Sponsor: A Group of Los Angeles Armenians(Los Angeles, CA, USA)
Tzar Today
The village of Tzar is located in the Nor Shahoumian Region of MKR, Armenia at an altitude of 2100m. The village has abundant water supplies and farming lands.
This centuries old turkified Armenian town was repopulated in 1995 by its native Armenians, after its liberation in 1993. On the day of its liberation, the village had 120 scorched homes and numerous institutional community buildings.
Tzar was depleted of its native Armenian population in the mid to late nineteenth century. At the time, the town had four churches. By 1993 only two semi-destroyed churches were remaining, the St. Gregory the Illuminator and the St. Sarkis, both built in the 12 th century and both converted to barns to by the Azeri Turks. By 1993, the other churches and the historic prince's castle had all but disappeared, although stones of the historic Armenians structures can be found in large quantities throughout the village including in the walls of the Azeri built school.
In 2001, when we visited Tzar for the first time, the village had 74 residents, 17 families.
With the efforts of the MKR government, 19 homes were reconstructed, the largest of which was being used as a school with 27 students. Another house was being used as a clinic and community center.
As a result of the daily hardships of life in Tzar, by 2003 only 14 families were remaining in Dzar.
The school operated in two shifts, as it was too small to accommodate all of its students at once. The older students attended school in the afternoon.
The temporary school building was 8.9m x 10.15m. In order to serve the community properly, the building needed to be more than doubled in size through expansion and remodeling of the existing building. The school also needed to be equipped with new furniture.
The conditions of life in village of Tzar were alarming. Since its repatriation, the community population had decreased and the key reasons were several, among which where:
1. The poor state of the road leading to the village.
2. The absence of electricity.
3. The poor condition of the school and its lack of teachers.
But there were some encouraging signs as well:
1. Six newborns had brought new life to the community.
