Karabakh trip

I was back in Karabakh again this weekend, and caught the tail end of the autumn leaves changing... it was beautiful. I made it to some very off-the-beaten-track spots and stayed with different village families every night. I'm working on a project to create hiking trails throughout Karabakh and this was part of the scouting out of both trails and homestays. In Tonashen, I heard the story of a old village man who had to flee as the village was about to be captured and upon his return of course found the house looted, a few fires had been started in the home, and the village pretty much destroyed. When driving around in Karabakh you see Azeri homes which have been burned and I sometimes forget that this was the norm, back when the war was going back and forth and territory kept changing hands. This is why it is particularly ludicrous that Azerbaijan is complaining this year that Armenians are burning Azeri captured villages. They were all burned 13-14 years ago, and everybody knows this. The Armenians, the Azeris, the OSCE and the Azeri government just seems to be doing anything it can to distract from its war rhetoric and destruction of Jugha... a true world heritage site. Then this week Aliev apparently said the Armenian Genocide is a fantasy. He is a true ass. In any case, there are a bunch of pictures on flickr! :-)