UNEASY REST: REFLECTIONS ON ROADWAYS AND WINTERS PAST
- One of the Soviet remnants I happily continue to take advantage of is a free holiday. Just like in the old days when my father had rights offered by the state, my wife now has the pleasure due to her membership in the Writer’s Union of Armenia. Last Summer we spent six days in the Union’s resort home in Tsakhadzor. We took another three days over the New Year – three tasty meals per day, reading in a heated room, watching films, standing under the warm shower for hours…
Times have changed, it’s true, and having a warm shower isn’t the novelty it was some years ago. But back in the day when our “shower” at home consisted of pouring heated (or not) water from a pail with one hand while soaping with the other, well, those days under a real shower, was something similar to going to heaven. And Tsakhkadzor’s heaven was as near as an hour away from Yerevan. Some of these privileges still attract many to become members of the Writers’ Union.
The House of Writers was almost empty in the last three days of December – several writers and some Russian skiers. Prior to us there were conference participants occupying the house. However, finding a room after the 30th [of December] would be impossible as the New Year party makers had ordered rooms long before.
For me Tsakhkadzor is a place for a free rest once a year; for others a place to celebrate New Year. For some others it is a place for conferences and seminars. A Russian couple who had not managed to get a European visa to ski in the Alps, had looked for a place with no need of visa, and had found Tsakhkadzor. Turns out they were glad they didn’t get the visa, upon finding a European quality skiing route in Tsakhkadzor and at much more affordable charges.
But the couple was surprised to find so few skiers in Tsakhkadzor. The newly built ski rope was sometimes switched off because of the lack of visitors. “The director of the ropeway says an hour of its operation costs $1,000, and he won’t run it for only a few users,” the Russian couple told me. “They said they have spent about $30 million to build 4 ropeway routes, but why have they built them if they wouldn’t have visitors?”
The couple was confident that ski lovers from all over the world would come to Tsakhkadzor, especially as there is relatively cheap accommodation like at the House of Writers. But they were amazed that huge expenses have been laid out, yet little advertising. There is almost no information about Tsakhkadzor in tourism sites. “I understand bringing back the 30 million is a hard task, but they could at least think of income,” said one of the intrepid Russians (who found the tsakhkadzor.ru website).
Maybe the Russians don’t know what some of us suspect: Maybe the $30 million was not for tourism, but for serving the Armenian “elite”.
Maybe I am wrong, but there are grounds for thinking this way. President Kocharyan is a ski lover, he frequently goes to Tsakhkadzor and many of the officials now ski because they want to mimic their chief. These suspicions were deepened recently when a special roadway was opend linking Tsakhkadzor to the Sevan highway. The route is longer but, significantly, it bypasses rural settlements on the way, including the Kaghsi village. Drivers call it “Kocharyan Way”, confident it was built especially for President Kocharyan so that he does not feel uneasy passing through the village.
Now, an even more convenient route is being excavated – a roadway that bypasses even the town of Tsakhkadzor, and leads straight to the ski rope. Who needs so many routes through a narrow gorge? Is it once again for the leadership and wealthy people so that they don’t communicate to the ordinary people even through the glasses of cars? What about the business and the tourism development projects? Will they override the settlements or maybe tourism is not a business in this country and is just a whim of the Armenian oligarchs?
I guess the rich and powerful can even buy their elite route to “heaven”. And, be sure, they are not the ones filling the rooms in the Writer’s House. They are, though, the ones whose use of Nature’s antidote to the harsh Armenian winter has driven up prices so that it Tsakhkadzor’s heaven is no longer accessible to most of us.
I spent my holidays in Tsakhkadzor since childhood. My father was also a member of the Writers’ Union, so I went there by my father’s free pass to the resort; now, by my wife’s. But also, in the years of my youth, we used to go there with friends and hire a room and ski. What I could afford as a youth is now too expensive as I am in mid-career. A day at the writers house starts at 25,000 drams (about $80) and skiing has its own price of 6000 dram per day ($20). A ticket for the rope way costs 1000 dram ($3).
You may take a day remembering how to stand on skies and that is it – there’s no more money for the next day.
The Soviet system was good; Tsakhkadzor belonged to all of us and the roads leading to the place were built for all of us.
The difference is that now I am free to criticize authorities who take advantage of the rest of us. But shouldn’t we be allowed that AND an affordable winter retreat?
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- 1830 Following Sultan Mahmood's decree and the advice of the French, British, and Russian ambassadors, the Armenian Catholics in Turkey were given a Patriarchate and their own administrative organization.
- 1888 Birth, in Constantinople, of the actor Vahram Papazyan. He is considered to have no equal in the Armenian theater.
- 1906 Birth of composer Ashot Satian. He died in 1958.
- 1911 Birth of theater personality Gevorg Ashughyan.
- 1990 Start of hostilities between Armenian and Azeri Turkish forces near Raskh.
- 2001 The French Senate recognizes the 1915 Genocide of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
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