The people of Gyumri are famous for their sense of humor, but it is their survival instinct that has kept them going despite the devastation caused by an earthquake nine years ago that killed twenty-five thousand and left many more homeless.
"Anywhere else in the world, families would have moved away in search of a better life. But not the people of this region," Governor Ararat Gomtsian says with pride as he talks not only about reconstruction but building a new infrastructure for the future.
The region's population has once again reached its pre-earthquake level of 240,000 and is growing. Many still live in shantytowns, but new construction is escalating, adding much needed new housing and classrooms every day.
After careful re-evaluation by architects and engineers, buildings once doomed for demolition are being rein-forced with concrete and steel beams to prepare them for occupancy. Traffic lights are up and running and major roads in and around the city are being paved.
Gyumri is alive with activity.
Various international loan programs are encouraging farmers to export their produce, and entrepreneurs to set up small factories and create new jobs.
"The old factories which once employed thousands of people are dead, and we cannot revive them. Today's economy has no room for most of them anyway, therefore we are encouraging smaller enterprises with financial backing from several international organizations," Gomtsian said.
"We are moving faster than ever, and I am confident that we will put the past behind us by the year 2001," he said in a recent interview before heading to a ceremony marking the opening of the Gyumri Academy of Performing and Visual Arts, a project realized with funding from the Armenian General Benevolent Union and the efforts of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra artistic director and conductor Loris Tjeknavorian.
The Academy, located in the Gyumri city center, will serve as the main driving force behind the region's cultural life, teaching music, theater, painting and arts and crafts to hundreds of students who have been deprived of most of these extra-curricular activities since the earthquake.
The 1988 earthquake destroyed tens of thousands of homes, dozens of factories, schools and hospitals, and has still left more than 40 percent of the surviving population unemployed. The calamity was further compounded by the collapse of the Soviet Union, which was to finance the reconstruction efforts, and, since Armenia's independence, the Yerevan government's inability to meet its financial obligations toward the reconstruction costs from 1991 to 1996.
"These two factors had a negative effect on reconstruction," Gomtsian said.
Nine years after the earthquake, 17,000 families are still living in shacks and temporary trailers with no running water or other essential facilities.
Progress has been slow, and at times discouraging, but like everything else in Armenia today, the tide is turning. Government funding for reconstruction has been restored along with an increase of more focused assistance from foreign aid agencies.
In the past 12 months alone, more schools have been re-built and re-opened than the first eight years since the earthquake. During the same period, more than 2,000 housing units were completed and handed over to families.
This means real classrooms for more than nearly 3,000 students who have in recent years been forced to attend classes in make-shift trailers many of which were nothing more than tin shacks.
New banks are opening and head-start programs are helping farmers and businesspeople launch new enterprises.
"Education and housing are essential for this community. If children cannot go to good schools, parents will think of moving away. We added eight new schools this year and we are determined to get all schools up and running within a few years. Children should no longer remain in those tin shacks which serve as temporary classrooms," Gomtsian said.
One such facility slated for occupancy by 700 students in 1998 is the Gyumri School #14 on Alex Manoogian Street, which is being re-built and furnished with major funding from the Armenian General Benevolent Union.
Along with the special attention given to the housing and education sectors, agriculture and small businesses are also being enhanced thanks to development projects operated by agencies like the United States Department of Agriculture's Gyumri Marketing Demonstration Center (GMDC).
Opened only a few months ago, the GMDC is providing training and technical assistance to agricultural producers and agriculturally related businesses such as packaging, storing, cooling and marketing.
The GMDC will also provide financial loans of up to 5,000 dollars to the agriculture industry, including funds to assist individuals, associations and enterprises in the marketing and delivery of processed goods.
A handful of farmers have already taken advantage of the new loans by using the available funds to package and ship fruits to markets in the United Arab Emirates.
Other funding, but not exclusively for the agriculture sector, is also being made available through a number of banks which have been appointed by foreign aid agencies to handle the process.
On such institution, the Shirakinvest Bank, is acting as a conduit for the Eurasia Foundation which is providing loans to encourage agricultural production and small businesses that generate jobs.
'There is movement in Gyumri and we are all involved. The government and international agencies are essential in providing the tools of survival, but so is the private sector which is vital for progress. Gyumri will one day become a major trading zone in the region” Gomtsian says.
Located on the border with Turkey, Gyumri stands to gain a lot from an open frontier. It is a key railway junction linking Turkey not only with Armenia, but through Armenia the entire former Soviet railway system — from Russia to the central Asian republics.
"We have to move fast and concentrate on developing the Gyumri region. This border with Turkey will not remain closed forever, because in politics everything is subject to change," Gomtsian said.
In the meantime, Gyumri airport is gaining momentum. More than a dozen flights depart every week to several countries in the Middle East like the United Arab Emirates and Syria, along with Russia and the major capitals of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
"We cannot just sit and wait for better days. We have to make each day better than the last," Gomtsian says.
