Buying Bread on Loan and Schools on Verge of Closing: Problems in an Armenian Village

Residents of the rural community of Okhtar in Syunik, home to 22 families, buy bread on loan, Okhtar village mayor Vagharshak Hambartsumyan informed local daily Zhoghovurd. "We have an agreement with several shops that bring bread to the village daily, and at the end of the month, villagers pay [off their debt] with their pensions," he said.

The newspaper also found out from the village mayor that the village school will soon close, as the number of students decreases day by day. And this in that case when students of the five neighboring villages go to this school. There are barely 25–27 schoolchildren in all the six villages combined. 

"Well since there are no young people in the village, for that reason there's no marriage either. The last time a child was born in our village was 10 years ago," said Hambartsumyan.