At one time, Margahovit was the only village in the province of Lori that had two newspapers: Zoravig, the official paper with the same name as the union of expatriates from Margahovit, and Margahovit, the village council’s paper. Then the two papers merged and the paper Margahoviti Zoravig was created.

Margahoviti Zoravig is published quarterly and has a print run of 300 issues. Initially, the paper was sold in the village and the revenues were spent on printing. But barely half the copies were sold and so it was decided to distribute the paper free of charge. It is completely financed by the expat union.

Margahoviti Zoravig editor Hovhannes Sardaryan writes the four pages that comprise the main part of the paper, while the rest of the articles are written by journalists or volunteers. Articles related to the school are written by teachers. There are no regular, in-house journalists.  

The paper covers villages news, as well as the activities of the expatriate organization. “If a resident writes to the council and receives a response to her query, we write about it. If a resident’s reply is being delayed, we write about that too,” says Sardaryan. 

There are regular columns in Margahovit Zoravig: for example, village council employee Avag Kharatyan is responsible for the series “Pages from the history of the village”. The series includes pieces on village history, culture and folklore. Avag is working on the historiography of the village and his research over the past two years has culminated in a book about the village simply called “Margahovit”. 

Residents of the village read their paper. “Imagine, I omit nothing in the paper — I read it all, from beginning to end. There are great pieces on literature, the everyday life of the village, its benefactors,” says village council bookkeeper Rosa Zohrabyan. 

The village paper is circulated to the village school. “We’re interested in the events that the benefactors of our village do, to encourage students,” says grade 11 student Manana, who is an excellent student and who was the recipient of an educational scholarship this January. This news was published in Margahoviti Zoravig. “Naturally, I felt proud; I felt a commitment to study better. I read it from start to finish — even several times. At home too, everyone took turns reading it,” she says. 

The piece about Manana wasn’t shown to their neighbors: according to her, there was no need since the neighbors had already read the news.

Serine, a student from the graduating class, reads the section in the paper about the soldiers of their village. “If the soldiers from our village receive thank you notes from the place of service or from the ministry, it’s written about [in the paper],” she says. Her brother is now serving in the army. Serine one day would like to see her brother’s name in Margahoviti Zoravig. 

Lena Danielyan is a pensioner. For many years, she was the head of the village kindergarten. On her 75th brithday, Margahoviti Zoravig published a special article.

 

“I opened it; it had my picture. They wrote about where and when I graduated, that I received a medal — they wrote everything. It was written well. I was very happy that there is someone who thinks about me, that they want to write about me too. The entire village had read it. They said, we congratulate you, that they wrote about you,” Lena recalls. 

Village residents say that would like it if the paper was published more frequently. Lena Danielyan is waiting for all “deserving villagers to also have a place” in the pages of the village paper. 

 

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 Adrine Torosyan, Vanadzor