The Stepanakert Stadium, During the Artsakh war the stadium was used as a staging ground for helicopters (Photo by Karen Vanyan)
BY ROBERT O’CONNOR
Special to Asbarez
The drive from Yerevan to Stepanakert is a deft allegory for the politics that divides these two cities. It’s hard to think there is another journey in Europe so riven with contradictions.
From the moment the Armenian capital begins to recede into the distance and the peak of Mount Ararat first pierces the overcast sky, the vistas are breathtaking; the snow that carpets the mountain-sides is undisturbed and crisp, and the rural townships that pepper the route seem un-spoilt by the world beyond these hills. Late in the afternoon, the cloud breaks and the sun washes over the border town of Goris near the Lachin corridor that links Armenia to her kin in Nagorno-Karabakh. The rocky surroundings seem to glow gold.
The drive should take six hours but today it has taken nine. For all the natural beauty on offer here there is no escaping the isolation that Karabakh, the rogue state that developed out of the mess of the Armenia-Azerbaijan war, is subject to, even from its close allies in Armenia. Though the fighting has largely stopped, there is no apparent end in sight to the frozen conflict that keeps Stepanakert and its surrounding provinces in diplomatic lockdown.
“All this war and conflict is temporary,â€
