Washington Post
Aug 26 2007

War-torn region gets a lift from Armenian exiles

By Hasmik Lazarian
Reuters
Sunday, August 26, 2007; 7:38 PM

STEPANAKERT, Azerbaijan (Reuters) – The unrecognized Caucasian
statelet of Nagorno-Karabakh, almost completely penned in by a
military and economic blockade, is enjoying an unlikely boom thanks
to the patriotism of Armenia’s foreign diaspora.

Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave inside Azerbaijan with a majority ethnic
Armenian population, declared independence in 1991 as the Soviet
Union fell apart. It drove out Azerbaijan’s troops in a war that
claimed 35,000 lives over six years.

Today, it runs its own affairs but has no international recognition.
Under blockade from Azerbaijan, with which it is still technically at
war, its only practical connection with the outside world is through
the Lachin Corridor — a strip of a land with a single major road
linking it to Armenia.

But its situation has struck a chord with the millions of ethnic
Armenians in France, the United States and Australia, who feel it is
their vocation to help.

"I swore an oath to help my motherland and my conscience is clear
because I am doing my duty," said Jack Abolakian, a 74-year-old from
Australia, who first came to Nagorno-Karabakh seven years ago on a
four-day holiday with his wife.

He struggled to find anywhere to stay, and when he did, conditions
were primitive. He decided to open a hotel in the capital,
Stepanakert.

A few months later, the Hotel Nairi opened on the site of a
kindergarten destroyed in the war. With 46 rooms offering Internet
access and satellite television, and a tennis court, it provided a
level of luxury unheard of in Stepanakert.

Abolakian, who divides his time between Nagorno-Karabakh and his
construction firm in Australia, is now planning to build a housing
development in the city.

"We’re happy with our business. If you compare it with the amount of
money we put in, it’s a success," said Abolakian, who was born in
Syria after his family fled what is now Turkey.

BROADER STRUGGLE

But most of the investors who come to Nagorno-Karabakh are seeking
more than just financial gain.

The region has a powerful pull for the Armenian diaspora because many
see it as part of a broader struggle for survival by a tiny, ancient
Christian nation surrounded by Muslim neighbors.

Among those tying their lives to the region is Vardeks Anivyan, from
San Francisco, who has opened a dairy plant.

An entrepreneur from Russia has opened a wood processing factory
while Armond Tahmazyan, a 41-year-old ethnic Armenian born in Iran,
has set up a chain of gift shops.

Investors such as these have helped Nagorno-Karabakh notch up annual
economic growth averaging 15 percent in the past five years.

Because of its isolation and precarious legal status, the region of
about 140,000 people is unlikely to become a major business magnet in
the near future. It depends on an annual loan of about $60 million
from Armenia to stay afloat.

About 1.5 million Armenians were killed in Ottoman Turkey early last
century in what Armenians call a genocide, although Turkey rejects
the term.

Most of the Armenian diaspora around the world can trace their
origins to ancestors who fled the killings.

Many of them saw the war over Nagorno-Karabakh, known in Armenian as
"Artsakh," as a continuation of that conflict: an Armenian community
fighting for survival against Azeris, who have close linguistic and
cultural ties to the Turks.

Azerbaijan denies the region was historically Armenian. It says the
fighting drove out about a million Azeris from Nagorno-Karabakh and
surrounding districts. Many still live in refugee camps.

"Any actions by any companies or organizations on the territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh have no legal force," said Hazar Ibrahim, press
secretary in Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry.

"Their work in the occupied territories contradicts the norms and
principles both of international law and Azerbaijan’s legislation."

That has not dissuaded diaspora Armenians. A handful of them fought
with the separatists in the war. Since a 1994 ceasefire, the region
has become a place of pilgrimage for Armenians from around the world.

A telethon last year in Los Angeles raised $13.7 million for
development and infrastructure projects in Nagorno-Karabakh from
communities across the United States and elsewhere.

Tahmazyan, the Iranian-Armenian businessman, moved to Stepanakert
eight years ago. Married to an Australian woman, he now runs the
successful Nreni chain of souvenir shops, and has no plans to leave:

"We are staying here … God willing."

(Additional reporting by Lada Yevgrashina in Baku)

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