A one day only photo exhibition and fundraiser will be held in Montreal, Canada on November 6th 2004 from 3pm- 10pm at Espace Ars Longa, 2320 rue Mont-royal Est. All proceeds will go towards furnishing the classrooms, and buying school supplies for the students of Shatvan. this exhibit is organized and based purely on the volunteers’ initiative.

See the pictures, hear the stories and experience life as it is lived in Shatvan, a village on the southwestern shores of Lake Sevan.

LCO applauds the efforts of the July 2004 volunteers Armen Tamzarian, Anais Kadian and Laura MacAulay and wishes them the best of luck with this event. We also invite all veterans living in Montreal Ottawa or Toronto to support this event and their fellow LCO Alumni.

Several LCO veterans met in Montreal when Tatevik Simonian (from July 2004 Shatvan Campaign) paid a surprise visit to her new found friends Armen Tamzarian, Anais Kadian, Laura MacAulay and Varant Yessayan. They shared many good times in Montreal and reminisced about their experience in “the village”.

On Friday September 3, 2004, a dozen LCO volunteers attended a presentation by Mr. Peter Balakian, American-Armenian poet and writer and author of 2 best sellers “The Black Dog of Fate” and “The Burning Tigris” as well as several books of poetry namely his last collection, “the June Tree”.

Mr. Balakian spoke at the Yerevan State University (YSU) to over 200 students mostly from the Journalism and Literature Faculties. He presented his work, his inspiration and on going struggle against Turkish denialist campaigns. During this presentation Mr ? Rector of the YSU presented the acclaimed author with the most prestigious honor of the university, the gold medal of YSA. The LCO participants specifically invited to this event, felt privileged to have witnessed this very special ceremony.

It is important to mention that our connection to Mr. Balakian is through his daughter, Sophia who was one of the July 2004 Shatvan Volunteers from NY.

This year more than 80 volunteers from Armenia, Brazil, Canada, England, France, Georgia, India, Iran, Lebanon and the USA joined the Land and Culture Organization’s (LCO) efforts to complete its projects on our ancestral lands for yet another year. This year's campaigns were centered around the village of Shatvan, on the southeastern shores of Lake Sevan, in Shushi in Karabakh, and in Kessab, Syria.

The village of Shatvan in the Vardenis region near Lake Sevan hosted one of the LCO work sites for this year. Both July and August volunteer groups renovated the two-story community school which was left unattended since the late eighties. The roof was completely replaced, the foundation was reinforced based on recommendations from the National Seismic Institute, and finally the windows were renovated and in most cases replaced. On September 1, the 126 students of Shatvan returned to a warmer and safer schoolhouse.

The second project was held in Shushi, one of the oldest Armenian towns in Artsakh. LCO is completing its fourth year of renovations at the General Hospital of Shushi. During the first two years, two of the hospital wards were completely renovated, including the Maternity Ward where more than 80 babies were delivered last year alone. In 2003 the LCO volunteers provided the hospital with running water. This year, the objective was to completely redo the Surgical Department. The volunteers removed the old paint from the walls and the rotting wooden floor; painted the walls and ceiling, covered the floor with new ceramic tiles. They also renovated the doors and windows to hermetically seal the operating rooms for hygiene purposes. Although this was an enormous task, the 32 volunteers were determined and ready to face the challenge.

Both the July and the August groups from these two worksites, whose ages varied between 18 and 72, lived in the village near the worksites for three weeks. On weekends and some evenings they visited nearby historic monuments such as Gandzasar, Dadivank and held meetings with representatives of local authorities and youth groups. They spent the forth week of their stay in Yerevan, where they discovered a modern and vibrant Armenia. They met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Vardan Oskanian, attended dance and ceramic workshops, met expatriates and discussed issues such as the economic and political development of Armenia and its impact on the average Armenian and visited museums and important locations such as Ejmiatsin, Tsitsernagaberd and the temple of Garni. The 2004 LCO volunteers returned home with a wealth of information and ideas about today’s Armenia and its true natural beauty as well as the challenges for its future.

The Armenian village of Kessab in Syria, also hosted its fare share of LCO volunteers. In this Cilician village, the volunteers helped restore old typical Armenian houses. The intention is to create a climate of activity, reconstruction and renovation to encourage the Armenian families still living in the village to stay on their ancestral land. This project has been one of the oldest LCO involvements.

In addition, the organization held a 6-day pilgrimage to the St. Taddeus Monastery in the Aterpatakan region of northwestern Iran to celebrate along with thousands of other pilgrims the 50th anniversary of this traditional pilgrimage. This is the region where the organization started taking shape and was founded about 27 years ago. Today, the Land and Culture Organization is a member-based, non-profit international organization with chapters in America, Europe, and Armenia.

For more information about the LCO and all its activities in Armenia, the Republic of Mountainous Karabakh, the Aterpatakan region of northwest Iran, and the town of Kessab and its surrounding Armenian villages in Syria, please visit our website at www.landandculture.org or contact us directly by e-mail info@landandculture.org

Karabakh
AGBU.org
April 2004
Marianna Grigoryan and Sona Danielyan

Gray-haired and aged by war and hardship, 68-year old Rima Danielian moves with care down the edge of a bluff approaching a row of unremarkable shops in her town, Shushi.

She passes children coming home from school who are growing up in a Shushi far different than the one Rima sees in her memory. "My city is the most beautiful," says Rima. "For centuries Shushi had been considered as the heart and center of culture of Artsakh. And today it seems life has become silent. Many things have changed."

In fact, in the decade since Shushi-on its strategic vantage point overlooking the capital, Stepanakert the site of prolonged and vicious fighting between Armenian and Azeri forces-almost everything has changed. Rima's memory is good and its facts well known. Before the war, Shushi had 12,000 residents. It was a beacon of culture, a center of art, of publishing and of a refined life that, if found in Shushi today, is somewhere under the city's scarred exterior where 3,500 hang on.

A Borrowed Life: Roosters announce the beginning of the day in Shushi, soon followed by the ringing of bells at St. Ghazanchetsots Church-33 clangs from the tower, one for each year of Christ's life.

The bells mark the beginning of Anahit Danielian's working day. She sells candles at the church and says that even though most of her neighbors have nothing to do with their days, even the poorest ones come to pray; probably for a better life.

"It's true that it seems that people's life conditions don't change," Anahit says. "But in recent years people have been getting married more often and it delights the heart." It has become tradition, she says, for couples from Stepanakert (about 10 kilometers away) to come to the church for their weddings.

And the occasion to have outsiders in Shushi is welcomed by owners of the little shops that are evidence of the commerce of necessity, even in a skeleton of a city. "Residents of Shushi mainly buy vermicelli, sugar, oil and cheap vodka," says 24-year old Liana Harutyunian, a shop worker. But "buy" is not exactly the right word. "They mainly borrow," she says. There are two bottles of champagne on her shelf, so long there that Liana can't remember where they came from.

"Sometimes those who come from Stepanakert for wedding ceremonies plunge themselves into excesses like that if, of course, they forget to bring that stuff with them. Such things are not for residents of Shushi." Liana moved to Shushi from Masis six years ago with her two little girls and says that they couldn't live and exist here if her parents didn't help them by sending flour, potatoes and other necessary foodstuff from Masis.

"Many people don't work but I have a job," Liana says. "However, for two months I haven't been getting my monthly 15,000 thousand drams (about $26). She shows a notebook in which she keeps a record of "borrowed" food. "Only this copybook grows thicker and thicker. This month people's debt to the shop has become more than 100,000 drams (about $177)."

Buying on credit has become a way of life that, for many, is necessary but humiliating. Stella Hakobian has seven children and receives a government subsidy for having a large family-an incentive by the State. "Every month the owner of the shop gets my children's allowances," says Stella, who moved to Shushi from Hrazdan, a town north of Yerevan. "During the month we take some things from the shop and then take my children's allowances directly to the shop. This is how our debts are covered."

Stella recently was given an apartment, another perk of having a large family. She and her children have a three-bedroom flat, but the only furniture in it is beds. "We have no job," says Stella. "The only good thing is that in winters we can go 'sticking' in the neighborhood forest for wood to heat our apartment. And in the spring we pick berries and sell them for cheap prices to earn money."

Shushi has not recovered in any comparable way with the development that has taken place in neighboring Stepanakert. And while the number of "large" families (having four or more children) is increasing in response to the State programs, the overall birth rate has dropped, officials say. "When we were at war we thought everything would be ok," says veteran Karineh Danielian. "However, it was understood that there would be difficulties in the future. Anyway, hope still lives."

Culture as Pastime: City leaders say that Shushi's future lies in finding a way to keep its young people and assure a future for them in their city. "The majority of young people don't think about leaving the city because they haven't got enough opportunities for thinking about it," says 22-year old Armen Poghosian. "For many of them a marshrutka (Russian for mini-bus) ticket from Shushi to Yerevan is as much as the sum they spend for living during a month."

But even in the diminished version of its former self, Shushi shows glimpses of what it once was, and efforts are made at providing a "normal" life that would encourage youth to stay. In fact, cultural life shows the most obvious development in Shushi. In this place of damaged and vacant buildings one can find an arts college, a drama theater, a puppet theater, a choir, a quartet, a dance group, and the list can continue. A few summers ago an arts festival was even started. The State Humanitarian College named after Arsen Khachatrian is the only educational option given to students from Shushi and neighboring or remote villages. The college mainly teaches various arts and crafts such as

painting, carpet making, decorative art, etc. In May 2003, a technical school was renamed into the college, which, though small, is a sign of Westernization in a place that seems largely detached from the rest of the world-or more connected to its former Soviet regime. The college was reopened in 1992 after the liberation of Shushi. Today the college has 181 students, ranging in age from 15 to 23. During a recent day in the winter session at the college, students gathered to discuss the topic: "Love, Marriage, Family and Law", while teachers sat at a table to moderate the discussion.

After a short introduction students discussed questions on divorce, on children's rights and whether love is enough reason to get married, and looked for answers from their experienced teachers. As is often the case in small towns, the youth of Shushi and their teachers have relationships that are open and relaxed. After the day's special program they all met to sing songs, read poetry, dance, eat, drink, then dance and sing some more. The scene, not typically found in institutions of learning, for example, in Yerevan provides a glimpse of life in Shushi. Such events are a big thing for the youngsters here. It is noticeable that the day was planned with great care, especially through the way the girls prepared themselves in their best manner.

Shushi doesn't offer many opportunities, outside school, for its younger generation to socialize and even then, the events are restricted to daylight hours. When the sun goes down, activity is mostly limited inside apartments among family.

Our future is vague, the youngsters say. And they complain that their city of rich cultural heritage is too often overlooked. "Stepanakert is Karabakh's advertising town," says David Avagimian, age 22, who joins other actors at the puppet theater after school. "For some reason they prefer to concentrate everything there." The kids at the puppet theater say officials making promises to revive Shushi's cultural life don't seem to understand that culture is all that's developing in Shushi.

In fact the only singing ensemble in Karabakh is from Shushi (so, too, is a former "Miss Karabakh"). First it was a quintet founded in 2000 by girls singing in Shushi's Varanda choir, and now it is a quartet called Nareh who have become celebrities in Karabakh.

Karine,19, Alina 27, Christina 23 and Gayane 22, have taken part in some folk and pop festivals in Stepanakert where they've taken first place. The girls are mainly performing folk songs but in a modern way. First they would travel around Karabakh and perform for free, just to become known. Sometimes they get paid today and they consider $200 ($50 each) a fair price. However they don't always get that much.

"If we have a good sponsor we'll get promoted," says Gayane. "If not we'll stay here and no one will probably know about us except Karabakh." Anush Danielian, 22, says she dreams of having an Internet café in Shushi to connect youth with each other and the outside world. "The only thing we do now is visit each other, but that gets old.

"All of us have interesting dreams but to make them come true we need opportunities. And if dreams and possibilities coincided with each other, then Shushi would become the city of our dreams."

In the light of the Land and Culture Organization's commitment towards the development of Shushi, we are proud to announce our new collaborative efforts with NK Arts. This organization has been holding annual art festivals in Shushi since 2001. This year, Neery Melkonian, the director and founder of NK Arts, proposes to hold a weekend dance festival from September 12 to 14. This festival will demonstrate the cultural richness of today's Armenia and Karabagh with particular emphasis on the arts tradition of the city of Shushi. As a result, LCO has contributed both financially and through hands-on efforts of our volunteers to clean up and prepare the site for the festival. During the last days of our August campaign, a half dozen of our volunteers invited a group of other volunteers from Stepanakert to help complete this work. Supported by the Minister of Culture and Education, Armen Sargsyan, the work was completed and the festival crew was ready to set up for the Festival.

This is our first joint effort. LCO wishes this event to grow and become a tradition in Shushi. As a result, our UIOTC staff in Yerevan had invited all veterans and members of LCO present in Armenia at the time to join them for a festive yet educational trip to Shushi.

On June 14, 2003, volunteers from the Land and Culture Organization (LCO) and Makour Yerevan Organization participated in a clean-up project of the Shengavit archeological site.

The volunteers were introduced to the ongoing research that is being held at this ancient location. Experts from the Shengavit Museum talked about the history of the discovery near the Lake Yerevanian in the district of Yerord Mas. The first excavations were held in 1936-38. Twenty years later, with some renewed interest, the Soviet Regime had allowed a second team of researchers to carry on with the excavations, which lasted until 1980. Finally, almost a decade after the independence of Armenia, archeologist Hakob Simonian was able to establish some funding to revive this significant archeological exploration. During an excavation in the summer of 2000, Simonian and his team of experts found ruins of buildings and many artifacts dating as far back as 4th century BC, the earliest being from the Neolithic century. The museum, built in the 30's by German prisoners of the Second World War, stands adjacent to the archeological site.

Makour Yerevan is a project initiated by the Tufenkian Foundation, which aims to clean the streets of Yerevan, strengthen the sense of responsibility towards the city and reinforce the civic duties within the community in general.

"I formed strong bonds with my volunteers, and the difference in backgroiunds was refreshing. It was interesting to hear the points of view of different Armenians from other areas of the Diaspora."
Aramazt Kalaydjian, Shoushi 2003, NY, USA