Armenia Resort Struggles To Heal 'Scars' After Azerbaijan Attack
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By Irakli METREVELIAugust 2, 2023
Jermuk was Armenia's busiest spa resort before arch foe Azerbaijan attacked nearly a year ago.
Now only the croaking of frogs and the occasional cry of a solitary swan fill the silence in the small town's deserted park.
The mountain spa town dotted with hot springs came under artillery fire from Azerbaijan in September 2022.
While authorities insist Jermuk is ready to host tourists again, locals say the wounds are still raw and the tourism industry has been struggling to recover in the aftermath of the assault.
"You can't see the scars of the war in the streets of Jermuk any more. They are on people's souls," said restaurant owner Ovsanna Stepanyan.
She said that the number of tourists visiting Jermuk — which gave its name to Armenia's most famous mineral water brand — had plummeted after the Azerbaijani attack.
"Hotels and restaurants are nearly empty, we are operating at a loss," the 42-year-old told AFP.
Stepanyan's eatery was once so busy people had to book a table days in advance. Now she receives just several customers each day and has been forced to lay off half of her staff.
Tour guide Vazgen Galstyan, 33, said hotels, cafes, schools, and kindergartens were open but stressed that the emotional trauma inflicted by the conflict had not healed.
"Many people here are still suffering from psychological trauma," he said. "We know that the risk of a new war persists."
Stepanyan said she had been struggling to forget last year's attack.
She hid with her toddler son and mother in a basement when Azerbaijani forces shelled the town, an experience similar to that of many residents.
"Those hours were full of fear, like in a horror movie," she said. "Then women and children fled Jermuk for Yerevan in trucks."
"The road was full of cars with fleeing people, forests and fields on the outskirts of Jermuk were ablaze. I am still trembling when I remember that terrible night."
Locked in a decades-long dispute over Azerbaijan's Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Yerevan and Baku have fought two wars for control of the mountainous enclave, in the 1990s and 2020.
Despite a Moscow-brokered ceasefire that ended the latest conflict, there have been near-daily border clashes between the Caucasus neighbours.
In the worst fighting since the end of the war, Azerbaijan captured a pocket of land inside Armenia last year in fierce clashes between the neighbours that claimed the lives of 210 people.
Both sides have accused each other of provoking the hostilities, which erupted on September 13, 2022, and ended with international mediation the next day.
Yerevan said at the time that Azerbaijan attacked the towns of Jermuk, Sotk, and Verin Shorza — located near the two countries' border — using artillery, mortars, and large-calibre firearms.
"The shelling of Jermuk began at midnight," said the town's vice-mayor, Vardan Sargsyan.
"Azerbaijanis were targeting roads and forests; they damaged residential buildings, vital infrastructure, the cemetery."
But he insisted that "the consequences of the attack were eliminated, and damaged infrastructure was rebuilt".
"Jermuk is ready to host tourists again," added the vice-mayor.
Tigran Sargsyan, 20, returned to Jermuk four months ago after completing his military service and is now running a shooting gallery in an amusement park. Targets feature Azerbaijani flags and portraits of Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev.
"The enemy is too close," he said, referring to Azerbaijani troops stationed about four kilometres from Jermuk.
"If the situation does not change, there will be a fresh conflict and I'll have to go to war."
A Russian tourist strolling nearby sounded a more optimistic note.
"I know what happened in Jermuk last year, but I am not scared," said Yuliya Shtykova, a 51-year-old Muscovite.
"Jermuk is a miracle, it has huge tourism potential."