Letters from Nagorno-Karabakh. After the video was published, a blow to the Armenian symbol

This is the third part of the history of Nagorno-Karabakh. You can read the first here, the second here.

Addressed to an important Armenian symbol. People keep praying here

Shushi is the ancient capital of Nagorno-Karabakh and an ancient city rich in merchants. Now it is a settlement of a few thousand inhabitants that has suddenly become famous after the events of the last few days. A few days ago an explosion broke out in the Cathedral of El Salvador in the center of the city. A projectile in the dome of a house of prayer opened a huge hole and wounded several people.

After a while, another explosive was fired at the reporters who came to capture it all. Three of them were injured and one was seriously injured. Doctors later said that the injured journalist lost 3.5 liters of blood. But he survived.

Now in the cathedral we are greeted by clouds of dust, moved benches, heaps of concrete rubble and … lit candles. The cathedral was badly damaged, but people continue to flock to it to pray. It is true that no one celebrates mass anymore, but the soldiers and the locals still come to kneel before the altar and light a candle.

The cathedral is believed to have been blown up after a video of uniformed soldiers praying there was spread on the internet. It is believed that the application was not accidental, as the drone revolved around the wheels of the cathedral.

It is true that it is difficult to understand why no one has tried to order or clean the cathedral until now. After the explosion, the moved benches, pieces of walls and even parts of explosives continue to roll. I can only assume that this is an attempt to maintain a sensitive image for incoming journalists for as long as possible.

The huge cathedral, built between 1868 and 1887, has great symbolic significance for Armenians.

It is the center of the Diocese of Nagorno-Karabakh and was badly damaged during the war in the region in the 1990s. Grad missiles used by Azerbaijani forces were kept there.

Azerbaijan denies carrying out the bombing of the cathedral and claims that its forces have never attacked historical, cultural or religious buildings or monuments.

The uniforms and helmets of the soldiers are in the destroyed house of culture

Our “fixed” Asqanaz continues to show the city about 10 km from Stepanakert. We inspect and photograph an explosive cassette that is trapped and unexploded on the sidewalk. As in other places, it is fenced with colored tape and awaits the demining team.

Along with the dangerous cartridge, the house of culture exploded and a crane fell near it. Our assistant asks you not to go inside the building because you have not yet been inspected by a demining team. Parts of various dangerous explosives can be left behind.

We go around the building. I notice parts of military helmets and uniforms scattered from the explosion. I get close to the eyes with the camera, but I stop immediately, I can’t. I cannot disagree. Otherwise, your accreditation will be revoked and you will be sent home.

There is also a stack of military helmets at the front door. The question is, why was the military equipment found in a culture house? Perhaps they were applied by accident?

The impression is enhanced by a disguised military vehicle under the trees in one of the town squares. Its upper part is covered with a masking material, but its shape suggests that it is most likely a missile system hidden in civilian infrastructure.

In the cemetery – pre-dug wells for the dead

On the outskirts of Stepanakert, a cemetery for soldiers. Only soldiers have been buried here since the beginning of the last century. Pedestals and monuments were built for them. The cemetery was neat and surrounded by a fence. Now part of it had to be demolished. To accommodate soldiers killed in recent battles in recent weeks.

Here, on the edge of the cemetery, there are two roughly formed terraces. In one of them, several dozen new graves. Most of them are decorated with brightly colored plastic artificial flower wreaths. Some are completely modest. One’s grave looks particularly pitiful. A white building block is placed on the head and a dried flower is placed on it … I understand that the pain is not counted at the cost of the monument, but it is difficult to suppress the emotions when you try to imagine a lonely mother placing a flower on a building block over her son’s grave …

In some graves, water was left as a sacrifice and in the other a glass with the remains of Armenian brandy.

The lower terrace is only half full. The other part: 10 empty graves are still waiting for the dead soldiers to lie down in them. Digging the ground here is difficult. Lots of rocks, so with a shovel you don’t usually complete the task that way. Therefore, the incoming machinery prepares more wells in advance so that you do not have to disturb your loved ones.

40 painful stories underground

In one of the many streets, next to an indistinguishable metal door, several men smoke. We salute and enter. The long corridor branches into several rooms. In one of them the women are close, in the other, the men. About 40 people are hiding here from the shooting. Each with their own experience of tragic wars: who lost a brother, who a son or even some. Who himself was injured. And here a woman in the back of the room was crying because her son had been murdered four days ago at the front. The body went to the Azerbaijani soldiers and there is no way I can get it back …

The number of people living in the dungeon is changing because the residents of the surrounding houses are gathered here. They have their own basements, but as they say, it is easier to overcome difficulties together. It is true that sometimes some return home for the night because, they say, it is better for them. It happens that a husband lets his wife sleep in the basement of the school to make it safer for her, and he himself returns to a poorly protected building.

Men and women are separated. But perhaps it is a more symbolic separation. As the men here say, “so as not to disturb them when they get up.” However, the women’s room is accessible to everyone, as it only has a TV. Men don’t have it; Due to the construction of the building, it is not possible to place the antenna outside, so they watch TV together.

The men at the table saluted. I answered. Word after word became language and it all ended with me agreeing to take me to spend the night in his hideout.

In the evening we sat at the men’s table. The person who accepted me is Robert. He is 71 years old, he is a hunter. Like most here, surviving the third war on Nagorno-Karabakh. Like everyone else who speaks, we feel the same: the world has forgotten us “a black man in the United States is being murdered and almost revolutionized, and there is almost a second genocide and the entire world is silent. Even fraternal Russia does not decide what to do. “

We talk to Robert and the other men at a war-laden table: some pieces of sausage, a can, and lavash. By the way, today’s bread in the store could not be bought, it no longer exists.

Samagon appears on the table. This time peach. Admittedly, the approach to alcohol here is completely different than at the previous hideout. Robert took a 50g glass with me and said it was the first time since the war started; he simply respected me as a guest. And they themselves don’t drink alcohol, because they must always stay sober if something happens. And tonight is an exception. Apart from Robert, only one person drank a glass of vodka. Meanwhile, the pickled cucumber that was brought to me on the table is perfect to kill a potato with a mild sore throat.

Samagon is loved by everyone here. When I told him we were facing huge fines and confiscation for making homemade vodka, Robert said with slight scorn, “You still have a Soviet relic on you when you were catching the drivers from the house. I still haven’t gotten rid of everything “…

Night in wooden boxes.

A wrinkled man sits at the table. This is Karen. He looks much older than Robert, but he’s only in his 60s. When the husband begins to speak to her, one swear word is solved one after another. My interlocutor disciplines him. “Don’t change that! It looks like he lived in Baku”, probably a man reminds him of the most pleasant experience.

Taking out cigarettes one after another in an unventilated dungeon, Robert says that Azerbaijan wants to restore the Ottoman Empire with Turkey and that now there is a struggle not between states but between Islam and Christianity. According to him, Armenia is now at war with several states and all of them are Muslim. But he believes that everything will be fine. “We will survive. And how will we survive!”

Hatred for Azerbaijan is on the rise. It is difficult to see how these countries could communicate even if they reconciled. This emotion of the people is so deep that it would probably take several generations to eliminate it.
Robert seems to be the authority here. For someone who lives here, speak a word or two and soon I have my bed: a wooden closet door and a blanket on top.

Under the head: a military jacket. At least ten other men sleep together in the room. Robert laughs, the only downside at night, they snore. If you were a good composer and knew how to conduct, you would get a good symphony, the new friend laughs and soon falls asleep in the pushed chairs. This is the daily life of the locals.