Town hall meetings unlike any other

Vahe H Apelian

Villages: Voskepar (Ոսկեպար) on the right, and Korants (Կիրանց) on the map

Today, on March 18, 2024, the PM of Armenia Nikol Pachinyan visted two boarder villages in the Tavush region and held a town hall meeting in each one of them. I watched the recordings of the town hall meetings the PM had posted on his Facebook page. They were heart-wrenching town hall meetings for all concerned and were unlike any other town hall meeting I have watched. It was agonizing to see Armenians being tested on their own ancestral land and facing the specter of another war.

The two Tavush region boarder villages the PM visited were Voskepar and Kirants. They are almost undistinguishable on the map (see above). As I said, the  town-hall meetings were heart-wrenching, but direct. It was evident that the villagers and the government officials are are agonizing in finding a resolution of the boarder issue. Both parties, the villagers and the government officials, will keep communicating with each other through their representatives.

I searched Wikipedia about the two villages. There is a lot that is reported about these two boarder villages in Armenian. But when I switched the language and wanted to read in English, to my surprise I found the postings about these two villages missed the detailed information that is listed in Armenian. I wonder why. 

I copied what the Armenian Wikipedia had in regard to the history of these two villages and had Google translate it, to avoid personal intrusion. 

Voskepar village. I copied the entire section of the history of the Voskepar village and had Google translate it. (See the postings below in italics).

Voskepar is one of the oldest settlements in Armenia. It was founded as a village at least in the 6th to 7th centuries. It is rich in historical and cultural monuments.

The study of the preserved monuments and ruins in the village and surrounding areas shows that it was moved to a small area at least three times in different periods, occupying the territories of the former settlements and adjacent villages, which are now called Upper Voskepar, now Nerkin Voskepar[2][5][ 6], where Turks began to settle in the 19th century[7][8].”

Kirants Village. There is a detailed posting about the history of the Kirants village. I only copied the first two paragraphs and had Google translate it (see the posing below in italics).

‘Kirants was founded at least in the IV century (there are no earlier references). The village was a large settlement called Kunen, according to the map it was the center of the province. Kunen spread on both sides of Karahan (Kirants) river. The village is one of the unique settlements in Armenia that was not emptied even by the Mongol-Tatar invasions and Shah Abbas' 1601. after the organized deportation. [fact]

The remains of five church buildings (two of which are standing, and only the walls of three of them), a bath and many residential houses have been preserved, which testify to the active life and rich past of the village. Some of them have inscriptions from the 13th, 17th and 19th centuries, which suggest that although Kunen suffered greatly during the Mongol invasions of 1236-1243, the Kunen people built new churches about thirty years later. Thus, one of the churches was built in 1276 by the priest Grigor, and the other in 1274 by Avetis and Mlkan. Inscriptions from the 8th century have also been preserved near the churches.”

What did I conclude? Brute force makes right and human justice, I too spit in your face.