The maternity ward in Vararakn (present day Stepanakert) was on the outskirts of the town, with an open view to the surrounding landscape. After the war, still a kid, as I passed by the ward where I had been born be fore the war I used to think that my mother must have taken me to the window there to show me the skies. The first thing I might have seen then must have been the panorama of gently sloping hills crowned by the steep rock with houses on it, their rooftops supporting the sky. Therefore, provided there is some truth to the statement that the eye is a live camera, the first snapshot in my brain was of Shushi that is so close to my heart.
    A city that had twenty Armenian newspapers, a citywhere over 150 books were published. It had a theatre, a musical school, a gym with an artificial ice rink. Its Cathedral of the Savior was the biggest on the Armenian plateau. It had five Armenian churches and one Russian. All of these before the October coup in 1917.
    On March 23 of 1920 the Kemalist and Young Turkish cutthroats, along with the bands of Caucasian Tartars (as the Turko-Azeris were called before the revolution) set Shusbi on fire. The following is an excerpt from an official account: "In the course of three days in March of 1920 7, 000 Armenian homes were destroyed and burnt and over 20,000 people were slain. Not a single one remained in Shushi out of the Armenian population of 35,000." (from a brochure "Nagonio Karabagh" published by the "Society for research and study of Azerbaijan", Baku, 1925, "Third International" Press.)
    I have seen ruins many limes while a teenager. The Cathedral of the Savior was without its cross, it was turned into a sheep-fold. No traces were left of the churches, the schools, the numerous shops. We used to wander with other schoolchildren in the Armenian Necropolis of Shushi and, quarter of a century after the fire, could identify amongst ruins the ghost marks from paintings or framed photographs on charred walls with the empty eyesockets of missing windows.
    In the sixties the bulldozers picked up where the yataghan has left. Any trace of all of the seven thousand Armenian palaces and houses was wiped out. They were replaced by spawning ugly apartment blocks. And still I was certain mat although the earth may open wide, although the society may fall under the spell of zombies, the pages of their history can not be obliterated from the people's memory. The books, articles and albums by the inquisitive chronicler of the historical and architectural monuments of Artsakh Shahen Mkrtchian stand proof to this.
    Among these his fundamental monograph, "The historical architectural monuments of Nagomo Karabagh", illustrated with unique photographs, enjoys exceptional popularity. It had four reprints in the Armenian and Russian languages with a total run of 100, 000 copies. By merely browsing through the pages of this book one may become assured as to who are the real owners of this land. "Shushi - the city of tragic fate" is the most recent work of Shahen Mkrtchian, written in collaboration with Shchors Davtian, one of the active champions of the Karabagh movement. The book presents an ancient Armenian city that has for centuries been the strategic stronghold, the university, the conservatory and the forge of Armenian profes-sionals.
    This album is especially unique in its valuable historic photographs and the multitude of archival and other materials. It attempts to be an eye-opener for those who pass judgements on Shushi using geographical maps drawn by Stalin and Ataturk. The authors teach a history lesson to their contemporaries. Coping with the collective bail of oblivion is scary. Thankfully, the photographic evidence of Shushi is preserved here as a reminder, a reproach, a proof. This is exactly what unforgettable Marietta Shabinian bad in mind when she wrote in what today has become her prophesy: "Years will pass, maybe decades, and Shushi will be visited by tourists not for the sake of its beauty and the climate, but for the sake ofa lesson of history (n. b. - Z. B.) that was taught to the entire Transcaucasus - a lesson similar to the one we saw in Pompeii and Herculanum. Only there it was the blind element of nature, and here it was the blind element of an animal awakened in the human mass by a human word."
    I am sure that "Shushi-the city of tragic fate" will become a veritable reference for whoever (whether it is the UN or OSCE, Moscow or Washington) wants to honestly and disinterestedly resolve the problem of Karabagh and, therefore, of Armenia, a country of tragic and fortunate fate.