Life Under Blockade In Yerevan

By Nancy Najarian

"Just back from Armenia? Wow, how was it?''

What do I say? How can I describe what it feels like to live in Yerevan, an industrialized city of 1.2 million people without heat, without hot water, and without electricity?

How can I illustrate the feeling of walking for miles past inhabited yet blacked-out apartment buildings, knowing the families inside are huddled around one measly candle or kerosene lamp in the cold? How to make others feel the isolation of living in a country of 3.5 million people completely blockaded by hostile neighbors, prevented from receiving adequate supplies of fuel to keep the electric plants running, hospitals open, schools in operation? Will anybody understand what it is like to have to go to sleep wearing four layers of clothing because the temperature of your high-rise apartment is 14 degrees Fahrenheit?

If the inhumane conditions in Armenia are not publicized, and if a campaign to end the complete blockade of the Republic of Armenia by Azerbaijan and open humanitarian corridors through Turkey and Georgia is not immediately begun, we in the West will be guilty of knowingly exposing Armenia's 3.5 million people to the potential of freezing or starving to death. It is that simple.

I lived and worked in Armenia for 10 months in 1992 to help the former Communist country make the difficult transition to a democratic society with a free-market economy.

Almost from its birth as a fledgling democracy in 1991, Armenia sought to integrate itself with those Eastern and Western countries that already have successfully created democratic political and capitalist economic systems. Armenia was the first of the former Soviet republics to establish a bilateral commercial treaty with the U.S. development bank (OPIC), insuring U.S. investors against political risk.

In 1992 the Armenian republic achieved membership in the IMF, World Bank, and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and 40 experts from the European Community created a comprehensive plan of technical assistance to the public and private sectors. In December, 39 U.S. Peace Corps volunteers arrived in Armenia to teach English and small business development.

The U.S. Agency for International Development chose Yerevan as one of four cities in the CIS in which to house a permanent mission. However, because of the complete blockade of the country by Azerbaijan, Armenia is being cut off from its lifeline to the outside.

Step into a typical morning in Armenia for a moment and feel the desperation and isolation of life in an industrialized city without fuel or water supplies. Wake up at 7 a.m. to complete blackness and freezing temperatures in your high-rise apartment, because your apartment building is no longer receiving any electricity.

Put on whatever clothes you have not slept in, and your winter coat, and light a candle or kerosene lamp to help you feel your way into the bathroom. Turn on the faucet. Breathe a sigh of relief that some water is coming through, even though it's freezing. Your neighbor in the next building has not had any water for days.

Now, into the kitchen, where it looks like a disaster because you have had no means of heating water to clean your dishes. You light the kerosene stove, if you have been able to secure kerosene.

Any more sophisticated cooking procedure is next to impossible; boiling a large amount of water to cook pasta or potatoes is an hours-long procedure. You pick up the telephone, but get no dial tone. There has not been enough electricity to support the telephone system for some time.

Questions like what to do if you need an ambulance are not even allowed into your head. Most of life is too frightening to think about right now.

Your other family members begin waking up, including the child whose clothing you miraculously have managed to wash. The problem is that the house has become so cold after days without gas and electricity, that the child's clothes are taking longer and longer to dry.

Is the picture clear? Shall I explain how there is absolutely no pollution in the air because every industry has been shut down due to lack of energy? Shall I elaborate about the frostbite one begins to experience, because the metro has come to a complete stop and there are virtually no private cars or taxis to transport passengers through the city?

Why is a country with 14 percent of its population holding advanced degrees in such dire circumstances? Education, initiative, motivation or goodwill don't amount to much when there is no energy coming in to an industrialized country.

The world presently is coping with tragedies in Somalia and Bosnia. Armenia, however, does not require massive airlifts, huge donations of funds, or other direct intervention. What is required is political pressure to end the blockade by Azerbaijan, and open humanitarian corridors through Turkey and Georgia for energy and food. If the blockade is not lifted, 3.5 million people face the possibility of death by starvation.

Armenians are a proud and ancient people who have the dubious distinction of having survived the first genocide of the 20th century. Without help, the nation of Armenia faces extinction once again.

Nancy Najarian, an alumna of Georgetown University's Graduate School of Foreign Service, has represented U.S. development organizations and provided technical assistance in the Republic of Armenia since March 1, 1992.