Some people should be quiet about Shushi
This is an opinion piece. Take it as such.
This article is a reprint of a statement from Roman Bagdasaryan, shared on Facebook. We have translated it.
Before moving on to the accusations, we would like to set the context for readers unfamiliar with Armenian geography.
Shushi is a symbolic city in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), a historically Armenian region today disputed between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
After the war, in 1994, the city was recovered by the Armenians, and as was the style during the post-USSR period, corruption was rampant, as it was in Armenia too. Following the Armenian defeat at the end of the second war in 2020, the city fell back into the hands of Aliyev.
Since then, Armenian political opponents have been blaming the government for giving away the city. Some of these same opponents were in charge of the region between 1994 and 2018 (Armenia's velvet revolution, which removed many corrupt people).
The testimony we share here calls out the hypocrisy of these people, who have filled the region with corruption, weakening it considerably.
The extent of this alleged corruption has sincerely surprised us, and we're still disgusted.
- Armenianz
Every time we hear some people complain that Shushi should be taken back, we're both shocked by the hypocrisy and want to laugh.
That's because we all remember too well how the "Karabakh clan" treated Shushi from 1994 to 2020, after which the city fell into enemy hands.
1) As soon as the city was liberated in 1994, the Armenian generals and the so-called "holy father" Pargev [Martirosyan] began to divide up houses and apartments, pocketing huge amounts of money in the process.
Not a well-known fact: the "Karabagh clan" categorically refused to help refugees from the Shahumyan region with housing. Instead, they sold apartments left and right for $2,000.
The religious father Pargev, undoubtedly forgetting that he is a servant of God and not a real estate agent, behaved in the most disgusting way. Who gave the "holy father" the right to engage in such degrading actions? Do we have to pay for his sins? The man, now a billionaire, is having fun in the United States.
2) Between 1994 and 2020, only 2965 people settled in Shushi... Strangely enough, not a single one of the 11 million Armenians wanted to come and live there...
3) Nemets Rubo [Ruben Hayrapetyan] had built a manor in the city, where he organized wild parties with girls from Ukraine. Local officials participated in these parties and had a lot of pleasure doing that.
4) The rulers of Artsakh have turned the fortress of Shushi into hell, where until 2018, innocent soldiers and Armenian businessmen were thrown into prison, the latter refusing to hand over their property to local bigwigs...
The employees of the fortress subjected people to the most inhumane torture. According to the testimonies of the prisoners, the management of the fortress, the bodyguards of the local leaders, the employees of the NSS (National Security Service) of Artsakh and the police all participated in the torture.
Local officers, generals and investigators would make up a case against innocent soldiers, throw them into the fortress, and then call their relatives in Armenia to collect their ransom.
Most of the prisoners were tortured to death by these barbarians, others became mentally unstable and some died of diseases.
5) The Artsakh authorities, robbing the budget of Armenia, moved the Ministry of Education to the city, spending huge sums of money on it.
It is now known that during the 44-day war, the employees of the ministry did not take away any of the items displayed there. The reason is very simple: these people know nothing about culture. They were either lovers or family members of some official.
6) Pargev had turned the Shushi Church into a place for money laundering. It is the ideal place to collect money without being accountable. Afterwards, he shared his loot with the members of the "Karabagh clan".
7) The city was filled with Azerbaijani spies. After the war, it turned out that Azerbaijanis were working in hotels and passing on information. What was the NSS of Artsakh doing? The spies must have been really laughing when they saw the NSS searching bloggers and journalists just here to do their job.
That's probably why we got our rears kicked, because we cared about stupid stuff.
8) In fact, not a single restaurant or swimming pool has been built in Shushi in 26 years. There was not a single place to eat.
9) Neither Sirusho, Mariam Merabova, nor Shushan [Petrosyan] [artists supporting the opposition, Editor's note], gave a free charity concert for the people of Shushi.
10) In 26 years, the government of Artsakh has not been able to provide any quality transportation between Shushi and Stepanakert, despite the the two cities being only 8 kilometers apart from each other!
11) The government of Artsakh has not built any factory in the city.
12) The Artsakh authorities have not built any children's playground in Shushi for 26 years, stealing the money that was intended for that kind of project.
13) Is it not shameful to call Shushi an Armenian cultural center and to have done nothing to bring it to life?
14) And what has Ara Abrahamyan done for Shushi? How many times has Ruben Vardanyan organized forums for the development of the city? Did we see Robert Kocharyan launch an initiative for the city at least once? And these people dare to talk about Shushi today?
15) For 26 years, for us Armenians, Shushi had become a city of tears, misery and suffering.
Nobody reacted when a soldier was beaten in the fortress for stealing grapes, while people like Movses Hakobyan built manors for themselves.
Seems like God had simply grown tired of us, which is why he took Shushi away from us.
Roman Bagdasaryan (Translation by Armenianz)