1992_12 Hye Sharzhoom Newspaper December 1992

              December 1992
Bedrosian describes recent trip to Armenia
By Bryan Bedrosian
Special to Hye Sharzhoom
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Bryan Bedrosian is a former
President of the Armenian Students
Organization at CSU Fresno. He and
his wife Rosie currently reside in
Fowler, California where Bryan is involved in the raisin industry. His impressions from his second trip to Armenia are the basis for the following
essay.
On Thursday, October 29,1992,
my wife Rosie and I landed atZvartnots
airport in Yerevan, the capital city of
the Republic of Armenia. On that cold
clear morning the first sight that greeted
us was Mt. Ararat. At that moment I
wept. It would be the first of many
times that I would weep on our trip;
both from joy at being in Armenia
again and from sorrow at seeing the
condition of the Armenian people, our
people.
My wife and I on November 3
took a day trip to the cities of Spitak,
Kirovagan(Vanadzor), andStepanavan
in northern Armenia. If there is a hell
on earth, it is northern Armenia during
the blockade in the winter.
Right now in those cities there is
no natural gas being supplied to the
homes. Parts of these cities have electricity only three hours a day and parts
have no electricity. In order to keep
warm the people must gather wood. So
people are sawing trees down in north-
em Armenia at a furious rate, although
some weren't able to collect any wood.
One woman confided to us with tears
in her eyes that she has no wood to
bum and she wanders how she'll keep
warm this winter. She wasn't worried
but scared, for herself and for her children.
The first city we passed through
that day was Spitak, epicenter of the
December 1988 earthquake. There
were two sights that made an impression on me: the first was the great size
of the cemetery and the second were
those awful metal boxes that people
are living in. I went into one of these
boxes which measured approximately
twenty-five feet by ten feet with small
windows cut out for light and no insulation. I don't know how they could
stand it in the dead of winter, as it was
already freezing in them, in early No
vember.
Our last stop before returning to
Yerevan was Kirovakan and
Stepanavan. Snow had been predicted
there for the evening so our stay was
short We didn't want to get caught in
the snow. The general condition of the
people in these two cities was better
than in Spitak But with no heating fuel
and litde electricity it was still intolerable by western standards. I asked
people how they survive the winter.
They said that they had spent all summer gathering up food and preparing
for the winter. Many people had litde
cellars where the,food was kept To
survive the cold they said that they
gather wood and if there is no wood
they put on all their clothes, freeze, and
hope to survive.
On my return to Yerevan from
northern Armenia I spent time exploring the city. I found since my last visit
in 1983 that the city had grown more
dilapidated with roads and buildings
needing maintenance and repair.
I also noticed that with each rise
in theprice of gasoline the public transportation systems became more and
more crowded. My wife took the electric tram two times. This is the main
source of public transportation in
Yerevan. She said the experience was
just awful. People pushing and shoving and yelling at each other and fighting to get a space on the tram. The
problem she said was too few trams
and too many people. After riding the
tram twice and experiencing all its
unpleasantness she refused to ride it
again.
General economic conditions in
Yerevan were a lot worse than I had
imagined or heard from the press. There
was electricity only twelve hours per
day and natural gas was shut off to
homes the day I left for America. Most
factories were closed or running part
time. The average wage was 2000-
2500 rubles a month which works out
to five to six dollars per month. The
averageretiree'spension was only 650
rubles per month-equal to one dollar
and fifty cents per month. The exchange rate of rubles to the dollar was
390 rabies to the dollar. And the ruble
was devaluating all the time. The value
of die ruble to the dollar is tied to what
Moscow sets its value at Moscow ties
the value of the ruble to the value of oil,
gasoline, and other factors. Generally
Moscow's ruble to dollar exchange is
higher than Armenia's dollar to ruble
exchange. At the time the rate of exchange in Armenia was 390 rubles to
one dollar and in Moscow the rate was
400 rabies to one dollar.
The cost for staple products on
the open market in Armenia while I
was there was 35 cents a pound for
butter and cheese, and 30 per cents a
pound for meat. Meat, butter, and
cheese were hard to find in Yerevan,
even on the open market. Vegetables
and fruits, depending on the type, were
fourteen to twenty cents a pound. The
price of bread in the government stores
while I was there went from 1 cent a
pound to 7 cents a pound. On the open
market bread could cost up to ten or
twelve times more. In order to get
bread, people had to stand in line anywhere from twelve to twenty-four
hours, often after leaving their homes
at three or four o 'clock in the morning
to secure a place in line. It was not
unusual to see 300 to 400 people in a
bread line. Each person was limited to
the quantity of bread he or she could
buy; only a three day supply for the
family.
The government stores were virtually empty of staple foods. You could
find either cognac or items so expensive nobody could afford them.
The prices for staple goods may
sound cheap to the average American,
but when one considers that the average Armenian earns a dollar fifty to six
dollars a month and the cost of staples
are from 10-50% more expensive than
they are in the U.S., one can see it is an
effort to keep food on the table let
alone provide any variety in the diet.
During my ten day stay in Armenia the price of gasoline increased from
70 cents a gallon to approximately two
dollars a gallon. Fuel was brought and
distributed by 2000 gallon tanker trucks
going to the border of Armenia and
Georgia to bring fuel and then selling
it from these tankers right on the street.
You never knew the quality of the
gasoline you were buying or if the
gasoline was mixed with diesel or
water.
On Saturday November 7 the
price of gasoline was $ 1.50 per gallon;
on Sunday the eighth there was no
gasoline to be found in the city of
Yerevan but by Monday, gasoline tankers magically appeared with the gasoline at a new price of $2.00 per gallon.
With each increase in price one saw
fewer and fewer cars in Yerevan thus
overloading even more the public
transportation systems and causing
more and more public discontent.
To illustrate how tough conditions are in Armenia I observed "how
people wouldn't buy a head of cabbage for two cents, but wpuld spend
one hour looking for cabbage for one
and a half cents a head; and if they
didn't find it at the cheaper price they
didn 't buy it at all. It is hard to imagine
people in America not being able to
afford half a cent But again one must
remember that their costs for staple
products are relatively more expensive than in the U.S. and for fuels up to
200%. Yet the average monthly wage
is l/250th or l/300th of what our average wage is here.
As bad as conditions are I was
personally encouraged to see how industrious and hard working the people
are. Everywhere I saw people trying to
make a living either by selling goods
and food products out of their cars or in
the little open air markets found here
and there; or by selling their arts and
crafts in the parks on Saturdays and
Sundays; or by cultivating their newly
owned one and two acre plots of land.
After talking with some of these
new farmers it impressed me how
knowledgeable they were about agriculture and how in general Armenians
in Armenia are hard-working, intelligent, and have a great desire to prosper
and succeed even after 70 years of
communism's corrupting influence.
These people are literally making a
living out of rocks and stones.
My wife and I attended worship
services at the Armenian Protestant
Church in Yerevan. We arrived a few
minutes late for the service and to our
surprise and astonishment there was
not even standing room. The people
eagerly listened to the pastor's sermon, practically hanging on each word.
I was moved to tears by the sight and
by the thought that 70 years of communist suppression couldn't destroy the
Christian faith of the Armenian people.
I was an Armenian from the Diaspora
who was worshipping in my homeland
with people who were complete Strang -
ers, yet who shared a faith, moral values, culture, and common history with
me. It was an awesome thought.
For all of the public discontent
and economic suffering Armenia is
politically very stable. The many
people I talked with admit times may
have been better under communism,
but they accept the fact that with the
breakup of the Soviet Empire, and four
years of blockade and war in Karabagh,
hard times were inevitable. They support the government and the President,
Levon Ter Petrossian; they say that
nobody could solve their problems and
they see no better alternative to Ter
Petrossian and his government. While
I was there I observed two political
rallies or protests and these only attracted 200-3000 people and broke up
quickly.
People in Armenia do not want to
return to communism, no matter how
tough the times become. They also
understand that they must find a way to
end the war in Karabagh and to learn to
live with the Turks and work with
them in order to get their economy
moving and provide stability in the
region.
They are looking to Armenians in
theDiaspora and especially Armenians
in America for help now, to get through
these tough times and provide investment in the country when peace finally
comes. The Diaspora must keep trying
to improve the lot of Armenia because
if the Diaspora gives up, Armenia will
lose all hope.
I strongly urge readers to send
money to Armenia, to friends or relatives, through friends travelling there.
Fifty or one-hundred dollars is not
much for us here in America but it will
make the difference of a family surviving the winter in Armenia
Free and independent Armenia
has been the dream of Armenians in
the Diaspora for seventy years. Now
that we have it each Armenian who
believes in this dream must do what he
or she can to help our brothers and
sisters in Armenia survive until times
get better.
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