We kept our promise and after two years I joined journalist Tatul Hakobyan in his village of Dovegh, in the Tavush Province of Armenia bordering Georgia and Azerbaijan.
Similar to other border villages, Dovegh was, and still is, subject to shelling and sniper fire since the 1992 Artsakh War. Due to current Azerbaijani sniper fire, agricultural fields, rivers and water reservoirs are out of reach for the Armenian villagers to access- even roads near the border are dangerously exposed to sniper fire, with dozens of casualties reported in the previous years.
Despite the unresolved conflict between the two countries which takes it’s toll on the resilient villager, I witnessed hope and hard work from villagers to improve their community and livelihood. Then I discovered the other side of Tatul Hakobyan, the football fanatic and proud sponsor of the Dovegh Youth Football Club. The team of 15 boys between the ages of 14-16 was established this year and travels to various towns and cities to play against the 19 teams in their division. Tatul was excited to share that for most of these boys it was their first trip to Yerevan and other parts of Armenia, the same goes for the other teams. Tatul is a firm believer that football at a young age offers social benefits as well as the opportunities to travel and get acquainted with other regions of Armenia.
We stopped by two football fields, the first was in Noyemberyan, and the second in the village of Nerkin Karmir Aghpyur. The second field is brand new, nearing construction completion. Once Tatul saw how well the field was progressing he committed to his friend, who is the local school gym teacher, that he would like to form a local youth team, for the players to improve their skills as well as travel to other regions of Armenia, and for other teams to come to Nerkin Karmir Aghpyur. Now the challenging part for Tatul is to raise the required $5,000 to cover the annual cost of equipping and travel for the team. Ashot, the local gym teacher of Nerkin Karmir Aghpyur gave me a tour of the school which I was impressed to see its cleanliness and continuous upkeep of the renovated school thanks to a generous donation by the Atamian family from New York as part of Paros Foundation rural development projects.
We hope that Tatul Hakobyan will be able to identify and train future star players that will play in major league matches worldwide.
Appreciate sharing this post if you enjoyed reading it.
Andy Armenian
Las Vegas, Nevada
