Making Victory Count: Giving meaning to Shushi’s liberation
KARABAKH 25: BUILDING A REPUBLIC | 07.03.13 | 22:03
NAZIK ARMENAKYAN
ArmeniaNow
By GOHAR ABRAHAMYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
On May 9, 1992, the day after the liberation of Shushi, when the smell
of gunpowder had not yet given way to the smell of incense rising on
prayers for peace, rebuilding began in the nearly destroyed and
desecrated Ghazanchetsots church.
Azeris had turned the church into a munitions dump, but a special mass
for the dead was a rebirth for Shushi that continues these 20 years
later.
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Karabakh’s Minister of Culture and Youth Affairs Narine Aghabalian
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Shushi Mayor Karen Avagimian
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Presidential adviser Vardan Astsatrian
Shushi was built as a fortress. Until a century ago it played a
significant role in the cultural and economic life of not only Nagorno
Karabakh, but also the entire South Caucasus. The war of 1991-94
nearly razed it.
Today large-scale construction gradually but surely heals the town’s
wounds and dreams of a `cultural capital’ are coming into view.
Karabakh’s Minister of Culture and Youth Affairs Narine Aghabalian
says that today there is a need to put a new face on mental images of
Karabakh, and Shushi could be the calling card to change perceptions.
`The international community associates the name of Nagorno Karabakh
only to an unresolved conflict. We must try and change that and
present ourselves as a country with millennia-old historical and
cultural heritage that today embraces pan-national humanitarian
values. Developing culture is very important in this sense,’ says the
minister.
While immediately after the war Karabakh had to pay more attention to
the most vital problems of survival, now the proud republic is
developing a strategy for cultural development in 2013-2017.
It is not a coincidence that Shushi was chosen to become a cultural
center – it will be history repeating itself.
>From 1827-1920, Shushi had five printing houses publishing more than
150 titles a year. Shushi also had a number of educational
institutions, such as Karabakh’s Armenian Diocesan School (1838), Our
Lady College for Young Women (1864), Urban College (1875),
Non-classical Secondary School (1881), Mariam Ghukasian Royal
Gymnasium for Girls (1894) and 10 other schools and educational
establishments. Shushi’s theatrical life began in 1865. The well-known
Khandamirian Theater opened in 1891 and would become
regionally-famous.
`After the war we restored Ghazanchetsots and already could breathe
more easily, but the town was still in ruins, which put potential
visitors and settlers off. We were highlighting these problems, saying
that Shushi should enjoy the splendor of a cultural town that it once
was,’ says Aghabalian, adding that today the Shushi Restoration
Program has been launched due to the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund and
Diaspora donors and a series of cultural projects have been carried
out in Shushi in recent years.
Ministry with a mission
Among the major steps toward cultural revival was the relocation of
the Ministry of Culture and Youth Affairs from Stepanakert to Shushi.
In 1912, the Mariam Ghukasian Royal Gymnasium for Girls was built on
one of the central streets of Shushi. It was destroyed during the
Karabakh war. But exactly 100 years later, in October this year, it
was reopened as the Ministry of Culture and Youth Affairs. Its
renovation was financed by Moscow-based donor Konstantin Manukian who,
with other Diaspora, shares the dream of Shusi’s cultural restoration.
Minister Aghabalian says that some of the cultural programs will move
to Shushi and different events will be organized in the town, which
will also encourage more tourism.
`Those who visit Shushi know that there is also the Ministry of
Culture here, which by itself generates interest. And now many
traveling from Yerevan to Stepanakert will not bypass Shushi, but will
come and see the town,’ says the minister.
Aghabalian says the town is gradually unyoking the burden of the ruins
and regaining its former spiritual, cultural, and educational image.
Before the Karabakh Movement, in 1988, Shushi had a population of
15,000. Today, the town has about 4,100 residents, most of whom are
refugees from Baku, Kirovabad and some Armenian-populated territories
that are now part of Azerbaijan.
Today, Shushi has one basic school and one high school along with
three music schools.
The first music school in Shushi opened just six months after the
liberation of the town – in November 1992. It was housed in the
building of one of the half-empty secondary schools.
At that time the school had only four sections: piano, violin,
clarinet and vocal art. It was attended by less than three dozen
students.
In 2002, one of the old buildings in the center of the town was
provided for the Shushi Music School, and in 2004 it was totally
repaired due to the funds provided by U.S.-based Karabakh natives
Hakob and Hilda Baghdassarian.
Shushi Children’s Music School Director Razmik Harutiunian says that
today the school has as many as 10 sections: piano, vocal art,
clarinet, trumpet, violin, accordion, drum, kanon (a string
instrument), shvi (flute) and duduk.
Today the school has branches in four villages of the Shushi province.
It has a total of 164 students, including 22 who attend classes in
villages.
`Musical education is very important in general, as due to it children
can develop their aesthetic tastes,’ says Harutiunian. `Not everyone
will continue their education in music, but this musical education
will definitely have an impact in their lives.’ Last year five of the
school’s 15 graduates chose to continue higher education in the field
of music.
The part of Shushi called the Internal Quarter, which suffered the
most during the war and still bears traces of mass destruction, is
seeing active construction these days, with a prospect of becoming a
student quarter in a couple of years’ time.
Growing a future
If Shushi is bound to be a cultural capital, it might also serve as a
center of Karabakh’s other great potential, agriculture.
The war-damaged building of the former technical school is being
reconstructed to reopen as the Agrarian University of Artsakh, next
September.
In 2008, the Agrarian faculty was separated from Artsakh State
University and, through cooperation with the Agrarian University of
Armenia, the Agrarian University of Artsakh was established.
Around 2,000 students attend the University, which is now housed in
one of the decrepit buildings of Stepanakert.
Dean of the university’s Faculty of Agrarian Biology and Economics
Artak Ghulian says the new building which is under construction today
will be a unique facility in the South Caucasus due to its conditions
and laboratory equipment.
`The new building is very important to the university as we will get
an opportunity to include more narrowly specialized directions in the
curriculum,’ says Ghulian. He adds that a vocational training center
will also be affiliated with the Agrarian University.
A new building is rising next to the agricultural academy. The
Stepanakert Vocational College is due to move into this building when
its construction is finished.
Not far away is a 1977-built hostel, which has housed the State
Humanitarian College named after distinguished educator Arsen
Khachatrian, since 1994.
Today the college has a number of departments, with 310 students, 145
who attend classes and the rest who study remotely.
College Director Ara Hairapetian says that about 45 students are
enrolled in the College’s cultural departments.
`We participate in all cultural events that take place in Karabakh,
often organize separate exhibitions, concerts,’ says Hairapetian,
showing in his room what he describes as Karabakh’s and Armenia’s
largest Gobelin tapestry that depicts old Shushi, made by last year’s
graduates.
Hairapetian says the college is likely to move to another location
next year because the hostel building will be reconstructed according
to French standards through a joint effort of the French branch of the
All-Armenian Fund and the NKR Government and will become one of the
best student hostels in the region.
During Soviet times the hostel could house up to 450 students, but
after total renovation the capacity will be for 190 students, as the
level of convenience and amenities will be significantly improved.
Pictures, parks, priority
Shushi Mayor Karen Avagimian, who has headed the town since 2009, says
that in the initial period after the war the state did not have so
many opportunities to make Shushi a point of special attention, but
during the last 5-6 years Shushi has become a priority.
`The relocation of infrastructure to Shushi to make it an educational
and student center also helps restore the town’s old, historic, but
now-rundown buildings,’ says the mayor. `After the relocation of
student infrastructure, life in Shushi will become more active,
cultural centers will operate, the town population will increase.’
Through Nareg Hartounian’s efforts and funding, the Narekatsi Art
Union has operated in Shushi since 2006. The Union’s 12 groups bring
together more than 50 people of different ages who are fond of arts.
Several theaters that functioned in Karabakh before the war have
united today into one, the Mkrtich Khandamirian Drama Theater. At
present, 12 students from Shushi are taking acting classes at the
Goris branch of the Yerevan State Theater and Cinema Institute to join
the Shushi theater troupes after their studies.
The theater today is operating at the Culture and Youth Center, which
was Shushi’s former Cinema House, but in 2012 was completely renovated
and furnished due to the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund and its
Canadian-Armenian donors.
Two other buildings are currently being reconstructed in Shushi. One
is to become a Geology Museum that will display a collection of rare
minerals of Academician Grigor Gabrieliants (advisor to the NKR
President, the USSR’s last Minister of Geology).
The other building will house a Picture Gallery, for which, again with
Gabrieliants’ support, more than 400 canvases have already been
collected.
Behind the Picture Gallery a park of statues is being created. These
statues have been collected during two recent symposiums of sculptors
held in Shushi. Sculptors and artists from Italy, Japan, Belgium,
Belarus and other countries had come to the town to attend the
symposiums.
Moscow-based Karabakh native Sergey Sargsian also decided to
contribute to the restoration of Shushi and established the Picture
Gallery.
Today’s building of the Picture Gallery has a history of about 200
years and is one of the oldest buildings in the town. Beginning from
1828 the building housed the first printing house in Shushi, which was
the third largest printing house in the entire region, but during the
Soviet years the building housed trade unions. The building was
destroyed by fire during the war, with its standing walls badly
damaged.
A new three-storey building made according to the old one’s pattern is
rising today. The Picture Gallery will have two large exhibition
halls.
Sargis Galstian, a representative of the Picture Gallery founders,
says it was established within the framework of an investment program,
but the $284,000 funding earmarked for the programs was too small a
sum for such a huge project. Eventually, twice as much was spent for
it.
`The Picture Gallery will not be for permanent exhibitions, it will
periodically offer displays on different subjects, by various artists.
Visitors will be able to see something new all the time,’ says
Galstian, who adds that there are also plans to organize children’s
exhibitions and the best participants of such exhibitions will be
provided with assistance for their further education.
Although the building’s official opening is scheduled for 2013, in
October 2012 it already managed to host the Shushi Art Project, an
unprecedented cultural event for Karabakh.
Not far from the Picture Gallery is one of the first constructions of
Shushi – the 1810-built Post Office building. It was restored by the
Avan Company in 2011 and now the building houses a museum of
antique-style carpets and rugs.
About 160 carpets on exhibition, the oldest of which is 270 years old,
are a private collection of presidential adviser Vardan Astsatrian.
`Artsakh has always been a carpet-weaving center, and because today it
is a little bit forgotten fact, the main goal of the establishment of
this museum was to help restore historical justice and the Artsakh
carpets brand,’ says Astsatrian. He adds that Karabakh’s carpets and
rugs differ from Persian and Arab symmetric ones by their dynamics, as
Karabakh carpets depict an image that has a beginning and an end.
If you build it, they will come
Hotels are also important prerequisites for the development of local
cultural life. Shushi has four. Two have opened in the last couple of
years. The history of one of them, reopened after reconstruction,
dates back to the 19th century.
During the times of Tsarist Russia, in 1831 Borzhom Hotel was built in
Shushi, which, however, was destroyed in the 1920s and in 1970 what
would later become the well-known Karabakh Hotel was built in the same
place.
Although the building was not affected by shelling during the war, it
still was plundered and damaged otherwise. Years ago, it became
property of the Avan Company, among whose shareholders are
Armenian-American philanthropists Alec Baghdasarian, Shirak Amian and
others (who also renovated Shushi’s Oriental Bath and Oriental
Market). That company undertook to renovate the building and in March
2011 it turned into a modern 11-storey hotel, Avan Shoushi Plaza.
During the summer months the hotel provides an average of about 40
jobs, with monthly salaries at around $170. It receive about
1,000-1,200 guests, while in wintertime the number of guests drops to
200, and only 28 staff are employed.
`Besides receiving guests we also host various cultural events, such
as the recent events celebrating the 500th anniversary of printing,
various meetings, conferences, etc. That is, the hotel also has its
role in the development of cultural life,’ says Avan Shoushi Plaza
manager Sargis Galstian.
Today, in Shushi there are many locked gates and half-ruined buildings
with arched windows that fall into more decay as time goes on and turn
into garbage dumps. But next to these buildings are others under
repair, and next to those, bright and modern new ones.
It was a town with a legacy of culture, replaced by a legacy of war.
Today, strong efforts are afoot to switch the prominence of those
legacies, and to see fallen Shushi rise.
`We should be able to make our attitude towards Shushi equivalent to
that pride that the liberation of this town granted to every Armenian,
in every corner of the world,’ Karabakh’s Minister of Culture and
Youth Affairs Aghabalian says. `The problem was not only liberating
Shushi, perhaps more important than that has been restoring Shushi to
make that victory meaningful.’