SHUSHA BREATHES NEW LIFE AFTER YEARS OF STRIFE
Daniel Bardsley

The National
ID=/20090721/FOREIGN/707209862/1013/ART
July 20 2009
UAE

SHUSHA, Nagorno-Karabakh // With broken buildings and near-empty
streets, this city of a few thousand has a desolate air, despite its
spectacular mountain setting on a plateau overlooking the centre of
Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed region between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Before the war over control of the region erupted in 1988 between
Muslim ethnic Azeris and Christian ethnic Armenians, there were
25,000 people living in Shusha. At the time, Nagorno-Karabakh was
an ethnic Armenian majority region within Azerbaijan. Shusha was the
only large settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh with an Azeri majority. Now,
the only residents of Shusha are 4,000 Armenians; all of the Azeris
fled during the fighting.

But Shusha, or Shushi as Armenians call it, is on the brink of the
kind of renewal that has transformed Stepanakert, the enclave’s
capital that lies 16km to the north. Since a ceasefire was agreed in
1994, with Armenia in de facto control, Stepanakert has turned into
an attractive and leafy city with a string of new hotels, a modern
assembly building and countless street cafes, even though Armenia
and Azerbaijan are officially still at war over the region.

To promote Shusha’s regeneration, Nagorno-Karabakh’s unrecognised
ethnic Armenian government is moving ministries to the city, and
at least one new hotel is planned as more tourists arrive, mostly
diasporan Armenians from countries such as France, as well as those
from Armenia itself.

Also, funds from an annual telethon in November organised by the
Hayastan All Armenian Fund, an international organisation set up
by Armenian presidential decree in 1992, will go to Shusha. Most of
those who now live there are ethnic Armenians who fled Azerbaijan as
the conflict intensified.

Armen Asryan, an ethnic Armenian, left the Azerbaijani capital Baku
in 1988, first going to Russia before coming to Nagorno-Karabakh,
where his parents originate, in 1997.

The 40-year-old, a soft spoken cobbler, said for him the city was
"not a depressing place".

"I have come to my own land," he said from his ground-floor workshop
beneath an apartment block.

"There wasn’t a chance to live in Stepanakert, but here the government
gave us a free flat. It was ruined. There were no windows. We restored
everything.

During the war, when ethnic Armenians backed by Armenia fought
Azerbaijan, Shusha was an Azeri stronghold and the source of many
of the shells that landed on Stepanakert, forcing its residents to
live in bunkers. Armenians took the city in an offensive in 1992 that
resulted in heavy casualties on both sides.

Ashot Ghoulian, chairman of the Nagorno-Karabakh national assembly,
said government ministries were currently too heavily concentrated
in Stepanakert. He said ministries covering such areas as culture,
youth and sport were moving to Shusha.

"Some of them will be in already existing buildings of great
architectural value, maybe restored, and some buildings will be
constructed for ministries," he said.

Moving the ministries will help "activate the life" in Shusha, Mr
Ghoulian added, although given the city’s strong historical Azeri
links, it may not be a popular move with Azerbaijan.

"The most important reason why we want to activate the life of Shushi
is the role Shushi played in the life of Armenian Karabakh earlier,"
he said.

Shusha dates from the mid-18th century and went on to develop separate
quarters for its Muslim and Christian residents. Clashes between
Azeris and Armenians began in the early 20th century and intensified
after the First World War, when Azerbaijan claimed Nagorno-Karabakh.

After a revolt in 1920, at a time when Nagorno-Karabakh was claimed by
the short-lived Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, as many as 20,000 of
the city’s Armenian population were allegedly killed by authorities,
an event Mr Ghoulian describes as a "massacre". The enclave became
an autonomous region within the later Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist
Republic.

"In 1920, 45,000 people were living in Shushi, but by 1921 the
population had decreased to 12,000 people," Mr Ghoulian said.

"Nobody rejects that people of Azeri origin were living in Shushi
[before the Nagorno-Karabakh war], but that was a result of the
conflict of the past century. Today, nobody should distort that
historical fact.

"Conflicts always change the demographic situation. Shushi is a city
with a tragic fate. Even centuries ago the city was fought over."

The city’s Ghazanchetsots Cathedral has been restored since the
conflict ended and is now one of the few pristine-looking buildings
in the city. Despite the Muslim residents of Shusha having fled,
there are still several mosques, although the minaret of one of them
is badly damaged.

While Shusha still appears to be a broken city, Mr Asryan said it
showed signs of improvement.

"During the past five years it has developed," he said. "There is
more transport here. Many buildings are restored now and more people
live here compared to previous years.

"It was obvious it would be difficult to live here but now it’s
developing."