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LUXEMBOURG, 9 DECEMBER, ARMENPRESS: Since the Karabakh Armenian’s victory against Azerbaijanis in 1994, Nagorno-Karabakh has a government intending to be a model, but its Christian people have been suffering for 20 years from diplomatic isolation. An article about Karabakh was published in a newspaper in Luxembourg.
Armenpress presents the full article:
''The forest is dense and goes up to the top of the hillsides which overhang the little road leading to Gandzasar Monastery. The sun disappears quickly below the horizon, leaving the place to a brutal cold in this autumn season. Wolves and black bears have made this place their home since ancient times. The environment is harsh, austere, worrying. The first met passer-by reassures us: “The monastery is located 17 km away from here”. Further away, a second passer-by, carrying a milk jug, confirms with a surprising precision: “Gandzasaris 7 km away”. The third one raises his hand: “It is up there, 3,5km away”. We feel perked up by the insurance the workers demonstrate, showing us the way to this high place of Christianity in the Nagorno-Karabakh region: the monastery must be a key location in this remote area’s life. But our surprise is bigger than our expectations: the monastery is empty. No monk has been living here for several decades.
Black-clothed priests, with Armenian crosses on their chests, guide tourists and pilgrims during the summer months, but deep fog covers the place the rest of the year.
This high place of monastic life and of Nagorno-Karabakh’s culture, a mountainous region reconquered by Armenia in 1994, 20 years ago, has once been a major spiritual centre, although its function has become more symbolic than concrete. The history of Soviet Armenia as well as the increasing secularisation of social lifehave something to do with this transformation.
Five kilometres from here, under the monastery, the contrast offered by the village of Vank tells, in its own way, the region’s contemporary history. The ostentatious frenzy of a Russian millionaire of Armenian origin, LevonHayrapetyan, gave birth to a Disneyland-like village, where a Titanic is anchored in a stream, a car lays quietly on top of the commodities and a black bear, the mouth open, can be seen, sculpted in the rock. This abundance of kitsch clichés shows to what extent Nagorno-Karabakh nowadays depends on the support from the Armenian diaspora.
Independent and proud
Every year, the country organises a call for donations, yielding a profit of tens of millions later invested in the roads, administrative buildings, the renovation of the capital’s streets, but also in birth grants, in order to stimulate the repopulation with Armenian children of these high lands, surrounded by Muslim countries.
Independent and proud, as all high lands are, the Karabakh region indeed only counts 150 000 inhabitants. At the time of the opening and then collapse of the USSR, this low demographic density did not prevent Karabakh inhabitants to count among the first ones to claim for the unification with Armenia - a country to which they feel linked by their culture, their language and their religion. Though, Karabakh’s proclamation of independence in 1991, following a referendum, has been the trigger of a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan that lasted until 1994. For three years, the Karabakh inhabitants, with help of Armenians – some of them carrying white crosses on their battledresses – fought fiercely against Azerbaijanis. The latter had themselves given in to the temptation of calling for jihad, the Muslim holy war, to stimulate their fighters. Reversal of the Armenian people’s tragic history: Armenians earned victory.
“Black garden”
For twenty years, Nagorno-Karabakh has been celebrating its victory, though notable to benefit from it. The “country” has never been recognised, not even by Armenia, as this recognition would instantly mean the beginning of a new war with the Azerbaijani neighbour. Nagorno-Karabakh, meaning “black garden” in Persian language, has not given up. It created a Parliament, counting 33 members, a complete government, police and judiciary institutions as well as, of course, an army. Thanks to its legendary tradition of hospitality, Karabakh welcomes artists such as the Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballe who, touched by the destiny of this Armenian people in the high mountains, came to sing in the streets of Stepanakert, the small capital city. “We suffer every day from the non-recognition of our country”, the Minister of Culture explains, “there is a whole generation who has only been living in a non-recognised country”.
Indeed, in order to leave the country, men and goods have to be declared as being Armenian – an obligatory step that weighs a lot on the young inhabitant’s everyday life. But the price to pay to make its dream come true does not matter: the “country” just inaugurated its new airport. The guardian of this place, empty of planes and action, affirms that he is quietly waiting for the first plane to take off''.