WHY SHUSHI IS NOT BECOMING AN ARMENIAN CULTURAL CENTER
KarabakhOpen
14-12-2007 12:08:37
There is no cultural life in Shushi. The NKR minister of culture
and youth Norek Gasparyan said so. And it happened 15 years after
liberating and declaring Shushi the cultural capital of all Armenians.
Two days ago NKR President Bako Sahakyan visited Shushi with a group
of officials. He visited the art gallery, the children’s theater,
the Dramatic Theater, the puppet theater. The minister of culture
Norek Gasparyan says the government is likely to have all the cultural
establishments of Shushi in one building with bearable conditions. He
offered to move the Ministry of Culture and Youth to Shushi, into
the building of the former College of Ladies.
Since 1993 the population of Shushi has halved and counts 2.5
thousand now.
Most public workers, including the staffs of the innumerable for
Shushi theaters and music schools live in Stepanakert and come to
Shushi to work everyday. It takes only 15 minutes by bus, fortunately.
But most importantly, in December 2007 Shushi feels like 1992. The
city is ruined. The streets are impassable. People there are poorer
than in Stepanakert. Nothing has changed for the past 15 years. The
impression is, however, that everyone has just opened their eyes and
seen that there is no life in Shushi. (Although it should be noted
that as editor of Artsakh State University, Norek Gasparyan prepared
several programs about Shushi where he told about this situation with
great pain.)
Shushi has been discussed at different events and levels. A few years
ago Shushi Foundation was set up which did research. In 2006 another
foundation was set up, Rebirth of Shushi, led by the mayor of Yerevan
Yervand Zakharyan. In the beginning of 2007 when they were making the
decision on what programs the money raised in Telethon 2007 to spend,
they announced that that the target of the all-Armenian donations
would become Shushi.
Later the decision changed because another telethon was rumored to
be held on May 9, 2007 the 15th anniversary of liberation of Shushi.
No telethon was held on May 9, however, and the telethon in
November was devoted to the region of Martuni, and Shushi was left
without all-Armenian assistance. Some work has been financed by the
government. The road to Ghazanchetsots Church was repaired, some
buildings were supplied with gas.
Apartments are repaired little by little, but everyone acknowledges
that what is done is not sufficient.
Why is not Shushi reconstructed? Why is it not becoming an Armenian
cultural center? Maybe it is due to lack of information on the town,
and our compatriots abroad do not know that the town needs help. Or
maybe the problem is that most part of the town has been privatized
by someone, and any effort to repair a historical building is viewed
as encroachment on private property. Or yet the problem may be the
lack of a policy.