Armenian flag will always be flying over ancient Shushi

PanARMENIAN.Net - Simply every year you see with pain and bitterness that Shushi is almost unchanged; construction progresses rather slowly. By and large, one can understand the NKR authorities: war is not over, there are threats coming from Baku, the cease-fire is violated every now and then. The fragile peace could collapse overnight, and then all hopes would be centered on the army. The famous aphorism “If you do not want to feed your army, you will have to feed someone else’s” could be accurately applied to the NKR Defense Army. Defense expenditures are growing each year. To be more accurate, Karabakh people are forced into an arms race in the hope that they will not endure this weight and will give up. But let us say once and for all in order not to revert to this issue: Azerbaijan can dream of what she pleases, no one forbids, but the flag of Azerbaijan, as Ilham Aliyev likes to reiterate, will never be flying over the presidential palace in Stepanakert. Not one generation of Azerbaijanis needs to be changed, so that this people would look at the world through their own eyes and not through those of the Aliyev clan.

Narrates Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan: “We consecrated the church in Shushi. It’s windy; rain is starting. And suddenly, as if by magic, as soon as I start telling “Our Father”, the wind drops and clouds literally hang over the church, revealing a piece of blue sky. We consecrated the church and then a hurricane started…” New buildings are being erected in Shushi, but construction is progressing rather slowly: so far there's a new cultural center, the hotel “Shushi Plaza”, attempts of cosmetic repairs on the buildings looking the same as 20 years ago – smoky openings of windows, empty entrances. As if life has gone out of the town and is now thinking whether it should return to the old ashes or not. But, to all appearances, life will return, and the historical capital of Nagorno-Karabakh will not be inferior to others. And above all this rises the enormous bulk of Ghazanchetsots as a reproach and a reminder that we must think not only of God but also of the laity. Compared to Shushi, Stepanakert looks beautiful and well-groomed - clean, embellished, as if there had been no war. It’s true that on the outskirts of the city there still are houses affected by the bombings, but they do not spoil the overall picture. There is the great business center “Europe” constructed. Nice of course, but not really fitting into the overall architectural image of the city. However, image as such does not exist - a typical Soviet provincial town with a couple of different supermarkets, which, in fact, are just big stores.

But what pleases you is the increasing number of children on the streets. Archbishop Martirosyan says that every time he baptizes infants, he constantly says to their parents: “It’s too few, give birth to another.” “I have baptized 6 children of one couple, and they are going to have another soon. Children are never too many.” To our remark that it is difficult to bring up so many children, the archbishop says laughing, “Let them be four instead of three. They will grow up, and nothing will become of them.”

Anyway, we won and established the second Armenian state on our own lands. And, in reality, this government is much more democratic than that of neighboring Azerbaijan, which is “famous” for its persecution of dissidents and lavish shows at a time when its own people are beginning to lose patience in despair. Aliyev’s propaganda may speak of poverty in Armenia and weakness of the Armenian army as much as it wishes. In fact, all of this is pathetic attempts to pass the desirable for reality. God be their judge of all. The main thing is that the Armenian flag will always be flying over ancient Shushi.

And lastly, casually becoming a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, Azerbaijan will now consistently, with or without reason, turn to the Security Council with the Karabakh issue. On May 8 Azerbaijan “demanded” from the Security Council members to “express an opinion” on the Karabakh conflict, although the views of the U.S., France, Russia, Britain, and China have long been known. Or is it possible that Baku seriously thinks that the UN Security Council could change its position?