by David Zenian
Amaras, Karabakh-Saint Gregory the Illuminator and Mesrop Mashtots gave Armenians their Christian faith and a unique alphabet-and both have endured the test of time in Karabakh.
Saint Gregory converted the Karabakh Armenians to Christianity at the start of the fourth century. He began the construction of the monastery and church of Amaras in 360 A.D. Construction was completed by his grandson, Grigoris, who is buried there.
Mashtots opened the first Armenian school in the Amaras monastery soon after he created the Armenian alphabet in 405 A.D. which is still in use today by Armenians worldwide.
The Monastery of Amaras, the oldest surviving historical monument in eastern Nagorno Karabakh, where the two men preached and taught, is now a national shrine and a source of inspiration to a new generation of Karabakh Armenians.
"Saint Gregory and Mesrop Mashtots are the pillars of today's Armenian nation and both have left their mark on Karabakh. How far back do we have to trace our roots to prove to the world that Nagorno Karabakh is Armenian," says Hamlet Asrian, Karabakh's Education Minister.
A lot has happened since the days of Saint Gregory and Mashtots. Over the centuries Karabakh was overrun and occupied by Arab, Mongol, Turkish, Persian, Russian and Azeri armies but the Armenians survived. The last occupation ended after a bloody war with Azerbaijan.
While world powers like the United States and Russia consider plans for a peaceful solution to the conflict, the government of Nagorno Karabakh is busy repairing the damage caused by 70 years of Soviet rule and Azerbaijani hegemony.
One of the top items on the repair list is education-where decades of sometimes direct and often indirect Azerbaijani oppression threatened the very fabric of the Armenian character of Karabakh.
Armenian elementary and secondary schools were not banned, but starting in 1976 the Azeri language was imposed on the Armenian students as part of their curriculum.
Given the fact that Nagorno Karabakh then was within Azerbaijani jurisdiction, the measure looked "innocent". But there was more to the issue than teaching the students Azeri along with the official language of the land which was Russian like the rest of the Soviet Union.
"The real problem was in the hidden agenda of the Baku government," Asrian explained, adding that it was another attempt to further isolate Karabakh's Armenians.
Secondary school graduates could not continue their university education in neighboring Armenia because they were denied employment on their return to Karabakh if they had degrees from Universities in Armenia.
When it came to higher education, the Armenian students from Karabakh had only two choices. One was to go to Baku, where the instruction was in Azerbaijan's ethnic Turkic dialect, or to Moscow where everything was in Russian.
"This forced many Armenians to pursue their education in Russian rather than Armenian, while the minority Azeri population studied in their native language. The hidden agenda was aimed at quietly forcing the Armenians away from their mother tongue," Asrian said.
Despite Nagorno Karabakh's officially autonomous status, the region's majority Armenians had little say in the education of their children. Everything was effectively decided in Baku.
"Autonomy was never respected. We had no voice," Asrian said.
But all that is history now. Nagorno Karabakh, which is also known by its ancient historic name of Artsakh, stopped the tide when it broke away from Azerbaijan and in January 1992 the Nagorno Karabakh Parliament declared an independent Republic of Mountainous Karabakh.
While the de facto republic remains on a war footing, no effort is being spared to re-build its educational infrastructure on its long-suppressed ethnic Armenian foundations.
In the last short few years, the State University of Karabakh, with 1,600 students and a faculty of 200, has been established offering degrees in the humanities, sciences, agriculture, engineering, and veterinary medicine.
Students who want to prepare for careers as veterinarians or medical doctors complete their education at a university in Armenia after a two-year pre-med program in Karabakh.
Alongside the State University, the Nagorno Karabakh Ministry of Education also has a number of technical schools, including the veterinary school and a large nursing program which has an enrollment of 100.
"Education is one of our important tools in nation building. The Armenian education sector had suffered a lot under the Azerbaijani rule," Asrian said.
Soon after seceding from Azerbaijan, the Armenian authorities in Nagorno Karabakh launched an all-out campaign to take a close look and re-structure the curriculum of the country's primary, middle and secondary schools.
"There were many gaps. In the old days, the schools were allowed to teach Armenian history but anything which had an Armenian national undertone was banned," Asrian said.
"We were not only under the communist system which tried to Sovietize everyone, but under Azerbaijani pressure which aimed at destroying our Armenian roots. It was a cultural war of attrition," he said.
Today there are 150 schools across Nagorno Karabakh where 22,000 children are taught to be proud Armenians by a nation-wide staff of 2,700 teachers. They study history, culture, music and Armenian literature along with an enhanced curriculum.
The schools are poorly equipped, and those in remote villages have little or no heat during the harsh winter months.
There is a severe shortage of school supplies, including such essential items as not only books, paper and pens, but even chalk for the blackboards.
"We have a lot to do," Minister of Education Asrian says.
