The Tale of the
Copper Town Photography and Text by Will Berridge Introduction by Azniv Andreasyan
41.1333째 N, 44.6500째 E, Alaverdi, Northern Armenia, population 6,000
The Tale of the Copper Town
The Tale of the Copper Town Introduction by Azniv Andreasyan
T
he mountains that surround Alaverdi, the deep canyons and the fast flowing river below; it was a breath-taking view for a little girl growing up in Soviet Armenia. I remember the unbelievable scale and wondering how high I would be able to climb but from an early age I understood the meaning of the term ‘an ugly beauty,’ as the mountains in Alaverdi were black from the smoke that pumped twenty four hours a day from the copper factory in the town, and the smell, it smelt of metal and because I didn’t know what this smell was I thought it was how trains and railroads smelt, but as I found out later it was actually the smell of sulphur. I saw my first train in Alaverdi, and eventually hundreds of them, the wagons rolling out of the small station with a thunder, my father told me that they were not passenger trains but trains full of copper heading out of town and across the border into what was then the Soviet union. Most of my relatives still live in Alaverdi, my aunt Shushan, who lives very close to the copper smelter, remembers that every time she was caught outside in the rain, the rain would pierce holes in her nylon tights, and now I understand that it was because of the chemicals in the air. It was the 1980s; the peak of copper production, the factory was working at full capacity to accomplish the plans of the Soviet Government, producing 55,000 tons of pure copper annually; the air was filled with this sulphuric smoke. In 1989 ecologists started pressuring the owners - and not just because there were holes in women’s tights and the mountains were black - but because there were cases of mass poisonings, birth defects and the
town was suffering from many other serious health and ecological problems. There were large scale protests demanding the plants closure, the socio-political movement that was spreading around Armenia had reached Alaverdi and it soon grew into the Karabakh W. The Karabakh committee Alaverdi branch was launched and along with raising the issue of Karabakh self-determination, Alaverdi activists were demanding environmental policy reforms. It is said that it was the first mass action protest in the USSR and that it started its collapse. In late 1989 the factory closed its doors, unable to resist the movement, the town of Alaverdi, its foundations built on copper, had to exist without any means to survive. It felt like the end, the death of Alaverdi, where copper production had begun even before the name of Alaverdi was first uttered. First it was the Greeks, they started the copper production, and then the French and finally the Soviets came. By the 1980s there were more than 35,000 people living in Alaverdi and almost all of the male population were employed in copper production with the woman working in the bread and textiles factories established by the Soviet government. In 1989, when the factory officially closed, people living in the town that was built around the copper factory, each man educated and trained to work for the factory, and each family living by the salary given by the factory, remained jobless, without any opportunity of employment in a copper town that was useless without copper. Little by little the mountains became green again, the air purer, but as a consequence
the people living in Alaverdi became poorer and poorer. Those who had a chance to escape left, as we did and for the ones who remained they mostly survived with the help of those same relatives that were fortunate to escape. Nowadays there are about 6,000 people left in Alaverdi. If you are young you have no option but to leave to seek an education and employment in the cities or for many in Russia and these people never come back. My cousins are like this, I was like this, but the elder generations have less choice, they either stay and fight to survive or they move to the villages and the mountains to farm. In 1996 the Armenian owned Vallex group restarted the Alaverdi copper factory. There are now 300 employees who receive a small income but they are happy to have any employment. They produce 9,000 tons of copper every year, a much lower amount than at its peak. The mountains look green but for how long? The chemical concentration in the air and soil still exceeds the norms by many times and ecologists again start to protest, but the Alaverdi people are afraid of supporting them this time, they are worried for their future and the future of their children, without copper will they even have any future left, for how long will I be able to visit my relatives in the copper town. 1 The Karabakh movement was a protest move-
ment whose aim was to establish the Nagorno Karabakh region as part of Armenia.
Near to Alaverdi, Lori Province, Armenia. Alaverdi was once a prosperous place to live due to the copper industry that was and still is the largest employer in town. Yet for those that remain in this beautiful part of northern Armenia they wake up every day to face unemployment at a staggering 60%, derelict Soviet era housing that is unfit for human habitation and empty factories that once employed thousands of local and migrant workers closed for business. Azniv Andreasyan grew up in a village in the valley that surrounds Alaverdi, yet Azniv was one of the lucky ones. Her family decided that the only way to survive was to move; via a search for work in Russia they arrived in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, leaving their home and relatives behind as many others have done and continue to do on an almost daily basis. Yet for Azniv, the importance of her home remains, often she returns to the house of her grandparents and to visit relatives in Alaverdi, the copper town.
The Tale of the Copper Town
Azniv’s deceased grandparents bed
Azniv Andreasyan
The Copper flowers The local people say that wherever these beautiful pink flowers grow copper is found in the earth. Yet despite the constant plume of sulphuric smoke that is being pumped into the air night and day from the Vallex copper factory bellow, as far as the eye can see the copper flower continues to grow.
The copper flowers and the Vallex copper factories emission pipe
The Tale of the Copper Town
On Copper mountain Sasoon Mosinyan is 60 and has lived in Alaverdi all of his life, despite the many health issues that exist in the town and though Sasoon and his family live within the shadow of the emissions pipe, he says neither he, his wife or his son have any specific health concerns. So every day Sasoon continues to take his cows out to pasture and he sells his milk and homemade cheese to the town and then closes his door when the smoke descends.
The Tale of the Copper Town
Sasoon Mosinyan rides on his horse amongst the SO2 that descends over his home
Sasoon Mosinyan The Tale of the Copper Town
Arman Mosinyan, Sasoon’s son
Astghik Ghazaryan, Sasoon’s wife
The Alaverdi swimming club and gymnasium and the Alaverdi theatre ensemble Erik Petrosyan is of Greek descendance, his family were one of the first settlers in Alaverdi, but with few opportunities for employment in the town, Erik has chosen to teach the remaining youth of Alaverdi how to be healthy. He runs, as a volunteer, the Alaverdi swimming club and the Alaverdi gymnasium. For young people like Boris Sahakyan, Jora Manukyan and Edgar Michaelyan, these are places that they go to not only to keep fit and healthy but also to meet with friends and to cure their boredom. The Alaverdi theatre ensemble continues to rehearse their latest performances. During the Soviet era, Lilit Yeremyan, Anahit Bekjanyan and Gagik Bablumyan regularly performed for the thousands that worked in the factory, but now performances are infrequent and generally out of town. For all these people life has to continue, for Erik and the boys, they hope to escape but family ties keep them in Alaverdi, for now. For the actors and actresses that remember how it used to be, survival is the only option and so they try as best as they all can to live a normal life in a town that is no longer normal.
Erik Petrosyan with friends and the swimming pool attendant
The Tale of the Copper Town
Jora Manukyan The Tale of the Copper Town
Edgar Michaelyan
Boris Sahakyan
The Tale of the Copper Town
Supporting actress Lilit Yeremyan
Lead actress Anahit Bekjanyan
Lead actor Gagik Bablumyan
The children of school number 5 and the Manes/Vallex charitable foundation’s canteen. Not everyone is able to leave Alaverdi, so what happens to those who remain, the vulnerable? The children of school number 5 are the lucky ones, with the support of the Manes/Vallex foundation, they are provided with an education. Statistics show that Alaverdi has an abnormally high number of birth defects including hydrocephaly (when a foetus has water instead of a brain) anencephaly (born with only a partial skull) and a large percentage of women are sterile. Many others suffer from respiratory diseases and above average levels of cancer. As part of the Manes/Vallex charitable foundation’s initiatives, two canteens serve the town for a maximum of 100 of the most disadvantaged people, food amounting to little more than bread and cheese and a bowl of soup is given out on a daily basis. Those that are on the waiting list will have to hope that one of the lucky 100 will find employment or more likely will die.
The children of School number 5
The Tale of the Copper Town
The Tale of the Copper Town
Little girl in the mirror at school number 5
Playing alone at school number 5
The Tale of the Copper Town
Andran Ghaysikan a member of the lucky 100
The Manes/Vallex charitable foundation canteen
A corridor at the Manes/Vallex charitable foundation canteen
The last freight train to Georgia Every day a fully loaded freight train leaves the Vallex Copper smelter. It quietly travels across the nearby Georgian border, and onwards to Russia and beyond and with it goes any hope of economic survival for the people of Alaverdi.
The Tale of the Copper Town
The freight train to Georgia
Waiting room at the Alaverdi train station
The end of the road With an uncertain future the people of Alaverdi are left to wonder what might happen? Their existence is inextricably linked to the continued production of copper. This beautiful mountainous town faces the same problems and challenges that Armenia as a country faces, how to recover and develop in the post Soviet era and 20 years on from the end of the Soviet Union this question remains unanswered.
The Tale of the Copper Town
The Vallex Copper smelter or ‘kombinat’ as it is known locally
The road out of Alaverdi
The Tale of the Copper Town
Khrushchev period housing blocks numbers 12 and 14, Sarahart neighbourhood
A view of Mt. Koshaberd or copper mountain
The Tale of the Copper Town wberridgephoto.com, wberridge@gmail.com, 07989266874
/50