The background Hak village sits in the northern part of Karabagh’s Kashatagh District. Although Kashatagh’s Armenians suffered brutal ethnic cleansing by Azeris up to 1918, a wealth of churches and other monuments attest to the region’s longstanding Armenian heritage. For example, Hak’s historic St. Minas Church bears an inscription that dates the church back to at least 1675. During Karabagh’s occupation, St. Minas Church was pillaged and later used as a barn. Many of Kashatagh’s churches suffered similar desecration, while others were simply abandoned and left to rot.
The project The Tufenkian Foundation, with support from Ms. Virginia Davies of New York, has launched two new initiatives in Hak. The goal was to highlight the village's historic Armenian character and to raise the standard of living of families resettling the area.
To fulfill the first goal, the Saint Minas church was renovated, renewing attention toward a site of cultural and historical interest as well as providing spiritual services for surrounding villagers. The Foundation’s renovation ensured that the structure of the church endured by restoring its roof, altar, windows, door, and earthen floor.
Next, while spring water is abundant in the area, the main water pipe to the village was damaged and water was not reaching the houses. The Tufenkian Foundation did the necessary repair work and expanded the network of water pipes so that water would reach each village household. The families were very thankful that they no longer have to walk miles to the spring and back carrying heavy pails of water.
Ms. Davies’ support of these efforts is provided in loving memory of her grandmother, Vergine Mouradian. Ms. Mouradian and her brother were the only two members of their family to survive the 1915 genocide.
Maro Matosian, director of the Women's support Center in Yerevan provided an overview of the center's activities at the annual meeting of the Armenian International Women's Association.
