{"id":341620,"date":"2025-08-26T16:01:05","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T12:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/epress.am\/?p=341620"},"modified":"2025-08-26T23:51:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T19:51:55","slug":"the-allure-of-the-armash-lakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2025\/08\/26\/the-allure-of-the-armash-lakes.html","title":{"rendered":"The Allure of the Armash Lakes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"\u0531\u0580\u0574\u0561\u0577\u056b \u056c\u0573\u0565\u0580\u056b \u0571\u0563\u0578\u0572\u0561\u056f\u0561\u0576\u0578\u0582\u0569\u0575\u0578\u0582\u0576\u0568\" width=\"618\" height=\"348\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4HwbJusR_oM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In early June, Mary and I went down to Yeraskh, the last village in the Ararat Valley, right on the border with Nakhichevan. Mary\u2019s an artist, and she came to research Soviet-era agriculture. Along the Aras (or Araz) River, there used to be cotton, rice, and grape cultivation. Thousands of people were relocated here and exploited for labor. Even the salt-heavy soil was used\u2014lakes were created to wash the salt out.<\/p>\n<p>I went mainly to do some birdwatching. I had recently learned, by chance, that the Armash lakes are on a major bird migration route. I love observing birds in their natural habitat. When I spot one, I become completely focused\u2014it\u2019s like my eyesight sharpens. Birds always appear suddenly. Even if you have a camera ready, only the eye catches them.<\/p>\n<p>Yaraskh isn\u2019t just a stop for birds\u2014it\u2019s a transit point for people, too. The North-South highway passes right through here. Most people just know Yeraskh roundabout with its gas station and roadside bistro. Ararat marz is mostly seen as a place to pass through. I was born in the village of Dvin, nearby. I know the road to Yerevan by heart, but I have no idea what there is across that 30 kilometers.<\/p>\n<p>That sense of being a transit zone is also tied to the railway. Yeraskh is the last stop on the Armenian rail network. The continuation\u2014through Nakhichevan to Meghri\u2014has been blocked since the First Karabakh War in the early 1990s.<\/p>\n<p>Locals told us that after the 2020 war, there was a brief moment of hope that the railway might reopen and that the 30-year conflict might suddenly end. Land prices even started rising because of that hope.<\/p>\n<p>Fast forward to now\u2014negotiations have stalled. The region is once again entangled in waves of both cold and hot wars. Hopes for international connectivity have faded. Instead, the border is becoming more visibly marked\u2014new signposts, national flags. Yeraskh is now officially labeled a \u201cborderland community\u201d\u2014a designation that signals not just geographic status, but a certain danger in living there. Ironically, this same label attracts factories to the area through tax incentives.<\/p>\n<p>Our visit to the Ararat Valley coincided with peak harvest season. We found ourselves in long conversations with locals, discussing the complexities of planned versus market-driven agriculture. Many villagers expressed frustration: now they\u2019re not only at the mercy of unpredictable weather, but also subject to manipulation by market speculators. Most have sold off their small plots to large farms and vineyards. Agribusiness is scaling up again\u2014but this time, unlike during the Soviet-era collective farms, the villagers no longer own land. They\u2019re wage laborers now, working someone else\u2019s fields.<\/p>\n<p><em>Some quotes from the video reportage:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Did it feel like we were at the border while we were there? Especially when we went to Yeraskh?<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Honestly, I felt more like we were at the center of the world. That feeling was stronger. But at the same time, you walk around and see these artificial hills, trenches\u2014clearly for defense\u2014and it feels strange. A different dimension opens up when you realize, \u201cThis looks like an ordinary street, but that hill beside it is there for protection.\u201d All the mountains seem similar, but then you\u2019re told, \u201cThere\u2019s a military position over there,\u201d or \u201cThat area is cut off,\u201d and you can\u2019t walk any farther. I guess that\u2019s what a border is.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014Why does it feel like the center of the world to you?<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 I don\u2019t know. I think the center of the world must look like that\u2014dry, rocky terrain. The landscape shifts with the time of day. In places that don\u2019t have this kind of landscape, everything feels the same, whether it\u2019s morning or night. Back when the Russians occupied this area, they were frustrated that even the soil was unpredictable\u2014it kept changing.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 When the peace talks were happening, they removed the wagon that had been blocking the tracks, and even flattened the hill beside it. People wanted the border to reopen so prices would drop again. When trains used to come through, everything was cheap\u2014gas, diesel, all of it. Now, nobody talks about reopening anymore. It\u2019s like hope has vanished. No one even thinks about it.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 If it reopens, that would be good, dear folks. Goods will come in from Russia and elsewhere. If the freight trains run, industry will get going again. And if industry works, the country will grow richer. Back in the &#8217;80s, the trains were always running. We used to import everything\u2014coal, timber, everything\u2014from Russia.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 We used to export gold, remember? Russia took everything from us, dear children. What did they leave behind? Freight was everything back then. Everything we produced went to Russia.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 This region has always been connected. During Soviet times, the train would go all the way to Kapan. The Kapan-Yerevan line was active. There was even a regular Baku-Yerevan route. Now, the only route left is Yerevan to Yeraskh. But this is the key junction to Iran and Syunik. All the roads to those areas pass through here. That\u2019s why it\u2019s called the Main Highway.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 We didn\u2019t really have \u201cborders\u201d back then. We lived together\u2014mixed, equal. People came and went freely. We had a good relationship with Sadarak, the Azerbaijani village nearby. I work at the school. In those days, they\u2019d invite us to their school, and we\u2019d invite them to ours. There was friendship. I had a cousin\u2014he used to do house repairs over there. One day he said, \u201cSeryoj, let me take you to Sadarak, I\u2019ll treat you to something.\u201d We went to the house of the village brigadir (chief). As soon as we arrived, the kids ran out yelling, \u201cMama, Aghasi Ami gyaldi!\u201d\u2014\u201cMom, Uncle Aghasi is here!\u201d Then the man came out and said, \u201cStay at the gate, don\u2019t come in yet.\u201d He went to the barn, brought out a sheep, slaughtered it, and only then said, \u201cNow, come in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 This region has always revolved around agriculture. I used to work in the Sovkhoz. We had vineyards here. We worked and got our monthly wages. We didn\u2019t have to worry about selling, or pesticides, or irrigation\u2014that was someone else\u2019s job. Ours was to tie up the vines, pull weeds. We lived calmly. We didn\u2019t stress about what would happen when the grapes ripened\u2014who would buy them, where they\u2019d go. That was the responsibility of the state, the agronomist, the Sovkhozdirector.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 What are the issues you face now?<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 No one\u2019s buying the harvest. We\u2019re just standing around, not knowing what to do. The kids went out to try and negotiate some kind of sale. The driver now says, Lars is closed, we\u2019re not loading anymore.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Are you trying to understand your roots through this research? To learn how your grandparents lived?<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Not exactly. Not in terms of \u201croots.\u201d It\u2019s more about understanding where I am\u2014understanding what I\u2019m saying, and where I\u2019m speaking from. I don\u2019t want my work to be just about external influences. Of course those influences exist, but there\u2019s something internal, too. I want to understand where my parents were speaking from, and where their parents were speaking from. The stories we do\u2014or don\u2019t\u2014know. How historical experiences shaped real people\u2019s lives, and how all of that has changed. How the physical space has changed. Because often we look at a place and think we\u2019re seeing it clearly\u2014but the space itself has changed. The ecology has changed. What\u2019s interesting to me is how we see ourselves in that space. Whether I can shift my own vantage point, even slightly.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Maybe this urge to locate yourself only comes after traveling, as the myths say. You travel, and like Odysseus, you return home and suddenly see your house\u2014your world\u2014in a new light.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mary and I went down to Yeraskh, the last village in the Ararat Valley, right on the border with Nakhichevan&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341489,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[65981,10,65984,66037,66053,65993,65979],"tags":[92541,92540,79424,79425,79398,74177,92539,92537,92538,57606,92536],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341620"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}