Notes about Democracy and Music in an Armenian Village and City

October 24, 2005
The “people’s voice” was heard yesterday in the mayoral elections of Vahan and music continued to serve as a priority for the students of Chambarak, both of which are located in the Gegharkunik marz. According to the residents of Vahan, approximately 410 people had voted that day and more than 200 people casted their ballot for the re-election of Mayor Vanush Apresyan. For a village which has approximately 1000 residents and 600 people with the ability to vote, it had quite a successful voter turnout. While in Chambarak children between the ages of 10-15 years old tickled their little fingers across the keys of the piano in a music recital that was held at the only music school in their village.

As a part of the implementation of the Civil Society Network project, Civil Society Institute is working in cooperation with four non-governmental organizations and working to develop the politics, society and culture in the marzes outside of the capital. The Civil Society Network project is a four year program sponsored by USAID to help advance civil society development in Armenia. Within this Network, each organization has a different area of assignment. Civil Society Institute is working with three other  organizations in the network and they are: Free Forum for Civil Initiatives, Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly of Armenia and Collaboration for Democracy Union.

Essentially, these NGOs are working in a collaborative effort to instigate development in the marzes of Gegharkunik and Tavush. Each year, they chose two cities and two villages to carry out a series of lectures, monitoring reports, discussion forums, music and photography master classes as well as concerts and many more activities. Since March 2005, they have been working in Chambarak and Vahan village in Gegharkunik and Berd and Verin Karmir Aghbiur village in Tavush.

Yesterday we visited Chambarak and Vahan to continue the civil society development project that Civil Society Institute (CSI) has been implementing. There was a series of music master classes held at the music school in Chambarak and all of their hard work was to be displayed in the recital organized by CSI at the music school. Artur Avasenov, a graduate from Komitas Conservatory, a composer and music teacher from Yerevan was invited to Chambarak to teach the music to these students. In a very short period of time, these young children put on a wonderful concert. Besides the short preparation time, one must also take into account the learning conditions of these students. The entire city of Chambarak has one music school and it is in dire need of renovation and reconstruction. The school and its staff have so far found ways to maintain the building in tact after the Nagorno-Karabakh war. However, most of the classrooms do not have heat which makes it very hard for the children to use their little fingers to practice their instruments. Also, considering it is a music school, there are barely a few instruments available to these students. Yet music still seems to be a priority for these students, their families and the teachers who continue to teach under these very difficult circumstances. On behalf of CSI, each of the performers were presented with a small gift and recognized for their hard work and practice.

Following the music recital we ventured further east to the village of Vahan which lies on the border with Azerbaijan to provide them with information about an upcoming event organized by the Civil Society Network. Armine Sargsyan, who works at CSI as a part of this project, spoke to the villagers and insisted that she give the information to the city’s newly elected mayor. After speaking to the school’s principal and informing her about the event, we drove towards the town hall to find that the building was completely empty. She was looking to speak to the newly elected mayor to inform him of the lecture. The mayor’s assistants and son went out looking for him, but he was nowhere to be found. It seems he was “celebrating” his newly accomplished victory! In any case, Armine informed the mayor’s assistants of the upcoming events and provided them with leaflets and posters to hand out to the residents of the village.

Considering these conditions in Chambarak and Vahan village, the determination of these people to continue in their studies in music and voter turnout is quite remarkable. Not only are they limited in their sources of electricity and water, they have an even lesser variety of crops and agriculture and have very few sources of employment and schools. However, these people have a determination to become involved in this process known as democracy. These are the stories and incidences which truly shed light on the hope and future in Armenia.