No Fear In The Lands Of Karabakh – Natalya Anokhina

On her page in LiveJournal, renowned Russian traveler and travel blogger Natalya Anokhina published an article titled “No Fear in the Lands of Karabakh” where she talked about her recent trip to Artsakh.

The Russian traveler first visited Artsakh three years ago. Natalia visited the second Armenian republic with a group of bloggers from Israel, Hungary, Italy, and a few other countries around the world.

“For those who think that war is still going on in Nagorno-Karabakh, I’ll say that there has been no war there for a long time, although encounters on the border with Azerbaijan happen from time to time. But tourists are still not allowed to approach the border – entry to the border zones is forbidden for them,” Natalya Anokhina writes in her blog.

According to her, over the past three years, Artsakh which was visited not only by Russians but also by tourists from South Korea, Singapore, and Japan has changed and improved.

“The route through the Zod pass alone is worth a lot. When I remember the last time when we made our way along it in the night, on clay and in the rain, with the wheels basically hovering over the abyss… Wow… And now, the road is covered with beautiful asphalt.

Shushi has also significantly changed for the better, and there are fewer and fewer traces of the past war and devastation there. The rest of the towns we visited also made a very positive impression. But, of course, there are no limits to perfection, and Artsakh has room to develop further,” Natalia Anokhina writes.

In the four days spent in Artsakh, Russian travelers and foreign bloggers managed to not only visit Stepanakert, Shushi, Tigranakert, and admire the ancient monasteries of Amaras, Gandzasar, and Dadivank but also attend the wine festival in the village of Togh.