Relief in Karabakh - Part 1 Stepanakert

The original plan was to go further to the south of Armenia. But plans are made to be changed. The people on the way to Goris convinced me to visit Nagorno-Karabakh (which is officially the Republic of Artsakh).

It was a very good decision because one one hand there is much to see, the landscape is nice and here I could see how Armenia can look with less corruption when the people stand together.

With some help I found the only marshrutka that goes from Goris to Stepanakert. I have been in hundreds of marshrutkas but remember this ride because the driver had the Tourette syndrome or something. He was ranting and yelling and all the time and everyone just ignored him. Therefore I turned on some music and enjoyed
Bonobo - Nothing Owed

At first the road goes to Tegh which is also known for its caves. Then the road crosses the Aghavno valley. This valley forms the Lachin corridor that separated Karabakh from Armenia. The narrowest width is only about 5 km but the valley is 500 m deep.

The caves of Tegh.

In the corridor below the town Lachin (also called Berdzor). These are new houses in built for the people who lost their homes in the war.

Entering Karabakh was like driving to another country: The road is in a good condition, there were bulldozers on the passes to keep the road free from snow. The inhabitants were proud of that their main roads can be used every time, not like in the rest of Armenia. The road goes to 1800 m at the Lisagor pass (here are some images of the landscape) and then down to 800 m in Stepanakert. This is important to understand the strange history of Karabakh. So there are high mountains (the Karabakh range) in the west separated from Armenia by the corridor. Stepanakert is located in the east of the mountains towards Azerbaijan.

Stepanakert is a new city which became first important after the Shushi massacre. (I will report about the history in a separate post.) It is located at the hillside of a mountain. Since it it is in the valley, it could easily bombarded from the mountains around Sushi. After bombardments until 1992 Stepanakert was heavily destroyed. I have seen images in the history museum of the destruction (strange that I cannot find such images in the Internet). I was so impressed how they were able to rebuild the city so fast and in such a way. In 2015 there was still lot of construction work going on to build homes. What impressed me the most was that culture is important. I mean when I have to rebuild a city I would give houses for living the highest priority. They did but they also rebuilt cultural buildings and even the mosques although Armenians are Christians.

A typical new house for living. Location.

When one enters the Republic of Artsakh one needs to register. there was a border building in the Lachin corridor but my crazy marshrutka driver did not stop although the others told him that I need to register as visitor. But no problem I asked at the bus station and they sent me to the ministry of foreign policies which is nearby. By the way, the bus station is a nightmare for a tourist. I have never been surrounded by so many taxi drivers who begged to drive me. It was really hard to leave the terminal.

The registration was the perfect start for 3 relaxing days in Artsakh. Since I cannot speak Russian they called a high person of the ministry who invited me to his bureau. He welcomes me an gave me a brief introduction to the history, the political situation, how to travel, where to go, eat, go out etc. His English was almost perfect and it turned out that the government is looking in the schools for talented students. These are sent out to other countries to study. Afterwards they have to work for the government for some years before they can decide to stay or leave the job. He was a young man who turned back from England. One has to apply to visit different regions of Artsakh because of the mined frontier zone. I did not want to go to the front line but when I said I want to stay only 3 days, he was a bit disappointed and gave me the maximum days for a visa with all possible visit zones. I should just call him when I have problems of when I want to stay for a year ;-). One can decide to get a stamp in the passport for the visa or just a sheet of paper. It is advisable to chose the latter because otherwise one needs a new passport if one wants to visit Azerbaijan or some countries that doesn't accept Artsakh.

The ministry of foreign policies.

My visa.

Let's walk around through the city:

Azatamartikneri Avenue, the main road of Stepanakert.

New building use for a theater and choirs.

The small park in the center contains a small
amusement park (like every former Soviet city). It was even open
in the evenings when I was there in March.

The palace of culture.

 

This hotel is incredible. It is massive and very expensive. It contains a Spa,
tennis courts etc. The rest of the city looks totally different.

Lower part of the hotel. Behind me is a basketball court and the employees
of the hotel invited me for a quick game.

The main attraction of Stepanakert is maybe the Lover's alley. At the left
side is the hotel the building in the middle is the Presidential Palace, at the
right is the building of the Union of Artsakh Freedom Fighters.
  

The building of the Union of Artsakh Freedom Fighters. It was hard to get some information. As I understood it it is a kind of palace of culture for the fighters of the war and the solders serving at the front line.

The door was open but nobody was in there.
The inner architecture is impressive.

A nice gag are the lamps besides the Lover's alley.

The building of the the National Assembly.

 

The state history museum. It was not in a good shape but there was a nice young lady speaking English. Nevertheless, the history museum in Shushi is better to learn about history.

The Presidential Palace is from the Soviet times.

Normal streets outside the center look still like this.

The building of the Saint Goddess Church is very interesting.
It is a new architecture but in the traditional style.

They use concrete and also traditional stones. When it is ready it should become the cathedral.

View from the south of Stepanakert up to the mountain of Shushi.
Nobody could tell me what the massive building at the right side is.

Zoom to the unknown building.
 

This is also a new hotel but in a decent style.

One of the typical houses from the Soviet times.

I found the main market by chance. The camera team spotted me immediately
and so I was in TV stating how tasty the Zhingyalov hats are.
  

I loved them. The stuffing consists of herbs and they pretended that some of them only grow in Karabakh and nowhere else in the world.

A look inside a Zhingyalov.

The bus station. When no buses from Armenia arrive, it is a quiet place.

The new center besides the bus station.
In the background is the university building.

A prominent building one can see from far away when entering
Stepanakert from the north. Location.

The famous We are Mountains monument.

Interesting form for a monument.

Below the monument is this working millstone.

The Tatev monastery

One of the most famous sights of Armenia is the Tatev monastery. There is a famous cableway called  Wings of Tatev to the monastery but in March there are no tourists and it was closed for maintenance. The day before a taxi driver found me, organized a bed to sleep and in the early morning we drove up to the monastery.

Also if you are not interested in monasteries you should go there because the landscape is breathtaking.  (OK, if you don't like monasteries, reconsider to go to another country ;-) ) Driving to the monastery and back are 2000 m altitude. The road was only partly asphalted this explained the quite high price for the taxi. But it was worth it to learn about the country. The driver became a fried and we are still in contact.
It is really crazy how Armenia works or why not. He is a teacher but his salary is too low  to life from that. The taxi brings more money. That is sad because what is a country without natural resources without education? However, as I already learned if you are a clever guy you don't have a chance in Armenia because without either bribing or knowing the right persons you cannot start a business, build a house, buy land etc. I am not exaggerating when I say it is kind of a criminal state. There are people acting out of the laws suppressing others. For example you have to pay for electricity, water etc. like in every country but when you don't get fresh water and complain your family members will get problems. Even teachers might be put under pressure to give your kids bad grades. So even when you don't get the good you are paying for, it is not an option to go to court unless you have monay to bribe a judge. Yes, this affects other countries too, but I haven't seen the level of Armenia in other countries yet. In a further post I will report more about this because now, after 3 years distance in writing this, it still pisses me off.

However, let's enjoy the landscape with Lion Sphere - Caravan.

View over the Vorotan gorge from the monastery.

 

 The building at the lower left is the Tatevi Anapat monastery.

This is the road up from the Vorotan river to the monastery. One climbs 500 m with this street.

The monastery was important for the Armenian society because of its university. In its best times 1000 monks lived there. This is hard to believe because the monastery is so small. Today only a few monks live in the main monastery.
Despite my taxi driver is a teacher he is not interested in history. So it was me who explained him things despite he had been there a hundred times. We arrived early and there were monks preparing some food. I was not shy and asked them. While translating my driver learned this way about the monastery. Since there is a lot of literature, I refer to it and just post some images:

The entry building contains the oil press.
On on top of it is the St. Astvatsatsin church.

The oil press.
 

The spring building besides the entry building.
 

Right side of the Poghos-Petros Church with the Grigor Tatevatsi mausoleum and the St. Grigor Lusavorich church.

The Gavazan. a pillar from year 906.

One of the houses where the monks live today.

 

The monks already ate.

The refectory has no oven, only this open nice to make fire.

 

This hall was mainly used as dormitory

The dormitory is  directly at the big wall.

The main church St. Pogos and Petros

View towards the refectory and kitchen buildings.

Entry of the main church.

As usual the churches are bare.

Ruins of the school building.

I could not resist to ask what they are doing with the cableway and it turned out they are experts from Austria. They had to change a cable. When I remember correctly they were using a short rope to keep the main rope tension and were splicing a broken cable part to replace it. Here is a video from the company that built the ropeway.

Splicing the cable fibers.

Cable to keep the rope tension

Feel the depression in Goris

This post deserves a melancholic song: Mac DeMarco - Chamber of Reflection

Getting from Yeghegnadzor to Goris was hard work because of the bus problem mentioned in an earlier post. In fact it was impossible to get a seat in a bus but also in a taxi. The taxi drivers refused to drive there even not for 50 € (25.000 dram) because this would break their suspensions and thus the car so that they would loose their income. A taxi took me only few kilometers further to Vayk because many bus drivers make there a break to eat something. There young soldiers tried to help me to find a bus without success. Nevertheless I learned a lot about the political situation from the Armenian point of view and they convinced me to visit Nagorno-Karabakh.

I found a big bus driving to Tehran with only about 5 passengers. It was nevertheless hard to get a seat and only after hard negotiations with the help of a soldier and paying 40 € (about a tenth of a monthly average salary)  I could drive with them. They 2 Iranian bus drivers were harsh and I was not allowed to walk around in the bus. I had to sit right besides the driver. Later it was clear why.

The bus started to climb the Vorotan pass and they told me that the last 3 days the south of Armenia could not be reached because the mountain pass was blocked by snow. This is crazy because there was not much snow but the officials have no bulldozer or similar to push the snow from the main street. Just look at this:

Not that much snow.

This is Armenia's main road! The potholes were sometimes so deep that the bus hit the ground and had to move back and forth a while to come out of the potholes.

After the pass the road got better.

From the pass to Goris the road is always at an altidude of 2000 m.

I was shocked. What is this for a government? This is the only road to the Syunik province. A government has to take care for their people but obviously they don't care. Now I understood the taxi drivers. For small cars the potholes where simply too deep. Later in Nagorno-Karabakh I learned that without corruption it is possible to keep the roads in a drivable shape. See one of my next posts.

Right before we reached Goris the bus stopped at a small improvisational gas station. I noted a smell of gasoline in the bus and now I realized why the bus had almost no passengers and I was not allowed to walk in the bus - it was packed full of diesel fuel. Under every seat they packed a canister and also the compartment for the luggage was packed full of canisters. I helped the drivers to unload the many containers which took a long time. We just continued to drive down to Goris when we were stopped like in an action film: a car passed us and then made a full stop. 4 men with guns jumped out of the cars and ran to our bus. When they entered the bus they showed the police cards. After some negotiations I did not understand we could continue.

Some of the unloaded canisters with diesel fuel.

View over Goris. In the background you can see the mountains with the caves.

View over Goris from the caves.

So once again I was confronted with corruption. The people in Goris explained me the system of these fuel stations. The police is collecting bribes because they are of course illegal. The Armenian mentality is hereby very strange. Yes the neighbor countries are enemies but this is not the main reason for the poverty. It is corruption! For example in Goris they told me about a sheriff who took a lot of bribes. In the next elections they therefore elected a person who claimed not to take bribes. He honored his pledge but then the Armenians said: "What a stupid guy. Now he is the boss of the police and does not take bribes to have a better life for his family." and "I wish back the old times where I could drive too fast and just give the police a few drams. Now I have to pay the full fee." In fact they elected another one and now thew are ranting about his corruption. Sorry to say that but this is idiotic.

Goris is a small town famous for its caves. Unfortunately it is also depressing. The streets are dead, all parks are in a bad shape, it is hard to find a restaurant and when the night came the town was completely dark because there was no electricity for the street lights. Here are some impressions:

Most caves near the center of the town are destroyed.

People told me that some inhabitants lived in the caves until the 1930s

One of the main roads.

The Saint Gregory Cathedral.

House of the bishop of the diocese of Syunik

The main square. The building in the middle is the municipality building.

The municipality building.

Statue at the main square.

A park

It was spooky that behind many windows people were watching me as if I am a spy or something. As you can see there was sun but people looked so disappointed from everything. All the talks, the whole town, it was as if I was in a cloud of depression.