A PASSAGE
REFLECTIONS ON INFRASTRUCTURES
OF MOBILITY IN SOUTHERN ARMENIA
ROUZBEH AKHBARI & FELIX KALMENSON
An enclosure, the humid mouth of a mountain. The air lingers heavily
as faint lines emerge against the black. The latent image announces a
passage barreled in concrete to another country. Distant, a point of light
bursts into life announced by a deafening roar, echoing through.
“Yerevan!
Masis!
Artashat!
Ararat!
Norashen!” The choir sings.
“I was on a short school break, heading south to see family. I’d heard
about the clashes at the Nakhchivan border and the armed forces
blockading infrastructures, but it didn’t occur to me that the railway
was also compromised. Boarding the train, I was struck by how utterly
empty it was. Desperate to see my family on the short break, I tried to
think nothing of it. Rolling past Ararat, the train attendant entered my
car and was shocked to see me. In a panicked voice he whispered,
‘What are you doing here? Haven’t you heard?’ That was how I found
out that the mutual non-interference agreement signed to prevent dis-
ruptions to basic transport infrastructures had collapsed and militias
were seizing passengers and goods on the Yerevan-Baku line. With
the attendant’s help I managed to find a hiding spot in a dark storage
closet. Only a few minutes after I’d crawled under the blankets, the train
came to a full stop and armed men boarded. They searched the entire
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wagon thoroughly and interrogated the attendant before leaving and
sending us on our way. When I arrived home, my parents were in tears
‘How did you make it?’ they asked. Apparently, the day before my ride,
they had kidnapped 12 students on the train and held them as prison-
ers. That was the last train to ride those rails.” - A. A.
Agarak in Armenia’s Syunik Marz region lies at the intersection
of Armenia, Iran and Nakhchivan along the Aras River. The river
was designated as the boundary between the Russian and Per-
sian empires at the conclusion of hostilities during the Russio-
Persian war. Following the treaties of Golestān (1813) and Turk-
menchay (1828), ethnic populations previously unrestrained by
geopolitical borders found themselves separated depending on
which side of the strategic boundary they fell on. Reconstituting
the region’s geopolitics resulted in a complex remodeling of de-
mographics, which laid the groundwork for nascent nationalisms
for the decades to come. Following the conclusion of the Iranian
Crisis of 1946 and the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Northern
Iran, the Aras River became heavily fortified throughout the cold
war as the boundary between the USSR and the western-backed
Iranian government. With the militarization of these borders, Aga-
rak became a frontier border town that depended heavily on the
train and highway infrastructures that connected Yerevan to
Southern Armenia through Nakhchivan along the Aras River val-
ley. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a series of hostilities
THE FUNAMBULIST 17 /// WEAPONIZED INFRASTRUCTURE
between Azerbaijan and Armenia rendered these routes impass-
able, effectively isolating Agarak from the rest of the country. Sur-
rounded by evacuated linkages, with only early-Soviet mountain
roads to connect the town to Northern Armenia, Agarak became
a virtual island with limited access to basic resources; inaugurat-
ing a period of desperation when the residents turned to hunting
and small-scale farming for survival. These conditions continued
until two years after the infrastructural collapse. At which point the
Iranian state erected a provisional pontoon river crossing, later up-
grading it to the current two-lane bridge connecting Iran’s Nordooz
to Agarak. This linkage flourished with expanded trade and the bur-
geoning tourist industry, which brought Iranian goods and tourists
back to this region for the first time since the Soviet blockade.
The vision pans out as the safety alarm blares across a gulf of space.
He smiles and closes his eyes. A thunderous sound. The damp in-
terior is showered in dust as the church shudders with a bellowing
earth. The hillside collapses and exposes its contents to the waiting
mouth of a bulldozer.
“Nakhchivan!
Julfa!
Ordubad!
Karchivan!
Meghri!” The choir continues.
THE FUNAMBULIST 17 /// WEAPONIZED INFRASTRUCTURE
“Charles de Gaulle was born in Syunik! His father owned a mine in
Kapan and De Gaulle spent his early years in this region. It is said
that in fact, the very copper that was used to fabricate the Statue of
Liberty was derived from these mountains. When the Russians seized
the mine from French holdings, they constructed a massive monu-
ment out of copper depicting a bear with a key in its mouth. This was
meant to symbolize the transfer of power. This statue became an icon
of Syunik Marz and was used as a hood ornament on the old Soviet
trucks working the copper mines of Agarak.” - S.S.
Agarak was originally the name of a village built on the northern
slopes of the Aras River valley. During the Soviet rule, a Copper-
Molybdenum mine was established on the village’s periphery. The
mine was subsequently expanded with the construction of a work-
ers’ settlement in the lower reaches of the valley. As the mine grew,
the structural stability of the older village was compromised by the
shock waves rippling from the mine’s explosives. This led to the
evacuation of the village; leaving only a 16th century church that still
stands on the precipice of the open-pit mine. The Soviet planned
settlement ceremonially adopted the disappeared village’s name,
housing Armenian, Azeri and Russian mineworkers and specialists,
as well as, predominantly Azeri railroad workers near the old Kar-
chivan Railway Station on the banks of the river. Following the post-
Soviet hostilities of the Nagorno-Karabakh War and the railway’s
collapse, the region witnessed a period of population transfers and
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ethnic cleansing on both sides of the border. Subsequently,
the Azeri enclaves adjacent to the former Karchivan Rail-
way Station were abandoned. In the following decade, as a
symbolic gesture of the intransigent position of both govern-
ments, the railroad tracks were removed and sold to Iran as
scrap metal.
Alongside the collapse of the railway infrastructure, the region’s
only airport, which serviced the entire Syunik region, discon-
tinued operations after threats of anti-aircraft attacks from the
nearby border. The runway and the passenger halls have re-
mained derelict for the past decade; inhabited only by a sin-
gle security guard and a herd of wild horses who graze in the
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adjacent mountains. In the coming years it has been rumored, the airport will
be retrofitted as the forward command of Russia’s Middle Eastern operations
as part of the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) of which Arme-
nia is a signatory.
Light filters through the almond branches and traces a collective of shadows
on a table laid for a feast. Heavy breath is heard as lines are drawn in parallel to
form a perimeter. Vacuous halls make ready for the coming bounty.
“Atzador!
Nuvadi!
Minjivan!
Zangilan!
Jabrayil!” The choir cries out.
THE FUNAMBULIST 17 /// WEAPONIZED INFRASTRUCTURE
“My father was working these gardens since Agarak was established. They
were given the land to grow food to supplement the meager rations that were
provided to the mineworkers. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the rights
to this land were transferred to my father. The same for our neighbors. […]
I’ve built this homestay on this land after retiring as a customs officer. The low
pensions are insufficient, especially as prices of energy and food have gone
up in the past few years. [...] The garden provides much of our food but I need
savings to send my kids to good schools in Canada or Europe.
We’ve been having issues with the water pressure recently, which is obviously un-
pleasant for my guests and also detrimental for the garden. The water pipelines
entering my property run through the Russian military base over there. [points
to the base meters away that shares a fence with his land]. The commanding
THE FUNAMBULIST 17 /// WEAPONIZED INFRASTRUCTURE
officer arbitrarily shuts off the water. [...] To me it seems like a
power game... It feels like the occupation has never ended. You
see, I am installing that water tank on the roof to avoid the daily
confrontations. The Russians patrol this border and the one with
Turkey. Armenia foots the bill! I don’t know why they waste their
time on this border when we have good relations with Iran. Why
not patrol the frontlines with Nakhchivan where our soldiers are
dying. [points towards the mountains west of his land]
I have hope for the future though. There are plans to develop a
Free Trade Zone in the area between the river’s bank and the
hills behind us. It’ll bring much more investment and tourists
from Iran and will increase the value of my property.” - V. S.
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Agarak’s urban morphology is expected to undergo many changes in
the near future. Its location at the intersection of three international bor-
ders has made it particularly sensitive from a geopolitical standpoint.
The southern borders with Iran are patrolled by the Russian Army, who
is contracted to securitize the area under an agreement associated with
the CSTO. The western borders with Nakhchivan (with whom Armenia
is still in a state of war) are patrolled by Armenian troops. The presence
of multiple actors tasked with patrolling the area, coupled with the se-
curity mechanisms employed to screen the border for the passage of
illegal goods has manifested in multi-layered spatial divisions. These
conditions make it difficult for individuals to travel in proximity to the
border zone without being interrogated by Russian border officials. The
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impeded mobility of bodies exists in stark contrast to the
expected liquidity of capital under the auspices of the new
economic forces that are re-shaping these geographies.
The neoliberal strategy recently adopted by the Armenian
state centers on establishing a Free Economic Zone in
Agarak. The project involves major infrastructural upgrades
that will help reconnect the mountainous region to Yerevan
through a series of highway and rail systems, facilitating the
movement of goods and capital from Armenia and other
international markets to the existing Aras Free Economic
Zone on the Iranian side of the border. The purpose of the
THE FUNAMBULIST 17 /// WEAPONIZED INFRASTRUCTURE
proposed FEZ is to service both the markets of the European Union
and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) by providing for the fluid
movement of goods, services and capital between these markets
and the Middle East. Meanwhile, Agarak is gradually changing to
accommodate the logistical needs of an international Economic
Zone through the expansion of its tourist/hospitality sectors with in-
creasing numbers of hotels and homestays appearing in proximity
to the militarized border zone.
A halfway moon, the hush of between possibility. Shrouded in Velvet
the city begs the mountain for a breeze. Eruptions of steel and skin,
these roads are not roads but a passage.
“Fizuli!
Horadiz!
Sumgayit!
Baku!” The choir murmurs.
“I was trying to reach you via half-occupied roads. Walking along
the sidewalk I saw crowds begin to spill into the road. They gradu-
ally formed a chain linked together by chanting and placards. The
cars slowed behind them. A black car suddenly swerved, forming
a perpendicular with the road. A cheer broke out. A blockade was
established. More people flooded into the street and another truck
followed suite. Car horns blared out filling the street with reverbera-
tions. Azatutyan, the street that merges out of the city into the Tbilisi
highway was effectively shut down. I wish you could have seen it.
Two minutes later, the crowd began to move towards the city center
and traffic resumed.” – A. G.
On April 13th 2018, massive demonstrations broke out across Ar-
menia in response to the reconsolidation of Serzh Sargsyan’s power
as the newly appointed Prime Minister. During the subsequent con-
frontations between government forces and the opposition protes-
tors, both sides tactically employed infrastructural blockades. The
THE FUNAMBULIST 17 /// WEAPONIZED INFRASTRUCTURE
protestors blocked major urban roads to stall the undisrupted flow
of state and economic functions within the city, all the while occupy-
ing the streets, making visible their demands. Simultaneously, local
and regional police forces instituted a series of road closures, pre-
venting entry to Yerevan from surrounding regions and a further in-
flux of protestors. Undeterred, protestors further decentralized their
movement to all reaches of the city by forming temporary block-
ades, which once disbanded, mushroomed into adjacent streets
stretching the resources of the police to a point of ineffectuality. After
several days of protests Yerevan ground to a halt, shutting down the
city’s economic and political functions. By the 11th day Sargsyan re-
signed. These overlapping tactics of infrastructural disruption make
clear the central role of mobility and mobilization for contemporary
states and their dissenters. Through these narratives one can ob-
serve how infrastructure, power, political agency and life itself are
sites of contestation.
The names associated with testimonies in this article have
been abbreviated in order to protects individuals from retalia-
tion. This text was developed from research for an upcoming
film, Make Breeze.
Rouzbeh Akhbari is an artist working in video installation and
film. His practice is research-driven and usually exists at the in-
tersections of political economy, critical architecture and plan-
ning. He holds a master’s degree from University of Toronto’s
School of Architecture, Landscape and Design.
Felix Kalmenson is an artist whose practice navigates between
installation, video and performance. Kalmenson’s work vari-
ably narrates the liminal space of a researcher’s and artist’s
encounter with landscape and archive. By bearing witness to
everyday life and hardening the more fragile vestiges of private
and collective histories through their work, Kalmenson gives
themselves away to the cadence of a poem, always in flux.
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