Karabakh

Karabakh is still an area, where both former Soviet states have not found a solution to and the war officially never ended. In areas, where both countries still keep their armed forces, you can still count casualties of war. You can enter Karabakh only from the Armenian side. Foreigners must stop at the entry point, where the passport is checked. Next you must get an entry visa, which can be done in Stepanakert, the capital of Karabakh, or you can already start the process of getting the visa in Yerevan. You can get the stamp for entry either on a piece of paper or in the passport. If it’s in the passport, you will not be allowed to ever travel into the country of Azerbaijan. 

 

You can reach Karabakha with a public bus (marshrutka), or with the help of one of the tourist agencies in Yerevan. There’s also the possibility to rent a car, or as we did, you can hitchhike. 

 

With Pegah, an Iranian student of architecture in Yerevan and Raffiem, a British Armenian from the diaspora, we took off on a hot August day and headed to the 300km removed Stepanakert. I never approved of hitchhiking, but I started loving it in Armenia. It’s really easy. You just need to have the hitchhiking skills. 

 

 

The way to Stepanakert was beautiful. In places it was too winding and sometimes we doubted the old Lada cars and their braking capability, but we got there rather smoothly. When we got stuck at a dead point in the middle of nowhere, some young guys brought us fresh orange juice and an elderly lady offered us coffee. The landscape was picturesque, it was just a bit too hot.

 

In Stepanakert we got the entry visa and got the stamp and pass – a paper with places on it, we were allowed to visit, or basically something, which is better to lose along the way – but more on that later. Stepanakert is really nothing special. The city still bears the seal of war. The centre is a smaller version of Yerevan, with a fountain, shining new buildings and many tourists from Yerevan, and the outskirts features poverty and old demolished buildings.

 

 

Raffi, whose ancestors were the victims of the still not acknowledged genocide of Armenian people in what is today eastern Turkey, wanted to visit the famous city of Agdam, an abandoned settlement on the edge of Karabakha, which is a sort of a shame spot of Armenia today. During the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan the population was forced to leave the city and their homes. It was then destroyed by the Armenians, so that the Azerbaijan would not regain it. Today it’s a ghost town made up of building skeletons, ruins and empty housing. The mosque with two towers was the one that somewhat survived the demolition and is still standing today.

 

Entering Agdam is forbidden to tourists and foreigners, but some who wanted to visit it, didn’t have many problems – that was not the case for us. We got a taxi driver in Stepanakertu, who was willing to take us to Agdam. So we sat in a black Lada and were off. The road to Agdam was featuring demolished houses on both side. Everything was calm and silent. We wanted to see the mosque right off. The driver wasn’t happy about it, but we convinced him. The Mosque was pretty damamged and completely empty. We walked around the building and went up to the roof and even to the tower. We got a grand view of the ghost town. Several soldiers passed by, during our sightseeing. They saw us, watched us for a while, and marched on.

 

 

Raffi was afraid of heights and was sitting near the floor. Pegah was also sitting. Charlie, with a camera in his hand, was taking pictures from behind the fence. I have already taken the pictures of the city, so I was standing upright, watching the landscape, as though I was trying to show off that I’m not photographing. We heard some shots in the background, somewhere far off, so we got down and headed for our taxi. But there were two soldiers in our way. What to do? I quickly turned around and hid my bigger camera in a black bag, with some fruit and water on top and waited for Raffi and Charlie, with his camera around his neck – as he had nowhere to hide it. 

 

Pegah, a talkative and charming girl by nature, went to the soldiers first to start talking to them. They had no understanding and just dryly asked us to follow them to some sort of a base. They ordered us to hand over all cameras and telephones. I had my camera in the bag and never pulled it out, so I kept my pictures. I was afraid somebody would search my bag, but I was lucky. The military went through the devices of my companions and deleted each photo. They also asked us about the list of places we were allowed to visit, but we said that we lost them along the way and that we didn’t realize it was something really important. Naturally Agdam was not among the places we were allowed to visit. We had to get the driver and the boys went to find him, while Pegah and I stayed with the soldiers. The officer in charge was angry and nervous, when the taxi driver finally arrived. After a harsh talk with him, we had to leave the city immediately. Too bad, as there were other places we wanted to see. We were still relieved nothing serious happened to us, though. The driver said he had good connection to the military as he was a war veteran himself, so there were no big problems. But he said he never had a more serious talk in his life and that for a while he won’t be taking anybody to Agdam.

 

A day after we learned, that during our stay in Adgam there was a new incident with several casualties among the soldiers in the border area. It happened near the place we were. We also learned, that the towers of the mosque are the only place that is no out of reach for the Azerbaijan snipers.

 

 

After Agdam we went to a charming town of Shushi, not far from Stepanakert. It’s a town with a lot of natural beauty where you can, amongst other things, see several destroyed mosques that remind you of a different past. The centre of the town proudly shows a beautiful white church, where you can often se Armenian weddings. The buildings around town are old, beaten down by time, destroyed or abandoned. The people are, like everywhere in the region, very friendly and hospitable. The most visited spot of the town are the umbrella like waterfalls of Zontniker and the magnificent caves above them. From them you get to experience a scary view in the deep rocky crevice. At the bottom there is the Zontinker. It took us quite a while to get there, and the sun was hot, yet it was worth it. The nature was beautiful and the waterfalls are unique. The ice cold water of the creek was nice and some even bade in it.

 

On our return we took another route. Me and Charlie followed a group of young boys, who said they know an easier way. They were from the near of Yerevan, so they didn’t know the surroundings, but hot there by car. The walk was long, but nice. They boys got us into the car and took us back to Shushi. We talked Russian. They tried to convince us to leave Karabakh right away, saying that Azerbaijan declared war to Karabakh due to the incident that took place a day before. It seemed quite serious. Others were talking about the news as well. Unfortunately things like that happen often, but the western media never reports it. We even met another Slovenian traveller in Shushi that evening.

 

As we were tight on time, we decide to leave the Karabakh. Charlie was in a hurry, so he decided to take a taxi, the rest of us hitchhiked. As soon as we crossed the road, we got a ride by two guys from Karabakh, who were on the way to Yerevan. They were nice. They stopped at Goris for lunch at a local restaurant, where they met a group of friends. In the end, we ended eating there as well. Although we declined, they kept ordering food and drink and it was hard not to except. It was good to know, though, that the driver didn’t drink any alcohol. The guys who were driving us were musicians on the way to a studio in Yerevan. This opened up interesting conversation, as Raffi used to work for the music industry in England. Maybe in the future, some new projects can come out of it. We certainly hope so.