Nagorno-Karabakh
I’ve been watching the news coming out of Nagorno-Karabakh recently. I guess it’s both shocking and predictable. It seems that, at this stage, nearly all of the Armenian residents have been displaced and the region is under Azerbaijan control. The history of this little slice of land is complex.
I spent a week there in 2015, hanging out in Stepanakert and Shushi and trekked out to the amazing Vankasar Church perched high up on the hill. I also—foolishly, in hindsight—managed to convince a taxi driver to take me to the destroyed town of Agdam, upon which I lasted about 20 minutes before I was arrested by an Armenian army squadron. It was a wild time, and I still feel bad for the trouble I got that taxi driver in. The last photo here is the final image I captured before the army locked me away for a bit. It all ended OK for me, including winning a very competitive game of football with the soldiers and leaving with more cans of spam than I could ever eat. I’m hoping the same can be said for those living in these small towns. They were very cool people who liked a drink and a laugh, even though they lived precarious lives in a strange zone.
Latest News: https://apnews.com/article/armenia-azerbaijan-nagorno-karabakh-separatist-4c5983327329e01c8647dffaddc486b6
