The people living in Karabakh live under permanent fear of a new war. They started building up their small state from ruins and it is remarkable what they already achieved. In contrary to Armenia I could see that the available money is invested everywhere. Streets and schools were renovated, also in the small villages. As I wrote, this is a good sign for a proper government. Nevertheless there is still poverty. Maybe because of the permanent danger people care for each other. I cannot speak Russian and therefore I could not speak to many persons but just by walking around one can feel that the society is positively different. The best pupils get their chance. Many of them speak English quite well for their age and they were curious and wanted to practice. Therefore I spoke mostly to pupils, students and young soldiers.
I was amazed how important culture is for the people in Artsakh.
Renovating mosques despite there are still many ruins and that Armenians are
Christians is awesome. Stepanakert is a small town and there is a
cultural life that I did not expect.
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| The collection of SIM cards I used in this vacation. The lower left one is from Karabakh Telecom. |
Three days are not sufficient to get a deep insight. I don't know if one can speak free about politics, the level of corruption etc. However, this was not my goal. The goal was just to visit Armenia and relax. And for relaxing I can fully recommend Karabakh. The landscape is stunning, there is a lot of interesting history and people are helpful. For example I noted that my cell phone did not work. I learned that the mobile phone operators in Armenia are not allowed to support connection in the territory of Artsakh. They are international companies and the government of Azerbaijan and also Turkey set them under pressure that in case they support Artsakh they can no longer make business. Therefore Artsakh set up its own mobile network. The people in the mobile shop were proud of this and the guys repairing there mobile phones told me about the history of the network with all the improvised technics. When I was there in 2015 the network worked more or less in all villages but Internet was often not working. Nevertheless it was worth it to become a customer of Karabakh Telecom. The persons in its store spoke English and helped me with everything (negotiations with the hotel, opening hours of museums etc.). They had old SIM cards that need to be cut down to the smaller size of modern SIM using an improvised cutter - I liked that they try to make the best out of what they have. I think this is the right approach. In contrary, in Yerevan they had everything in the up to date mobile phone shops but the employees were complaining about everything. The price is for the Artsakh people as high as for Armenians and they get a much poorer network. Nevertheless they were happy that they have it and that it works most of the time.
All in all it was a good decision to go to Artsakh. It is nevertheless sad having all the time in mind that probably the next war is just a matter of time. Things I have seen will be in ruins, people I met will maybe fight again and die. I wish people can stop one day and live together.
One year after my visit there were new fights resulting in many deaths and destroyed houses and there are all the time skirmishes at the border zone. At least there are discussions how to get out of this.
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