Stepanakert, Shushi and leaving Karabakh

Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh in Armenian) is an interesting place. It declared independence during the fall of the Soviet Union but is currently unrecognised by any other nation. If you find the situation interesting, you might also want to read about these other partially recognised states: Abkhazia, Kosovo, South Ossetia and Transnistria.

The Armenia/Azerbaijan war was fought here until a 1994 ceasefire, although smart traveller still considers the place incredibly dangerous and recommends anyone currently in Karabakh, to get out: “We strongly advise you not to travel to Nagorno-Karabakh and the military occupied area surrounding it because of the unstable security situation.” For this reason, I take smart traveller recommendations with a grain of salt.

Karabakh visa, since I was travelling on my Russian passport, I didn’t need one, though you can get one on the border for $10-20 USD.

The national symbol of Karabakh, the story goes that only the heads are above ground while the body/roots are in the ground.

Stepanakert shows no visible traces of the war and has a war museum dedicated to showing the Armenian/Karabakh side of the war. The girl (20 years old born just before the war started) is good at reciting all the atrocities committed by Azerbaijan during the war, contrary to the museum tour in Ganja, Azerbaijan where the guide only talked about the atrocities committed by the Armenians. When I ask her about the Khojaly Massacre, she tells me that that’s all been fabricated by the Azeri government and was in fact caused by the Azeri government in order for Heydar Aliyev. I decide that it’s pointless to talk about the situation with her because she can only recite what she’s been told to say and won’t think for herself.

It’s a sad fact that in my encounters with the youth of Armenia, Karabakh and Azerbaijan, very few of them are informed about the situation or have any interest in finding a solution to the problem, they’re all much more keen to talk about how the other side has wronged them and how they must all die.

Shushi, in contrast to Stepanakert, very much shows signs of the war as there are few people living there and little money going towards the rebuilding of the city. It does have a beautiful church in the centre though.

As we’re leaving Karabakh, Vladimir presents our passports to the border guards (only present on the Karabakh side, there are none on the Armenian side). One of them comes to the car and thoroughly inspects our faces, turns out they’re looking for a blonde Russian guy. He decides that I’m not the wanted Russian and lets us leave.

As we drive back into Armenia, I wonder out loud, what would happen if you never obtained a Karabakh visa and didn’t stop at the checkpoint prior to leaving the country. Would they follow you in Armenia?

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