The road leads to Barekamavan: Barekamavan, located about 1,000 meters from the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, is home to about 150 people today. The peaceful silence of the village was occasionally interrupted by the barking of the “Bear” and the noise of construction in the village center at the time of our filming. Here, in addition to the problems of water, electricity, roads, gas and infrastructure, the border and security issues come first, and according to the villagers, this is the main reason why the population of the village, which previously had 1,500 inhabitants, has decreased by at least 10 times.
The closed shops in the village center, the empty streets and the unharvested trees in the plots of land of closed houses testify to Barekamavan being an “aging village”. There has been a recent surge in activity at the village school: 5 students from Artsakh have joined the students from Bagramavan. The school currently has 20 students. On the walls of the school are information posters about first aid and the rules of conduct in emergency situations, which everyone in Barekamavan knows, regardless of age. The school, which has many material needs, also needs students. The spacious classrooms testify that not so long ago the school had a large influx of students.
This year the school will have 4 graduates. Diana is preparing to become a lawyer. She wants to voice the problems and needs of her village in the legal field. Their daily routine is almost unchanged: in the morning there is school, then gathering in the courtyard of the village church and helping the family.
Barekamavan is now peaceful, there have been no shots heard here in recent years, but the picture of the village is sad and worrying. Barekamavan is emptying. The only young man in the village, Gagik, returned to Barekamavan after graduating. With sadness, but with hope, he talks about the reasons why the village is neglected.
The main concern of the population is the increasingly difficult social situation. In the Soviet years, the villagers were engaged in gardening and animal husbandry, and now they do nothing, only with the worrying excuse that most of the lands are under the observation of the enemy, and the other part is mined. There is so little water that even the lands near the houses are not enough and they remain uncultivated. Barekamavan is in dire need of attention and “friendship”. The question here seems to be not rhetorical: how to keep the border population in the village. Before our eyes, peacefully and calmly, the once populous population of Barekamavan is aging and thinning.
