In Caucasus enclave, Internet puts young in touch with outside world

Agence France Presse
June 19 2005

STEPANAKERT, Azerbaijan (AFP) – For 15-year-old Albert, who lives in
Nagorno Karabakh, the Internet is an exciting venue for meeting
people of his own age from any nation but one, Azerbaijan, which
remains dead against any moves to have the enclave recognised as an
independent state.

“I have never seen a single Azeri in my life, but I consider them
enemies. If it hadn’t been for the war with them, my father would
not have died and our house would not have been destroyed,” said the
teenager from Nagorno Karabakh, a mostly ethnic Armenian enclave that
lies within Azerbaijan.

As the territory holds parliamentary polls Sunday, hoping to convince
the world it should be recognised as an independent country, Albert’s
resentment of Azerbaijan, which surrounds Nagorno Karabakh, is typical
of many young people here.

Nagorno Karabakh seceded from Azerbaijan upon the Soviet Union’s
1991 collapse, leading Armenia to fight Azerbaijan for control of
the territory in 1993 and 1994, with the loss of an estimated 25,000
lives and the displacement of millions of people, most of them Azeris.

Just over a year old when the fighting erupted, Albert remembers
nothing of the bombings and underground shelters where families
sought refuge.

But the loss of his father and the family home have led him to
passionately oppose any Azeri attempt to retake his homeland.

Continued border clashes and ideological sniping make laying past
grievances to rest all the harder.

“We live very well without Azerbaijan and to be honest I can never
understand those politicians who want to see us subject to Azeri rule
again,” said another young resident, Narek, a 17-year-old economics
student.

Propped up by Armenia — itself supported by a large Armenian community
in the West — Nagorno Karabakh has in recent years taken on more of
a stable appearance.

Whereas its young people used to have to travel to the Armenian capital
Yerevan for higher education, institutes have sprung up in Nagorno
Karabakh’s main city of Stepanakert, offering their own degrees.

The political landscape has also grown more diverse.

While young people alot a healthy amount of time to the main
entertainment of evening walks and bar-hopping, the weeks prior to
Sunday’s poll found many of them vigorously discussing the programmes
of the seven parties vying for parliamentary seats, and some joining
in the campaigning.

And among the territory’s young there are some who feel the only
way forward is to reach out to Nagorno Karabakh’s large, oil-rich
neighbour, Azerbaijan — especially as rumours persist that Baku may
try to take back the territory by force.

“I am afraid of war and don’t want it to happen again,” said Sveta,
a 27-year-old lawyer, explaining that she had many Azeri friends she
chatted to over the Internet.

“We need to communicate, to know each other better, to learn to trust
each other,” Sveta said.

For others the important thing is that the vote should be fair, so
that Nagorno Karabakh can win the international community’s respect
and eventually recognition of its independence.

“We want peace and to enjoy our youth in an economically developed
and democratic country,” one teenager said.