The vision

A place where the Armenian diaspora joins the local communities of Armenia and Artsakh to defend, preserve, and develop the homeland in a border village. This is how All For Armenia’s co-founders first envisioned the concept of KorniTun. As a frontline grassroots organization that spent the wartime months supporting local and refugee families in Armenia’s Syunik region and Artsakh, All For Armenia understood the urgency of using the experience gained on the ground to implement long-term sustainable projects dedicated to preventing depopulation from key strategic areas such as Kornidzor. This village overlooks both the Berdzor/Lachin corridor as well as the majestic mountains of Artsakh. On September 27, 2020, Azerbaijan initiated a war of aggression against the Republic of Artsakh. After 44 days of war, a ceasefire was signed, forcing over 95,000 Armenians to leave their ancestral lands and find refuge in Armenia. Today, Armenia’s borders remain under threat. In order to increase the impact of the KorniTun project, All for Armenia decided to partner with organizations from the diaspora that share common values. First, we joined with the Armenian Youth Organization (AYO), which donated funds to acquire the house, a small abandoned building whose renovation houses the KorniTun project. Then came the partnership with Miaseen for the first phase of the crowdfunding campaign. All For Armenia took the full lead of the second phase of the crowdfunding campaign dedicated to starting the renovation and successfully reached its fundraising goal in September 2022. After temporary delays in the construction process due to Azerbaijan’s attacks on Goris and Armenia’s eastern border in September 2022, renovations on the first-floor classroom were completed on February 20, 2023! Now, All For Armenia is focusing on phase two of the renovations, dedicated to securing the necessary educational equipment for the completed first-floor classroom and covering the cost of equipment for and renovation of 2 more rooms on the second floor. Please see “KorniTun needs your help to expand in Phase II” beelow for more information.

The What

All For Armenia is building an essential community center in the village of Kornidzor, located at the gates of Artsakh overlooking the Berdzor/Lachin corridor in Syunik province. The purpose of this “KorniTun” (a contraction of “Kornidzor” and the Armenian word for house, “tun”) is to establish a place where the diaspora can connect with the border and its people, realizing the intensity of the everyday situation for communities at the doors of Artsakh. The KorniTun will function as an educational and technology center on the first floor, with lodging on the second floor for volunteers and teachers. Education does not stop when the workshops adjourn, but continues with the relationship built between the youth and the volunteers.

The How

Kornidzor residents have been employed to complete the construction of KorniTun, thereby not only strengthening the village economy, but also reinforcing the unity behind this community home. Once KorniTun is complete, Kornidzor locals will also handle its daily operations, creating valuable long-term jobs for the village. Equipped with computers and Internet access at the tech centers, local children and young adults will attend workshops held by diasporan volunteers, learning skills that we take for granted – Excel, HTML, CSS programming, resume building, photography and videography, among others. This will equip them with the skills to provide for themselves and their families in the future, while also preserving access to a community hub to turn to in times of need.

The Future

Securing and investing in border villages means preventing depopulation. KorniTun will foster hope and opportunity in a region that is extremely underserved. Every centimeter of our homeland has infinite value, and we are collectively responsible for our nation’s sovereignty.

We believe the KorniTun community home can become a concept we can successfully replicate in all strategic border communities of our Homeland. This concept can birth a network of community homes dedicated to attracting investment and facilitating development in our frontline villages.

KorniTun has opened

On February 20, 2023, we celebrated the long-awaited opening of the first-floor classroom of our KorniTun community home in Kornidzor village. After five months of tireless construction work and despite Azerbaijan’s attacks on Armenia’s border in September, which interrupted our work, we are delighted to celebrate this monumental milestone. This was all made possible thanks to the generous support of our international community and AYO Association, Miaseen, Birthright Armenia, Union Arménienne de Suisse, Unión General Armenia de Beneficencia, Ara the Rat, United Armenian Diaspora, Kristapor Giragosian, Vino Cholakian, Judith Saryan and Victor Zarougian, Aram Djabourian, and Gérard Guerguerian. Not only did they support us financially, but more importantly, they also demonstrated a deep belief in our mission to bring education to the border, to connect the diaspora with our critical frontline villages. Appropriately, the day of our KorniTun classroom opening fell on the 35th anniversary of the Artsakh liberation movement and the 70th day of Azerbaijan’s illegal ongoing blockade on Artsakh. We are honored to witness the hope KorniTun has revived in the people of Kornidzor, as this community home represents the realization of a collective dream. Stay tuned for the official opening of the second-floor guesthouse, coming soon!

During this first phase of the KorniTun renovations, All For Armenia managed to construct a two-story 130-square-meter addition to the preexisting building. The addition was built from scratch after we demolished the barn. Designed by architect Sevada Zakaryan, with experts closely monitoring the construction, the addition is able to withstand even the strongest earthquakes. Its first floor comprises one 50-square-meter classroom and an adjoining 15-square-meter small office. By carefully utilizing our resources, we were able to not just build the outer walls of the addition, but also fully construct the classroom, granting village youth the opportunity to attend classes at KorniTun as early as March 2023. 

The classroom has large outer doors 2 meters wide and 2.5 meters high. We made sure to build the classroom in such a way as to maximize sunlight, which is why the classroom has 5 windows, each 2.5 meters wide and 1 meter high. The classroom has two entrances: one is the primary door from the street, and the second one connecting the classroom to the office has been included for security reasons. In case the village is shelled — as already happened during the first Artsakh war — students will be able to evacuate the classroom through the office area, which has two exits: one leading to the garden and the other to a small terrace next to the building. Once the retention wall is built during Phase II, this terrace will be able to protect them from shells and shell fragments.

The second floor of KorniTun consists of a 24-square-meter bedroom, 16-square-meter kitchen, two 9-square-meter bathrooms, and a 7-square-meter corridor. The kitchen, together with the new extra guest room which was added to the pre-existing building, has 4 windows, each 2.5 meters wide and 1 meter high, giving the space a pleasant studio apartment atmosphere with the sun often shining in the rooms. The same is true for the bedroom, which has one window 2.5 meters wide and 1.2 meters high. All rooms are insulated to preserve heat and render them as cheap to heat as possible during cold weather.

In addition to this construction, we were able to add sturdy basements to the preexisting building, as it was originally standing on mere soil. We also renovated a crack in the wall of one of the large first-floor rooms, which was damaged by shelling during the first Artsakh war. The room is now ready to serve as our All For Armenia warehouse for emergency missions in Syunik and Artsakh.

A call from our borders