Home / Armenia

A visit to New Hajin

by Tatul Hakobyan

Published: Saturday April 18, 2009

A view of Nor Hajin. Tatul Hakobyan / Armenian Reporter

Nor Hajin, Kotayk Province, Armenia - Father Arsen says that all of Armenia's villages and towns need to have a church. Nor Hajin especially, because this young city of 10,000 residents currently doesn't have one. Father Arsen conducts the Divine Liturgy and celebrates church holidays in one of the rooms in the Cultural Center of the city. A plot of land has been set aside near the memorial in honor of the Battle of Hajin to build a church for the city.

"Because Nor Hajin was created by people coming from different regions, as a collective people, this city in particular needs a church, so that the community can rally behind one principle, one objective. Each of the residents of this city has brought with him or her the customs from a previous place of resident. By coming here, all of them need to congregate around the church," said Father Arsen.

Nor Hajin is 20 km north of Yerevan, near the Hrazdan River and the Arzni-Shamiram canal. The city could be called quaint. The buildings are orderly and constructed with the pink tufa stone indigenous to Armenia. The streets are paved. Most importantly, Nor Hajin is a green city. The air is clean. The water is cold and pure. The city was established in the 1950s when the Arzni-Shamiram canal and the Arzni hydroelectric power station were being built.

The Hrazdan River, which flows from Lake Sevan, has seven hydroelectric power stations, including the Arzni hydroelectric station, located near Nor Hajin and built in a gorge 100 meters below the city, on a rock. The construction of this power station is what brought people to the area of Nor Hajin. Mayor Gevorg Avetisian speaks proudly about the construction and associates it with the name Ashot Harutyunyan.

"In 1958, a government decision foresaw creating this city based on the establishment of a precious-gems manufacturing plant. The director of that factory, which was later called Sapfir, was Ashot Harutyunyan. He was young. He brought together a staff of engineers and other workers and began the construction of the plant. The city was built along with it," the mayor explains.

The factory later grew and employed about 5,000 people, which secured employment not only for much of the labor force in Nor Hajin, but also for workers from neighboring areas. About ten years ago, the factory was privatized. It was bought by an Israeli businessperson, Lev Levaev, who turned it into a diamond-cutting factory called Shoghakn. Up until a year ago, Shoghakn was employing close to 1,800 people, which is a substantial number for a city of 10,000 residents. It provided these people not only with employment, but also with the ability to live a normal existence.

Today, the international financial crisis is especially evident in Nor Hajin. It has been close to a year now that Shoghakn has not been operational. As a result, the city has found itself in a very difficult position. It does not have arable land. People who have lost their jobs thus have nothing better to do than congregate in the city's central gardens and pass their time by waiting around.

"Some people are waiting around, some have found local employment, and some have left the republic. But the majority of those 1,800 do not have employment," the mayor explained.

The residents of Nor Hajin have come from all regions of Armenia. At one point, people of different nationalities also lived here - Assyrians, Russians, Yezidis.

This city with a history of only 50 years was named in honor of Hajin in Cilicia.

"Generations who have come from Old Hajin have lived in Nor Hajin. In Argentina, there is a Hajin Patriotic Union; we have some contact with them. Every year, on the second Sunday of October, at the memorial of the Battle of Hajin, we commemorate Old Hajin and New Hajin," Mr. Avetisian said.

This year, it is the centenary of that battle. Thanks to its impenetrable geographic position, Hajin was able to organize a heroic self-defense and be spared from the Turkish massacres of 1909. A different fate befell many other regions in Cilicia, particularly the massacre of thousands of Armenians in the vilayet of Adana.