Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh (yes, it is a country!)

As I needed to wait for my visa to go to Iran, I decided to go to the Republic of Nagorno - Karabakh, you may have not heard of it, I don’t blame you, I read about it in another travel blog. It’s a semi-independent country that is inside Azerbaijan, but all the population are Armenian and they also speak another dialect, so they know 3 languages without studying… (I’m a bit jealous).They were part of Armenia years and years ago but because of the Soviet Union, they were attached to Azerbaijan. It’s a bit like Kosovo (I’ll write about this later). As a semi-independent state, it is not recognized but all the states around the world. As a semi-independent state it is still fighting for its freedom, so in the border with Azerbaijan there are soldiers looking after the territory, they are fighting, even years after the war finished, there is still danger of war, and when I write there is a mom losing her son forever… and that hurts me.

I decided to go there without having a contact, without knowing what to do, without a place to stay, without a map and without a plan. I took a “mashutka” (mini-van) from Yerevan (the capital of Armenia) to Stepanakert (the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh). After 3 hours we made the first stop, I went to buy a peach, the day was hot and I was burning in the mashutka, I bought my peach and a bottle of water and I didn’t know how much money the lady at the shop was asking me, I looked at a guy who was looking at me all the time since I was in Yerevan and he said in English that she was asking for change, I didn’t have and she gave me my change, I went outside to wait and the guy went to talk to me, his name is Aram, and he is from Nagorno-Karabakh but lives in Yerevan. He was surprised that an Argentinian was going to his land, it is not a touristic place, there are still mines and anything can happen. He said that I was the first Argentinian he has ever met in his 24 years of life. He is a football fan (and I have to thank to Messi again for being the best football player on earth and for being Argentinian), and we started talking about football. He offered me his help for anything I needed, and I said that when I arrived at Stepanakert I needed to go to the MFA to register my presence there, he agreed to take me and he gave me his number and asked me mine. The driver called us to get in the mashutka to continue the journey.

 The journey was so pleasant later, it became mild and the beautiful scenery started to appear. Gosh, this land full of sad stories and broken dreams is so beautiful (Scotland has a rival), I didn’t want to close my eyes, I didn’t want to miss a single part, but in the middle of such nice scenery I could see the rest of the (past?) war, houses destroyed and warning signs. I could see people, different people. We arrived at the border and I am the only foreigner entering the country. I used my Argentinian passport and I didn’t have to pay a visa, the officers told other about my presence and people come to greet me. Two hours later we arrived at Stepanakert, I got off and before I touched the floor I had taxi drivers offering themselves to take me to hotels, etc, etc. but in a mixture of English-Russian, I only said “no money, no money” and one came to talk to me in Armenian (or Karabakhi) and I just said I was waiting for somebody, Aram appeared and the taxi driver who was next to me talked to him, he was offering a hotel, I said no because I had a tent, he tried again and this time he asked me for my nationality, I said Argentinian and he said that they had had Argentinian in the offered hotel, I said thanks and that I didn’t want to go that I had a tent. He insisted that it was going to rain (that was the worst excuse) that I needed a hotel; I said no and he left swearing. Aram said that somebody was going to pick us up to take him home and to take me to the MFA, then he said that it was going to rain to set my tent so he invited me to stay with his family. I accepted, so I was going to stay with a group of people I didn’t know. Three guys came in an old car, they asked who I was, Aram introduced me as his new friend and we got in the car and left.

in the border with Armenia...

We arrived at the house and I met Aram’s aunts, grandpa and cousin. They didn’t speak English or Spanish, only the 3 languages I mentioned before, but we could manage communication. They mentioned Ariel Ortega (a football player born in my province, Jujuy) and I was surprised they didn’t mention Maradona first! They made us sit down and prepared food for us, and later some coffee. In seconds I was part of the family. Aram needed to go somewhere else that day and left me alone with his family – his Russian-Armenian-Karabakhi speaking family. I sat down in the living room and grandpa started to talk to me, who knows about what, but I smiled and said “da” (yes) to everything, he smiled too… and continued talking. They offered me more food and gave me a lot, which I enjoyed. They told some neighbours about my presence and 2 girls went to see me and they invited me for a walk to the square, I accepted and we went, one of the girls worked in a hotel and knew some English, we were speaking in English and some girls in the street heard us and came to talk to me, and the previous girls were jealous and took me to other place, ha! I asked them if they could see more foreigners and we saw only 3 more. People don’t choose Karabakh as a tourist destination…

We ended up in the house of one of the girls; I saw her grandma, father and sister. The father invited me for dinner and it was around 11.30pm, I said yes because I wanted to see a typical Karabakhi dinner. I felt very honoured actually (thing that I don’t deserve). The first thing I didn’t know is about vodka, we started remembering the man’s wife who had died 10 days before that day, I didn’t drink the whole glass of vodka and the grandma (around 90) told me off to drink it, everybody laughed and I did it. I grabbed a kind of pepper and it ended up being really hot, they saw I was suffering and they gave me more vodka, I asked for water and it was so painful. With Vodka we remembered also the kids of the world and we celebrated I was there in another occasion, then they said that I had to try the local cognac so they opened a bottle for me, and gave me a bit and we celebrated that we were together. I didn’t finish the glass and the man of the house served me more. In a moment I noticed that all the room was in movement, but I knew it was my head, I didn’t want more alcohol but it was impossible to say no, then the ice-cream came and then the coffees. I was glad that Aram’s house was near (just 30 meters away). I walked floating and I laid in bed. At the beginning of the day I didn’t have a place to stay and I didn’t know anybody, at the end I was honoured with a meal and I had a bed. Oh, and it didn’t rain.

ready for dinner

And this is Ariel Ortega... =)