Shortly
after getting off the bus in Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital, Stepanakert, while
walking slightly lost down the high street, we're approached by local guy who
asks us what we're looking for. I eye him up, assessing whether he’s trying to
get something out of us or genuinely just wants to help: he’s in his 20s,
wearing skinny jeans and a brightly-coloured cardigan and has a smartphone in
his hand, so I guess at the latter and tell him I need an ATM. "Come with me,"
he says, and leads us to a cash point just down the road. He asks if we’ve
already found somewhere to stay: I tell him we have, in the neighbouring town of
Shushi, and that we're just going to walk around Stepanakert for a couple of
hours to see the sights before getting the bus onwards. After trying in vain to
convince us that this town is a better choice to stay in, he asks what we want
to see here before leaving. I admit that we don’t know what there is to see, and
ask his recommendations. After discussing the possibilities I decide to go and
see the iconic monument on the outskirts of the town.
At
this point, however, instead of bidding us farewell, this guy starts leading us in the direction of the monument, without a word of explanation, as if it were
the most natural thing in the world for him to accompany us. Doesn’t this guy have things to be doing? I
wonder to myself. I begin to think of the old trick used in the souks of
Marrakech, whereby locals give unsolicited “tours” to foreigners and then
violently demand payment. I make sure my wallet’s safely in my pocket, but
remain outwardly friendly. The guy tells us about himself: he has studied English
at university and now works for a mobile phone company. He then begins to show
us photos on his phone of various people that he refers to as “my tourists”,
explaining that he sometimes has travellers stay at his house. We find the whole
thing more than a little weird, so after walking to the monument, snapping a
few photos and then returning to the town centre (the whole trip taking about
half an hour), we tell him we're just going to grab some lunch at a nearby café
and then leave town. He smiles, says that he might come join us shortly, then
waves goodbye and walks off.
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"We Are Our Mountains", an iconic national monument on the edge of Stepanakert, built in 1967 as a testament to the local (Armenian) people's connection to their land; there's a tradition of local newlyweds going there after their weddings |
To
this day I don’t know what to think of the incident. In the Caucasus it’s not
at all uncommon for locals to be incredibly accommodating and helpful to
foreigners, but there was something in the whole episode that made me feel
uncomfortable. Did he really hang around town all day waiting for tourists to
show around, just for fun and to practise his English? Maybe he just did it in
the hope of getting a tip, but was too proud to actually ask for one. He didn’t
exactly offer me to stay at his, but he kind of implied that it was an option… perhaps
he just wanted us to stay at his in exchange for a fee. Was he an outright
conman who couldn’t exact his plan because I already knew what I was doing? Was
he just a slightly underhand beggar? Was he a Good Samaritan? I just don’t
know.
This
was a fitting introduction to Nagorno-Karabakh for us, as the place is pretty
much defined by uncertainty and ambiguity. What even is Nagorno-Karabakh? The local authorities insist that it’s an
independent state. According to the Azerbaijani government – and the UN – it’s
part of Azerbaijan. But in many ways it seems to a traveller to be part of
Armenia. It seems that even the name of the place can’t be agreed upon: it is
variously referred to as Nagorno-Karabakh, Mountainous Karabakh, Upper Karabakh, Artsakh or
just Karabakh.
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Stepanakert is pretty similar to any Armenian town, but bleaker and visibly more deprived |
During Soviet times Nagorno-Karabakh
was part of Azerbaijan, but it enjoyed some limited autonomy due to the
majority of its population being ethnically Armenian. Although it made
relatively little sense for this Armenian-dominated region to be part of
Azerbaijan rather than neighbouring Armenia, it wasn’t seen as too much of a
problem while both countries were part of the USSR anyway. This all changed in
1991 with the Soviet Union’s collapse, which saw the geneses of the Republic of
Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan as independent nation states. In
Nagorno-Karabakh a referendum was held, with the majority in favour of
independence, but Azerbaijan’s new government denied the vote’s validity. A war
ensued in which the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, supported by the Republic of
Armenia’s army, fought against the Azerbaijani army. Three years and some
35,000 deaths later, a ceasefire was called on terms favourable to the
Armenians. Since then Armenia has effectively occupied Nagorno-Karabakh,
establishing a kind of quasi-independent puppet state that has been left in
limbo due to lack of international recognition. Armenia and Azerbaijan still have no
diplomatic relations whatsoever and are legally in a state of war, with
occasional skirmishes still occurring along the border.
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Map showing location of the Nagorno-Karabakh Repblic (the orange areas to the north and east are claimed by the NKR but still controlled by Azerbaijan) |
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Nagorno-Karabakh flags line Stepanakert's streets, and banners such as this one declare an unrelenting commitment to independence |
The only way to visit
Nagorno-Karabakh is from Armenia: that much is certain. However, when planning
my trip I was perplexed by a mess of contradictory information online and in
travel guides about how exactly to gain access as a tourist. Some sources were
sure that one needed to get a visa from the “Permanent Representation of the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic” (the de facto embassy) in Yerevan, while others claimed with equal
certainty that one could only obtain a visa once in Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital,
Stepanakert. The latter would’ve been much more convenient for me, so shortly
after arriving in Armenia I phoned the
“Permanent Representation” to confirm whether it would be possible. After
explaining my query at length in my finest Russian, the man on the phone
responded “Мне нельзя сказать можно или нельзя.” “I can’t say what is or isn’t possible.” Apparently I was naïve to
think that phoning the authorities directly would clear up the uncertainty. Not
liking the idea of getting turned away at the border, we got our visa in Yerevan
in the end, but to be honest even the border guards didn’t seem sure whether
tourists needed visas.
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Accreditation card, giving permission to enter Nagorno-Karabakh "with the exception of the front line" |
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Visa. With this in my passport I'm barred from entering the Republic of Azerbaijan - I'd never been banned from a country before! |
After our free guided tour of
Stepanakert we got the bus to Shushi, a smaller town just 10km away. The
imprudence of arriving after dark became evident when it became apparent that
the town was entirely void of streetlights. We had no idea where our guesthouse
was located so employed the old-fashioned method of asking a bystander if he
knew. Upon hearing the name of the guesthouse – “Saro’s” – the man’s face lit
up and he got out his mobile phone. Not only did the first person we asked know
where our guesthouse was, he also had the owner’s phone number. After a brief
exchange over the phone, he pointed us down an uninvitingly dark track and told
us that Saro would meet us halfway. After ten minutes or so of tentatively
wandering through the ancient alleys of Shushi’s ruined old town, we saw a
figure approaching through the darkness. As he got closer I saw that it was a
man in military combat gear and I braced myself for an interrogation,
remembering that this was after all an occupied territory and a warzone; there
would no doubt be suspicion of the presence of a pair of British backpackers in
this remote and volatile corner of the world. Much to my surprise the
camouflaged man greeted us with a huge smile and enthusiastic handshakes. He
introduced himself, in very good English, as Saro, our host. Was he some kind
of guerrilla or local warlord? No, the uniform was a relic of his days in the
Soviet army, which he now just wore for gardening. I recalled instantly the
fact that my own father, a former member of the British army, often wears his
old combat gear for gardening too, and felt foolish for my previous
assumptions.
At his beautiful home, over a great
deal of Russian vodka and homebrewed fruit liquor, Saro told us all about
himself, Shushi and Nagorno-Karabakh. Shushi, known in Azeri as Şuşa, had been a
stop on the Silk Road in the Middle Ages, and as such had developed a mixed
population that included Armenians, Azeris and Persians. At the start of the
twentieth century, by which time the rest of Nagorno-Karabakh was
overwhelmingly Armenian, the town’s population was about half Armenian, half
Azeri, with each group inhabiting a separate quarter. Ethnic tensions erupted
due to the fall of the Russian Empire and a surge of nationalist ideals, and in
1920 widespread rioting resulted in the massacre of much of the Armenian
population and the flight of the remainder. After the Soviet Union took control
of the region and restored stability, Shushi remained an island of Azeris in
Armenian-majority Nagorno-Karabakh. This situation persisted until 1992, when
Armenian forces captured the city, looting and burning shops and homes, and
expelling the Azeri population. Since the ceasefire the town had been repopulated
with Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan (the Armenian population of Azerbaijan were
expelled from their homes, as were the Azeris of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh).
Saro, my host, was one such refugee: his hometown being Baku, Azerbaijan’s
capital. He and the other refugees had rebuilt their new homes themselves.
Donations from the Armenian diaspora had funded some regeneration, but much of
Shusha remained in ruins.
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Path in old town |
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Typical house in old town |
Saro drew us out a map of the town
and indicated a route by which we could see everything in a day, and the next
morning we set out to do exactly that. Wandering the streets of Shushi was an
enchanting experience; the town had an atmosphere unlike that of any place I’d
ever been, with parts of the old town feeling as though they had been abandoned
in the Middle Ages and left untouched ever since. Especially captivating were
the two mosques – left unused and decaying since the expulsion of the Azeris,
but protected against vandalism or demolition by local law – and the old
university –a crumbling shell of a once magnificent building. Just as amazing
as the town itself were the jaw-dropping landscapes surrounding it. After
having seen the whole town, we headed out into the countryside on the route Saro
had indicated, descending into an enormous canyon. “Nagorno-” is a Russian
prefix meaning “mountainous”, and the scenery is fittingly dramatic. Shushi, a
town with a fascinating if tragic history, a unique ambiance and an
unbelievably beautiful setting, is possibly my favourite place from my whole
Caucasian trip, and my brief stay there left no doubt in my mind that the whole
ordeal of getting into Nagorno-Karabakh was absolutely worthwhile.
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Ruins in the old town |
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University |
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Inside university |
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Inside university |
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Construction ongoing |
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Ghazanchetsots Cathedral, originally constructed in 1887, rebuilt in 1998 |
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Remnant of town wall, built in 1750 |
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Remnant of town wall, built in 1750 |
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In this photo Stepanakert is just about visible in the distance |