We lived peacefully and would never harm one another. Believe you me – despite friendly relations they feared us. They would still remember 1918 when Tegh villagers looted and burnt their villages after the revolution. Though they weren’t any better. My father would tell that in those years we had sheltered several hundred refugees from Berdadzor – we tried to help them as best as we could”, tells the old villager.

 

“I don’t think I will ever see our nations reconciled. Maybe you will be luckier. Though I wish I could see that day. I saw too much blood, too many ruined hearths and lives in the early 90s. I don’t ever want to see it again. We are to understand that we can’t make them move to Moon. These problems are to be settled in a manly and honest way. Lies told on TV cannot tackle this issue. We need peace and reconciliation, neither the Armenians nor the Azerbaijani need 1918 or 90s to recur”, believes Garnik Rubenovich.   

 

“We old men have nothing to lose, we will soon die anyway. The youth and younger generations are to think about peace. We have done our part; we have defended our village, our homes. We gave our children and grandchildren the chance to develop. That matters. We must remember our mistakes, the mistakes of our foes. We must remember them and never repeat them. I always tell this to those whom I believe to be the greatest achievement and meaning of my life – my children, grandchildren and now – my great-grandchildren”, sums up Ganrik Rubenovich Ghazaryan.

 

Note: the material has been prepared with input from International Alert within the framework of the EPNK project “Unheard Voices” financed by the EU. The journalists are responsible for the content of the material which does not necessarily reflect the outlook of International Alert, ЕPNK and our contributors.