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Destroy...Destroy...Until The End!

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  • Destroy...Destroy...Until The End!

    DESTROY...DESTROY...UNTIL THE END!
    Larisa Paremuzyan

    http://hetq.am/en/marzes/axtala-2/
    201 0/03/29 | 16:02

    Feature Stories marzes

    This is the story of yet another private enterprise, a holdover from
    the Soviet era of manufacturing, which has met its demise. Its owner,
    Hovik Galinyan, is taking it apart, piece by piece, and selling the
    parts as construction material.

    The factory, located in the town of Akhtala, Lori Marz, used to
    employ 500 people. Built in the waning years of the Soviet Union,
    it would buy, reprocess and bottle the fruit and vegetables grown
    by the villagers of Shnogh, Metz Ayrum, Tchotchkan and neighboring
    rural settlements.

    In 1996, the plant was privatized and bought by Hovik Galinyan.

    The dismantling of the plant is a source of consternation among
    the local populace. They had always held out hope, however faint,
    that times would eventually change for the better and that the plant
    would once again start up reprocessing the agricultural produce of
    the region and offer people much needed jobs.

    Clinging to this vision of a brighter future, the villagers of these
    communities set about restoring the peach and other fruit orchards
    that had gone uncultivated for many years.

    When he asked plant owner Hovik Galinyan why he was dismantling an
    otherwise technically sound structure, he answered that while he had
    done all he could to restart operations at the plant, his efforts
    had come to naught.

    "All my efforts during the past few years to operate the plant with
    loans and such, have failed. Moreover, much of the valuable equipment
    has been looted. All that remains are the walls. But they even started
    to rip them apart and carry them off. Thus, I am now forced to do the
    same and sell what remains as construction material." Mr. Galinyan
    said.

    The dismantling of the canning factory speaks volumes about the lack
    of attention paid by the Lori Regional Administration to the economic
    development of the region and making headway in creating new jobs.

    What makes the situation even more absurd is the fact that every
    year the Lori Regional Administration drafts economic development
    programs that it presents to the state government for consideration;
    proposals that talk about the need for restoring orchards and building
    a reprocessing plant.

    What is beyond doubt is that in the years to come, these villagers will
    face similar problems selling the produce of their newly replanted
    orchards as the villagers of Arevatzak, Aygehat and Karmir Aghek
    now face when it comes to selling their potato crop. The Akhtala
    reprocessing plant, had it not been dismantled, could have been a
    prime market for these goods.

    In the accompanying photos, the readers will see that next to nothing
    is left of the plant. It's difficult to say if local villagers will
    ever get a new plant to replace the one that is now just a memory.

    What's most sad of all is that no one at the Lori Regional Authority
    or in the state government has so far understood that tearing things
    down comes easy and that building is the hard part.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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