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The inhabitants of Kartsakhi village located in Akhalkalaki region, Georgia see no significant progress in their village after the opening of the checkpoint on the Georgian-Turkish border. They have simply started to lock their doors at night, Panorama.am reports citing jnews.ge agency.

As the source reports Kartsakhi checkpoint was opened in October 2015. Together with some fears the villagers were hopeful that the border opening would enable them to sell their agriculture products and livestock more easily. One year on but the villagers cannot think out of any positive change in their lifestyle.

Samvel Manukyan expresses complains over exporting their products to Turkey. “Products exceeding 5 kg are not allowed to be exported for sale,” he states.

The Customs Department of Georgia’s Ministry of Finance has informed no restrictions are imposed on the exports through the checkpoint. However customs clearance is needed to be conducted in case of a large number of products.
Kartsakhi villager Sergey Ayvazyan also sees no economic changes. “Only the prices of our products fell amid the rise in the prices of other goods. It can even be stated that our life has become worse,” he said.

Ruben Stepanyan thinks the only positive change refers to the construction of the village road. However it gave rise to new issues in the village according to the inhabitants as the vehicles travel at a high speed across the village road where children usually play.

“We have requested to set 7-8 speed bumps on the highway to calm the traffic. However the Turkish drivers complained and the police officers removed them at night leaving only one on the road. They did it at night as they knew we would protest it during daytime. In winter a car fell off the bridge,” Kamo Karapetyan said.

In addition to these issues the villagers also fell insecurity and fear.

“One year ago a group of Indians opened the door and entered the house of one of our villagers. The man had left the door unlocked as he was waiting for his son. He suddenly saw the Indians lying on the floor and called the police, who came to his help and arrested them. Now everyone is afraid to leave their doors unlocked,” Kamo Karapetyan added.