Anipemza ( hy, Անիպեմզա) is a village and rural community in the

Shirak Province Shirak ( hy, Շիրակ, ) is a province ('' marz'') of Armenia. It is located in the north-west of the country, bordering Turkey to the west and Georgia to the north. Its capital and largest city is Gyumri, which is the second largest city ...

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...

. The Statistical Committee of Armenia reported its population was 523 in 2010, up from 349 at the 2001 census. Anipemza is located on the closed Armenia–Turkey border on a bank of

Akhurian River The Akhuryan ( hy, Ախուրյան ''Axuryan''; xcl, Ախուրեան ''Axurean''; russian: Арпачай or Ахурян), or Arpachay ( tr, Arpaçay) is a river in the South Caucasus. It originates in Armenia and flows from Lake Arpi, al ...

on which opposite coast there are ruins of the ancient Armenian city of

Ani Ani ( hy, Անի; grc-gre, Ἄνιον, ''Ánion''; la, Abnicum; tr, Ani) is a ruined medieval Armenian city now situated in Turkey's province of Kars, next to the closed border with Armenia. Between 961 and 1045, it was the capital of the ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

. In 7 km to the north from village there is Ry station 'Ani' of Armenian Railway. Anipemza was founded in 4th century by

Kamsarakan Kamsarakan ( hy, Կամսարական) was an Armenian noble family that was an offshoot of the House of Karen, also known as the Karen-Pahlav. The Karens were one of the Seven Great Houses of Iran and were of Parthian origin. In the Byzantine- ...

princes. The village Anipemza is well known for ruins of Yererouk

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's Forum (Roman), forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building ...

of 4th-5th century. Near to village the industrial complex of building materials (processing of

Pumice Pumice (), called pumicite in its powdered or dust form, is a volcanic rock that consists of highly vesicular rough-textured volcanic glass, which may or may not contain crystals. It is typically light-colored. Scoria is another vesicular v ...

Tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock ...

Andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predo ...

) is located. The oral witness obtained by interviewing the residents have established that the new Anipemza, since 1926, was a village for the

orphans An orphan (from the el, ορφανός, orphanós) is a child whose parents have died. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents due to death is called an orphan. When referring to animals, only the mother's condition is usuall ...

of Armenian genocide of 1915 and then has been also a

penal colony A penal colony or exile colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory. Although the term can be used to refer to ...

for forced labor for the

dissidents A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 20th ...

of the Soviet regime in Armenia.

Population

Population per years is the following. Men make up 49% and women 51% of the population. The age percentage of the population is: children 32%, able to work 53%, adult 15%. The population occupation is ranching and seasonally mines in the industrial complex near the village.

Climate

The climate in the village is temperate mountainous. The

winter Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Different cultur ...

is long and cold with constant snow cover, the summer is hot and moist. Annual precipitation amount is 500/600 mm. The highest temperature in summer is 30°C and the lowest temperature in winter is -20°C. Downfalls amount is 450mm.

History

Anipemza is one of the first

industrial cities An industrial city or industrial town is a town or city in which the municipal economy, at least historically, is centered around industry, with important factories or other production facilities in the town. It has been part of most countries' i ...

founded during the Soviet period. It is related to the foundation of the

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. ...

in 1926. The founders are mainly the inhabitants of the neighbouring Zagha village destroyed after Anipemza's foundation. According to the testimonials of the older interviewed inhabitants of Anipemza, Zagha was a village who hosted the orphans of 1915 genocide from some villages of the west Armenia (mainly Kars) and from

Gyumri Gyumri ( hy, Գյումրի, ) is an urban municipal community and the second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th century, when the city w ...

(Alexandropol at that time) in 1916 to 1920. Americans took the population from the orphanage of Leninakan to work in mine. With the opening activities of the industrializing quarry, specialists were coming with their families from other nearby villages and cities too in order to work there. The settlement was almost completed in 1936, when the factory had more workers and specialists. After the administrative-territorial division of the area in provinces, in 1936 Anipemza was included in the province of Ani, and in 1996, according to the division of Armenia, it was announced as a village and was included in Shirak's province. Some orphans who were moved from Greece during the genocide, have moved to work in Anipemza in 1934. The salary of mineworkers was very high; people were working on 3 shifts. There was a lot of work. They should load 100 wagons for Kaspi, Ararat, and other sites. The citizens said that during the Soviet period, life in Anipemza was perfect because of the wealth and the possibility to have a job; also the residents of other villages were coming to work there. The village had many facilities: hospital, pharmacy, kindergarten, laborers’ canteen, library, house of culture and cine-theatre, garden etc. There was also a hotel for the businessperson (now it is residential). The garden, visible from the main street, is enclosed by a fence and nowadays is used as a private vegetable garden and orchard. There are three shops which serve Gyumri too. In the village there was also a forced labor settlement camp for Armenian dissidents during the Soviet period. The area of the prisoners was fenced and they were working in a mine. The prisoners were not in contact with regular people without permission and they lived in the building in front of the cultural house. In the Soviet period the village was protected but never had an enclosure, only a toll bar as a frontier village. The entrance was possible only with special pass until 1985. In that period there were so many people that in a single apartment there was more than one family because there was not enough room for all to live there. Now Anipemza appears as a company town or a garden city and today it is protected by national governments or even by UNESCO for its historical significance sociological and cultural as well as urban and architectural.

References

Communities in Shirak Province Populated places in Shirak Province {{Shirak-geo-stub