the tale of the copper town

The Tale of the

Copper Town

Photography and Text by Will BerridgeIntroduction by Azniv Andreasyan

The Tale of the Copper Town

41.1333° N, 44.6500° E, Alaverdi, Northern Armenia, population 6,000

The Tale of the Copper TownIntroduction by Azniv Andreasyan

The 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 Ar-menia. 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 ac-tually 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 seri-ous health and ecological problems. There were large scale protests demanding the plants closure, the socio-political move-ment that was spreading around Armenia had reached Alaverdi and it soon grew into the Karabakh W. The Karabakh com-mittee 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 ut-tered. First it was the Greeks, they start-ed the copper production, and then the French and finally the Soviets came. By the 1980s there were more than 35,000 peo-ple 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 liv-ing by the salary given by the factory, re-mained jobless, without any opportunity of employment in a copper town that was use-less without copper.Little by little the mountains became green again, the air purer, but as a consequence

the people living in Alaverdi became poor-er 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 gen-erations have less choice, they either stay and fight to survive or they move to the vil-lages 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 concen-tration 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 in-dustry that was and still is the larg-est 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 lo-cal and migrant workers closed for business.

Azniv Andreasyan grew up in a vil-lage 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.


Azni

v An

drea

syan

Azni

v’s d

ecea

sed

gran

dpar

ents

bed

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 bel-low, as far as the eye can see the copper flower continues to grow.

The copper flowers and the Vallex copper factories emission pipe


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 con-cerns.

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.


Saso

on M

osin

yan

ride

s on

his h

orse

am

ongs

t the

SO

2 th

at d

esce

nds o

ver

his h

ome

Saso

on M

osin

yan


Astg

hik

Gha

zary

an, S

asoo

n’s w

ifeAr

man

Mos

inya

n, S

asoo

n’s s

on

The Alaverdi swimming club and gymnasium and the Ala-verdi theatre ensemble

Erik Petrosyan is of Greek descend-ance, 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 Ala-verdi how to be healthy. He runs, as a volunteer, the Alaverdi swim-ming club and the Alaverdi gymna-sium. 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 Bek-janyan and Gagik Bablumyan regu-larly 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 con-tinue, for Erik and the boys, they hope to escape but family ties keep them in Alaverdi, for now. For the actors and actresses that remem-ber 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


Jora

Man

ukya

n


Edga

r M

icha

elya

n

Bori

s Sah

akya

n

Sup

port

ing

actr

ess L

ilit Y

erem

yan


Lead

act

or G

agik

Bab

lum

yan

Lead

act

ress

Ana

hit B

ekja

nyan

The children of school number 5 and the Manes/Vallex charita-ble foundation’s canteen.

Not everyone is able to leave Ala-verdi, 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 per-centage of women are sterile. Many others suffer from respiratory dis-eases and above average levels of cancer.

As part of the Manes/Vallex chari-table foundation’s initiatives, two canteens serve the town for a maxi-mum of 100 of the most disadvan-taged 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 em-ployment or more likely will die.

The children of School number 5


Litt

le g

irl i

n th

e m

irro

r at

scho

ol n

umbe

r 5


Play

ing

alon

e at

scho

ol n

umbe

r 5

The

Man

es/V

alle

x ch

arita

ble

foun

datio

n ca

ntee

nAn

dran

Gha

ysik

an a

mem

ber

of th

e lu

cky

100


A co

rrid

or a

t the

Man

es/V

alle

x ch

arita

ble

foun

datio

n ca

ntee

n

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.


Wai

ting

room

at t

he A

lave

rdi t

rain

stat

ion

The

frei

ght t

rain

to G

eorg

ia

The end of the road

With an uncertain future the peo-ple of Alaverdi are left to wonder what might happen? Their exist-ence is inextricably linked to the continued production of copper. This beautiful mountainous town faces the same problems and chal-lenges 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

road

out

of A

lave

rdi

The

Valle

x Co

pper

smel

ter

or ‘k

ombi

nat’

as it

is k

now

n lo

cally

Khr

ushc

hev

peri

od h

ousi

ng b

lock

s num

bers

12 a

nd 14

, Sar

ahar

t nei

ghbo

urho

od


A vi

ew o

f Mt.

Kos

habe

rd o

r co

pper

mou

ntai

n

wberridgephoto.com, [email protected], 07989266874


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the tale of the copper town

Documents

town of alaverdi

copper factory

copper town41

copper townintroduction

copper townphotography

copper smelter

alaverdi activists

death of alaverdi