N. Aghabalian: Number of tourists to Artsakh considerably grew

The Nagorno Karabakh Republic is interesting not only for Armenians, but also for foreign tourists whose number has considerably grown this year, Minister of Culture and Youth Affairs of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Ms. Narine Aghabalian told the correspondent of Aysor.am.

“It is obvious from the example of the Shushi Visual Arts Museum. The museum opened only a month ago, on May 9, but it has more than 100 visitors daily. Most of them are foreign travellers. This also shows that the number of tourists is on the increase. All of them say that Artsakh’s attraction lies in its nature, clean air, fine cuisine, and warmness of people,” she said.

In the words of N. Aghabalian, cultural life in NKR is active. She stressed that all this contributes to dissemination of true information about Artsakh. “Our words can be considered subjective, whereas impressions of foreigners are impartial,” N. Aghabalian noted.

She informed us that an agreement was reached with theaters and music groups of Armenia regarding their performances in Nagorno Karabakh, but the problem of halls still remains unsolved.

According to N. Aghabalian, a number of musicians and singers from Artsakh plan to give concerts in Denmark. Besides, Artsakh State Chamber Choir “Mrakats” recently participated in the 4th International Sacred Music Choir Festival & Competition “Laudate Dominum” in Vilnius where it took the third prize in the general program and the first prize in the obligatory program.
A concert of Russian bands and singers is scheduled to take place at the stadium on September 6. Part of the event is funded by friends of Artsakh.

Speaking about problems, Ms. Aghabalian mentioned financial issues, lack of modern concert halls and musical instruments.
“There are many gifted children in Artsakh, but they need more comfortable conditions for self-fulfillment. Of course, many want to support them. A group of musicians from Finland visited Artsakh quite recently. They initiated an action, thanks to which our performers received musical instruments as presents,” the minister said.

She added that many famous musicians do not perform in Nagorno Karabakh only because of the lack of halls and funds. As regards the visit of Spanish operatic soprano Montserrat Caballe to Karabakh, Narine Aghabalian noted that M. Caballe was impressed by Artsakh whose residents have acquired a good friend.