For 10 years the Karapetyans have been this village in the Hadrut region's only residents.

"We are more than a couple: we have become a brother and a sister for each other. What else could there be? For 10 years already we see each other alone, we talk to each other alone, so that we have already run out of topics to talk about," says Gohar, 58.

Soon Gohar and Sanasar will have their first neighbors. The Armenian General Benevolent Union plans to build 20 houses and implement the resettlement program in the village by 2008.

The rocky twisting road from Stepanakert takes some two hours to get to the Karapetyans' place, where there is neither telephone, nor television, nor radio. A reporter says she is from an internet weekly: "Pardon, what reporter are you?" they ask.

"It seems we are in a jungle, isolated from people. We know nothing of the developments in the world for so many years; we don't know who is alive, who is dead. We are all alone," says Gohar.
Gohar's small family has moved to Jrakn from Gyumri (then Leninakan) - the former "disaster zone" in Armenia.

They did not escape the 1988 earthquake: many of their relatives died under the ruins. Their home was totally reduced to rubbles.

The couple has two grown children. "Sanasar is my second husband and the children are his. But I care for them without any difference whether they are mine or not," says Gohar with sternness in her eyes. "I went crazy as the quake began: I was outdoors when my children were inside. I would go mad if anything had happened to them, I wouldn't stand it."

Fortunately nothing had happened to the rest of her family members - her daughter and her son.

The Karapetyans had been living outdoors for two months finding shelter wherever possible and waiting for anyone to give them food. Later they moved into a garage, where they took the only things they managed to get from under the ruins - torn bedding and a refrigerator. After a while their daughter got married and left for Krasnodar, while their son moved to his wife's house after the marriage.

Once a worker at the confectionary factory, Gohar began selling sunflower seeds, while Sanasar, a construction worker, stayed jobless. "We were starving. Is it possible to provide for family by selling sunflower seeds? I thought of going to somewhere for summer - to Sukhumi or Sochi, but unfortunately they are so far"¦ "Me and my husband, we gathered our things - the bedding, the kitchenware, four hens, three rabbits, loaded all those things into our clattering Zhiguli (a car of Soviet production) and took the way of Karabakh as re-settlers, upon a relative's advice, and settled in Hadrut," tells Gohar. The couple settled in Jrakn, where rainwater is the only source of irrigation. The drinking water source lies down the road.

"We had been sleeping in the car for two months until we built a small house: we found old nails and hammers left by the former population, brought some wood and somehow made up the house. There was nobody to give us even a cup of matsun to eat before we could create something," recalls Sanasar, 65 who has given all his abilities and his heath to set a household. Sanasar has broken his legs and caught pneumonia. But he works day and night even now.

Gradually the couple set a household: they planted grapes and mulberry trees, cultivated the garden and raised hens and pigs. "I bought a piglet and kept it as if it were a family member. They said it could be mated in six months. I was happy; I took care of it as if it were a child. If it bears one more time, it will be killed for meat. Now I have 4 big and 8 small pigs, but nobody comes to buy, so that I get some money: They separate between those from Armenia and from Karabakh. They prefer buying from the locals first, you know," says Gohar showing her photos where she is young, her eyes shining with either memories or tears.

"Don't think I have always been so uncared and ugly. I was once a doll, like Rosa in the 'Taxi-taxi' (a play from Soviet Armenia times). I used powder and lipstick and used to do make-up and would go for a walk with my daughter. I like women who take care of themselves. But here one can't think of taking care - one needs to work in the morning, and in the midday and in the night. Is this the way we will die? Yes, it is."

Tired of each other and out of topics to talk about, the couple sometimes crosses on foot to get to the neighboring village of Norashen, where more than 100 residents have been resettled by the AGBU-sponsored program. "Life is bitter and I can't get used to it. I have seen my son just once during all these years. He had visited us. And my husband has been just twice in Leninakan (they still call Gyumri by its soviet name). My children are not doing well enough either to help us. But I want to see my Revolution Square in Leninakan, I want my domik (tiny house). I dream of going to my grandchildren, to be the master of my home," Gohar turns over in her mind, but her husband turns down her dreams in just a second:

"No, wife, we will not be able to leave this place any more. We live a dog's life, but at least we live. We will have money neither to go to Leninakan nor to live there. We will soon have neighbors. And you know, that'll be good... "

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