{"id":93879,"date":"2011-05-10T12:30:43","date_gmt":"2011-05-10T07:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/?p=93879"},"modified":"2011-05-10T12:40:08","modified_gmt":"2011-05-10T07:40:08","slug":"armenia-is-in-crisis-if-there%e2%80%99s-no-crisis-there-will-be-no-emigration-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2011\/05\/10\/armenia-is-in-crisis-if-there%e2%80%99s-no-crisis-there-will-be-no-emigration-interview.html","title":{"rendered":"‘Armenia is in Crisis. If There\u2019s No Crisis, There will be No Emigration’: Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past few months, two teams of journalists, writers and bloggers in both Armenia and Azerbaijan interviewed a handful of women of different ages and backgrounds, both in the capitals of Yerevan and Baku and in the regions as part of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Women\u2019s Narratives Project<\/span><\/strong><\/a>. We asked them about their lives, their hopes and wishes for themselves, their families and their countries. Epress.am will feature the interviews \u2014 one a week, published every Monday. As yesterday was a non-working day, this week’s interview \u2014 the third in the series \u2014 is published today.<\/p>\n

To listen to the audio file of the interview below (in the original language, Armenian) as well as read the interview in full, visit the blog by clicking here<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span>. No photographs were taken of the interviewees to create a more comfortable interview environment and to respect their privacy.<\/p>\n

Goris resident Armanush Bakunts, 52, lost her husband in the Nagorno-Karabakh War. She is the president of the Syunik branch of the Republican Council of Mothers and Wives of Perished Freedom Fighters<\/strong><\/span><\/a> and the director of the Sero Khanzadyan museum. Here is her story:<\/p>\n

I was born in Goris, in Verishen. I graduated secondary school here. From \u201977 to \u201982 I studied at the Yerevan State University Faculty of Physics. I\u2019m a physicist by profession, but I haven\u2019t worked in my profession.<\/p>\n

I have two sons: one is now working toward a master\u2019s degree in physics. My oldest son graduated, but didn\u2019t find work here\u2026 it has been 3 years since he graduated. He\u2019s gone to Yerevan where he works and lives with his younger brother.<\/p>\n

My second child was a month old when the Artsakh movement began in \u201988 and our life became enveloped in this movement. My husband fought for the liberation of Artsakh; he died in the very beginning, in \u201991. He was keeping guard at border village toward Vorotan. There was a village there, Ayvazlar, there were still Azerbaijanis living there. Shots were fired and it hit him.<\/p>\n

After \u201988, from \u201992 to \u201994, artillery work began in Goris. There probably wasn\u2019t a house in Goris that wasn\u2019t damaged. That time of course was bad, we didn\u2019t have regular electricity, we didn\u2019t have water, there was nowhere to work, there was no hope; regular [public] transportation didn\u2019t work in our city. Well now, thank God, again there\u2019s transportation, things work, life is better. You can\u2019t say we\u2019re hopeless, but it could be better.<\/p>\n

My husband and I used to work at one of Goris\u2019 first-rate factories, which produced transformers for military planes. We also have a three-bedroom house we got from the factory. But many factories dissolved after the Soviet Union collapsed. The factory where we worked still exists; the foundation is there. They can establish a sewing manufacturing industrial complex again, I think, with small volumes, to sew military clothing, say like that. I think if production is developed, if industry develops in our city, we can focus and build our homeland, to build our children\u2019s future in our homeland.<\/p>\n

It seems to me, there are many social problems among our people. I don\u2019t think supremacy of law exists yet in our country, and I believe that we, as a people, have moved away from God. We should use our natural resources, our scientific potential and the experience of developed countries.<\/p>\n

There should not be emigration, instead people should come and make it prosper; create a strong Armenia. These are big issues; it\u2019s not a problem of daily bread. The problem of daily bread bothers us very much. It shouldn\u2019t, though it\u2019s a very real issue. What to do so people can come out of poverty? When they come out of poverty, they can think about global issues, about Armenian problems, about joining together.<\/p>\n

Women now are passive because there\u2019s no work. After struggling for so long, I barely have work; for 2\u20133 years, the civic work I did was unpaid. Now there are many femaIe entrepreneurs; I notice progress now. It\u2019s just that there\u2019s no work sector for women to appear, though there are mainly women in the field of education.<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t been easy for women in the South Caucasus. In Azerbaijan too, also in Georgia. They all have this issue too, because there\u2019s the issue of [lack of] work. It\u2019s the same in Georgia and in Azerbaijan. Though Azerbaijan is wealthier than us \u2014 they have oil. But there too there are such issues; power is centralized in one person\u2019s hands. We know that too. This is the main problem of less developed, poorly developed countries. Much depends on women. The woman is the foundation of society, of the family.<\/p>\n

Yes, I consider that Armenia is in a crisis. If there\u2019s no crisis, there will be no emigration.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t picture my life outside of Armenia. Goris is a very beautiful city. If only we knowingly make it beautiful. If we create cultural centers, beautiful spaces, places of enjoyment, people would be able to spend their time beautifully. To be amazed by nature, to be liberated. Let others\u2019 homelands also prosper. But we have to create ours, we have to like ourselves. Elimate the bad inside us. I\u2019m optimistic about the future. Optimism, hope \u2014 it\u2019s always there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“It hasn\u2019t been easy for women in the South Caucasus. In Azerbaijan too, also in Georgia. They all have this issue too, because…”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89336,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[26246,26247,14812],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93879"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}