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Conflicts between Armenia, Karabakh and Azerbaijan ----Writing inspired by the movie “Here” (Part 2 of 2)

Research of movie HERE, translated by me. Posted with the writer’s permission.

Conflicts between Armenia, Karabakh and Azerbaijan

----Writing inspired by the movie “Here” (Part 2 of 2)

----Blog 1 in the “one morning, one sentence” series

亚美尼亚，卡拉巴赫，和阿塞拜疆的地域冲突

----电影《爱在这里》细节衍生（下部）

----一句英语耗掉一个清晨系列之一（下部）

In the first half of this blog (http://sagopalm.lofter.com/post/1e422858_be0688e), I briefly introduced the Gandzasar Monastery shown in the 2011 movie “Here”, together with the cross-stones in this monastery. Like I mentioned at the end of the first half, a major portion of the monastery survived bombing by Azerbaijan. However, this leaves the question: why did the bombing occur?

在这个连载的第一部分（详见：http://sagopalm.lofter.com/post/1e422858_be0688e），我短暂的介绍了在2011年的电影《爱在这里》中出现的甘扎萨尔修道院，同时也介绍了一下修道院中的十字碑。就像我在第一部分的文末提到的，修道院的主要部分在阿萨拜疆的轰炸中幸存了下来。然而，这也引出了一个问题：这场轰炸为何爆发？

In this post, I will continue the topic and cover two things. First, topic 4 (a boring history topic – consider yourself warned), the recent regional tension between Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh (Karabakh), Azerbaijan, and the driving forces behind this. Second, topic 5, how this political instability influenced the area and the people, just as was referenced in the movie.

在这部分连载中，我将继续这个话题并涵盖两件事：首先，话题4（一个非常无聊的话题——来自作者的警告），近期亚美尼亚，纳戈尔诺-卡拉巴赫（即卡拉巴赫）以及阿塞拜疆之间紧张的局势，以及造成此种局势的背景。第二，也就是话题5，就像电影里提到的，这样的政治不稳定的情况是如何影响了这个地区及其人民的。

4. Regional Tension: Armenia, Karabakh and Azerbaijan

4.紧张的区域形势：亚美尼亚，卡拉巴赫和阿塞拜疆

Let me first quickly summarize what has happened to Armenians in the last 2000 years, between its historical height of 95 to 65 BC, and the establishment of the First Republic of Armenia in 1918. [1]

首先让我简单的介绍一下在过去的2000年里亚美尼亚都发生了些什么：历史上它的顶峰时期，公元前95年到公元前65年，以及1918年亚美尼亚第一共和国的建立。

Simply, they have not done well.

坦白来讲，他们并没有干得很出色。

Okay, that was not completely accurate, but even the famous Armenian-American author William Saroyan would agree, describing a “…small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost…” In fact, throughout the last 2000 years, one can rarely find anything that happened to the Armenia kingdoms besides being invaded. In order, they were invaded by: Assyrians, Medes, Achaemenid Persians, Greeks, Parthians, Romans, Sassanid Persians, Byzantines, Arabs, Seljuks, Mongols, Ottomans, Iranian Safavids, Afsharids, Qajars,and Russians. [1]

好八，这并不是非常精确的说法，但是就算是著名的《美国中的亚美尼亚人》的作者William Saroyan同样同意这一点，他在文中说“（亚美尼亚人是）一小群不受重视的人，他们百战百败”事实上，在过去2000年的历史中，任何人都难以再亚美尼亚王国过去2000年的历史中找到除了被入侵之外的事情。他们曾经被如下顺序的国家入侵过：亚述人，米堤亚人，阿契美尼德王朝的波斯人，希腊人，帕提亚人，罗马人，萨珊王朝的波斯人，拜占庭人，阿拉伯人，塞尔柱王朝的蒙古人，奥斯曼人，伊朗的奥斯曼帝国，阿夫沙尔王朝，卡札尔人和俄罗斯帝国。

One thing I need to emphasize is that Armenia has never given up its cultural signatures or religious beliefs. In most cases, Armenia was still autonomous, even with some empire overseeing its political system. This is definitely impressive. In my opinion, this could be credited to its special geographical position, basically locked inside the Causasus Mountains [1]. Every powerful king near Armenia would likely appreciate it as a natural boundary against neighboring enemies, would not want to bother too much to manage it. In addition, Armenians have a very long and strong religious tradition, which prevented foreigners from having complete control over national belief.

还有一件我需要强调的事，那就是亚美尼亚人从来没有放弃他们的文化特色和宗教信仰。大部分情况下，即使其他国家监控着它的政治体系，亚美尼亚仍然是一个自主国家。这是令人十分钦佩的一点。在我看来，这归功于这个国家大部分都位于高加索山脉的独特地理位置。亚美尼亚附近的任何一个强大的国王都应该感激它以自然为边境而不是临近敌国，不用格外费心管理边境。除此之外，亚美尼亚有着很长而且很强大的宗教传统，这阻止了外国人完全掌控他们的国民信仰。

Returning to the conflicts between Armenia and Azerbaijan, they actually share some culture and have often been invaded together. However, during an invasion from the Arabian Empire around the Seventh century, most of the Azerbaijani people converted to Islam, while most Armenians stayed Christian. (The exact situation was much more complicated, but I will not cover it here.) Since then, conflicts in beliefs have made them potential enemies, but they never really got the chance to confront each other as independent countries until 1918. In 1918, they both proclaimed independence on a same day (May 28th), and disputed certain territories that had been part of either country at various points in history. Karabakh was one of those territories. From 1918 to 1920, the dispute resulted in the so-called Armenian–Azerbaijani War [2], until they were both “invaded” (or maybe “swallowed up”) by the Soviet Union (SU) and the conflict was suppressed.

回到亚美尼亚和阿塞拜疆的冲突上来，事实上他们享有一些共同的文化，而且也经常一起被入侵。然而，在17世纪阿拉伯帝国的整个入侵过程中，大部分阿塞拜疆人转信了伊斯兰教，而大部分的亚美尼亚人仍旧信仰着基督教。（具体情况要复杂得多，但是在这里我不详细说明了。）从那之后，信仰冲突使他们成为了潜在的敌人，但是知道1918年之前，他们从来没有真的像其他的独立过一样面对面的较量过。1918年，他们都宣布在同一天（5月28日）成为独立国家，并且就历史上曾经在不同的时期都成为过两个国家的领土的几个区域展开了争夺。卡拉巴赫就是这样的几个地区。从1918年到1920年，这一争论导致了我们称为“亚美尼亚-阿塞拜疆战争”的战争，直到他们一起被苏维埃联合国入侵（或者说“被吞并”），这一冲突被镇压了下去。

Although control of Karabakh has shifted about throughout history, the majority of its population is Armenian [3]. When different forces was trying to take control of Karabakh between 1920 and 1921, the residents there were fighting hard for either independence or unification with Armenia. Therefore, when the SU simply put Karabakh under Azerbaijan’s control in 1921, with a purposes of balancing local Communist lines and placating Turkey, this understandably laid the foundation for future conflict. In fact, many people also believe that the SU was basically pursuing a plan of “divide and rule” [3]. Figure 1 shows the relative location of Karabakh to Armenia and Azerbaijan at that time.

尽管在卡拉巴赫的整个历史上，掌控权是不断在转换的，但是他的主要人种却一直都是亚美尼亚人[3]。在1920到1921年之间，不同的军事力量都在想办法控制卡拉巴赫地区。但当地的人民都在为了国家的独立性和统一而不断抗争。因此，当苏联为了平衡当地共产党的战线以及安抚土耳其，在1921年简单地将卡拉巴赫置于阿塞拜疆的控制之下的时候，就为未来的冲突奠定了基础。实际上，很多人相信，苏联基本上是为了追求“分而治之”的移民计划[3]。图1展示了当时卡拉巴赫和亚美尼亚以及阿塞拜疆之间的相对地理位置关系。

Figure 1. The location and region of Karabakh in the 90s. [4]

图1. 卡拉巴赫在90年代时的位置及面积。[4]

With the SU being powerful, no substantial national level warfare occurred between Armenia and Azerbaijan for more than half a century. Starting with the economic and political reforms led by Gorbachov (he is still alive by the way) in 1985, democratic thought started to expand in the SU. Since then, the SU’s censorship control of its member countries dramatically decreased. As a result, in 1988, the long-existing problems from the Armenian–Azerbaijani War started to attract military violence to the region again, and this time with one major focus: Karabakh. In 1990 Armenia declared independence, while in 1991, Azerbaijan declared independence a few days before the SU officially ceased to exit. [1]-[3] The regional tension worsened. The bombing of the Gandzasar Monastery occurred in the autumn of 1991, as mentioned in the movie “Here” and my last blog [5].

随着苏联的不断强大，在超过半个世纪的时间里都没有过大量的国家级的战争出现在亚美尼亚和阿塞拜疆之间。在1985年戈尔巴乔夫（顺说，此人现在还活着）领导的政治及经济的改革，苏联内部的民主党开始扩张。从那以后，苏联的对于其成员国的审查控制开始戏剧性的下降。而且结果就是在1988年时，亚美尼亚-阿塞拜疆战争所长期遗留下来的问题开始再一次在此地区引发军事暴动，而这一次他们的聚焦点是卡拉巴赫。在1990年亚美尼亚公开宣布独立，直到1991年，阿塞拜疆在苏联正式宣告解体之前的几天宣布了独立。[1]-[3]地区之间的紧张的局势开始恶化。针对甘扎萨尔修道院的的轰炸发生在1991年的秋天，就像我的上篇介绍说过，在电影《爱着这里》中有所提及。

In 1992, clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan turned into a full-scale war (known as the Nagorno-Karabahk War). The war ended with Armenia controlling a large portion of Karabakh in 1994, but the situation was far from any real peace. Small regional clashes have occurred frequently ever since. Therefore, it is not hard to understand, why Will (Ben Foster’s role) has such a difficult time entering Karabahk and the topic of spies keeps coming up.

在1992年，亚美尼亚与阿塞拜疆之间的冲突演化成了全面战争（即纳戈尔诺-卡拉巴赫战争）。这一战争在1994年以亚美尼亚掌控了卡拉巴赫的大部分地区为结尾，但是其结果远不止表面的和平。自那之后局部区域的矛盾冲突不断出现。因此也不难理解为什么Will（Ben Foster饰演）在卡拉巴赫地区受到了重重阻碍而且关于间谍的话题��在不断出现了。

The most recent of the clashes (known as the Four Day War) actually happened earlier this year [6]. Here is a figure showing the new location and border of the three countries.

最近的一次冲突（即四日战争）就出现在今年的上半年[6]。这里有一张图片展示了这三个国家最新的位置及边界。

Figure 2. The location and region of Karabakh today. [7] NKR stands for Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which is referred as Karabakh here. The light colored area is controlled by Karabakh and Armenia, and the orange labeled area is controlled by Azerbaijan but claimed by Karabakh [7].

图2.现如今拉卡巴赫的位置及范围。[7]NKE为纳戈尔诺-卡拉巴赫共和国，也就是我们所说的卡拉巴赫。亮色区域归卡拉巴赫和亚美尼亚管理，而卡拉巴赫声称由橙色标记的区域由阿塞拜疆管理。

5. The people

5.人民

People in Armenia have suffered.

亚美尼亚人民仍在受难。

Armenia has a long history of massacres, mass exiles, and religious strife. [2]. However, I will stay away from these depressing details. Rather, let us first focus on a town named Jermuk. At 38min 27s of the movie, Will and Gadarine (the female lead) enter Jermuk (Figure 3), where Gadarine’s parents live. Gadarine says “in Soviet time, this was a big spry”.

亚美尼亚有着很长的屠杀，大规模流放和宗教争执史。[2] 然而我会避过不谈这些让人压抑的细节。反之，让我们先来看一下一个叫做杰尔穆克的小镇。在电影的第38分27秒，Will和Gadarine（女主角）进入了杰尔穆克（如图3），也就是Gadarine的父母居住的地方，Gadarine说“在苏维埃时期，这里曾经是一个充满生气的地方。”

Figure 3. Still frame from the movie “Here”. [5] They are entering a city named "Jermuk", as shown on the sign near the road.

图3. 同样来自于电影《爱在这里》的截图。[5]他们正在进图一个叫做杰尔穆克的城市，名字写在路旁的路标上。

Jermuk is located very close to the border between Armenia and Karabakh (Figure 4). It is known for its mineral springs. The families of kings started to build pools there about one thousand years ago [8]. In Figure 5, you can see the beautiful forest and spring in Jermuk.

杰尔穆克非常临近亚美尼亚和卡拉巴赫的边境（如图4.）。因它的矿泉出名。大概1000年前，国王家族开始在这里建造池塘。在图5中，你可以看到杰尔穆克非常漂亮的森林和泉水。

Figure 4. Location of Jermuk. The border to the east of Jermuk separates Karabakh from Armenia. [8]

图4. 杰尔穆克的位置。杰尔穆克东部的边境将卡拉巴赫和亚美尼亚分割开来。[8]

Figure 5. Nice land views of Jermuk [9]. From the top left: skyline view of Jermuk skyline, Arpa River, Spa resorts, Jermuk Forest Sanctuary.

图5. 杰尔穆克美丽的风景[9]. 从左上起：杰尔穆克的地平线景观，阿尔帕河，温泉疗养度假村，杰尔穆克森林保护区。

During the 1940s, the development programs of the SU decided to turn Jermuk into a modern resort tour spot for all Soviet nationals [8]. The order was implemented effectively. Roads, bridges and resorts were constructed and soon put into frequent usage. In the movie, we saw them driving on a bridge with a clear view of a tall building (Figure 6). The bridge is right above Arpa River (Figure 5 upper right) and it was completed in 1972. Figure 7 shows a full view of the bridge. The building is Gladzor Spa Resort, which was also built during the SU, and seems to still have on-going business.

在整个20世纪40年代，苏联曾决定将杰尔穆克打造成一个面向所有苏维埃侨民的现代度假胜地[8]。这一指令很快就实施了。道路，桥梁和度假村很快就建立了起来并投入了使用。在电影当中，我们看到他们在桥上开着车，可以很清楚的看到高高的建筑物（如图6）。这座桥就位于阿尔帕河之上（如图5右上角），建成于1972年。图7展示了这座桥的全貌。这个建筑是格拉索温泉疗养度假村，同样是苏联时期建成，而且看起来它仍在营业。

Figure 6. Still frame from “Here”. [5]

图6. 截自电影《爱在这里》。[5]

Figure 7. Bridge on the Arpa River. It is the same bridge Will and Gadarine drive on, as shown in Figure 6. [10]

图7. 阿帕尔河上的桥，就是Will和Gadarine开过的那座桥，如图6所示。[10]

Tourism is a difficult thing to have. It requires peace and a reliable economy, both of which Armenia soon lost. Together with the collapse of the SU and the start of endless clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan, economic crisis took place in Armenia during the 1990s. As a result, within less than a decade, the population in Jermuk dropped from 10000 to 7000 [9].

旅游业是一项难以发展的产业。它要求地区和平而且有可靠地经济做支撑，而这两项都是亚美尼亚很快就失去了的。随着苏联的倒台和亚美尼亚及阿塞拜疆之间无止境的纷争的开始，20世纪90年代，亚美尼亚出现了经济危机。而其导致的结果就是在不到十年的时间里，杰尔穆克的人口从10000人下降到了7000人[9]。

In contrast to the resort businesses going downhill after the collapse of the SU, was the rapid growth of the casino business. The SU banned gambling and lottery for almost the whole middle of the 20th century [11], but in the last few years of SU times, the government leaders gave in, unable to refuse the huge revenue made possible by gambling as simple as slot machines [12]. Soon, with the SU’s laws out of the game in 1991, the casino business in Eastern Europe exploded [13]. People of all types, poor or rich, at war or in peace, are willing to try their luck (and, statistically speaking, fail afterwards). I could not find evidence showing the casino business was influenced much by various wars in Armenia. If you see any related information, please let me know. Figure 8 shows one casino advertisement in the movie.

与随着苏联解体而导致的旅游度假产业的不断倒退形成对比的是赌博行业的飞速发展。在几乎整个20世纪中期，苏联都禁止赌博和彩票行业，但是在苏联的最后几年中，政府领导让步了，无法拒绝类似于简单地老虎机[12]就能带来的庞大税收。很快，随着苏联在1991年开放了赌博游戏的法律，赌场开始在东欧地区蓬勃发展[13]。各种人们，穷人或者有钱人，处在战争中的或出于和平的，都愿意来碰碰运气（而且，统计学表明，他们最后都输了）。我找不到赌场行业受到亚美尼亚多次战争的影响的证据。如果你看到了任何相关信息，请分享给我。图8是电影当中赌场的广告。

Figure 8. Still frame from “Here” for the Senator Casino. [5] This casino is real and popular.

图8. 截取自电影《爱在这里》，塞纳托尔赌场的广告。[5]这个赌场是真的而且还很受欢迎。

Now back to Jermuk. Starting 2000, the Armenia government decided to further develop Jermuk for its spa businesses, but not all families have benefited equivalently from this decision [9]. In the movie, we saw Gadarine’s family was not necessarily in a great shape. Her brother even complained that “father had to be thankful for a job cleaning up after the children of those people”, and that “they treated him like a dog at the school you went to!” [5]

现在回到杰尔穆克。从2000年期，亚美尼亚政府决定进一步发展杰尔穆克的温泉行业，但是并不是所有的家族都能平等地从这个决定中获利[9]。在电影中，我们看到Gadarine的家族并没有从中得到好处。他的哥哥甚至哭诉“爸爸甚至要为得到一份为那些人的孩子们做清洁的工作而心存感激”，以及“在你原来上学的学校，他们像对待狗一样的对待他！”[5]

The father is a hotel owner, but why is life still difficult for them? Lack of visitors to the region because of local tension is definitely one reason. Another reason I could find deals with the corruption issues of Armenia government. This reason actually would explain why the brother accused “the children of those people”. You can even find a Wikipedia paged named “Corruption in Armenia”, so it is quite an issue there [14]. For example, “eminent domain” can put the basic rights of business owners at a big risk. These are only guesses, and I don’t have a definite explanation for the situation shown in the movie.

这位父亲是一个旅馆的老板，但是为什么生活对于他们来说仍旧如此艰辛呢？因局势紧张而缺乏来此地区的游客绝对是一个原因。另一个我能找到的原因与亚美尼亚政府的贪污现象有关。这个愿意实际上也解释了为什么女主的哥哥控诉“那些人的孩子们”。你甚至可以在维基百科中找到专门的一项“亚美尼亚的贪污”，可以看出这是当地的一大问题[14]。举个栗子，“徒弟征用权”可以将商人们的基本权利置于极大的风险之中。这里只是猜测，我并没有任何确切的解释来解释电影当中所展现出来的这一现象。

That was about all details inspired by this movie that I could dig out, so here I end the first Blog of this series. I hope we all learned something from it See you in the next blog.

这就是我所能从电影中所挖掘出来的所有的细节啦，到此为止也就是这个系列的第一篇文章的完结。我希望我们都能从中学到点东西。下次文章见啦。

Of note：

小注：

The full name of the Soviet Union is the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, with official abbreviation USSR. The term “SU” used in this blog was only for my own

苏维埃联合国的全称是苏维埃社会主义共和国联盟，官方缩写是USSR。文章中所用的缩写是我为行文方便自创的。

Many thanks to the members of the translation group for Ben Foster [14], especially to those who contributed to the translation of “Here”. Sincere thanks to 格兰芬多某学生’s translation of my writing, and thanks to my husband for proof reading.

小记：

非常感谢Ben Foster字幕组的成员们，尤其是那些参与《爱在这里》翻译的成员。真诚的感谢格兰芬多某学生对我的写作的翻译，同样也非常感谢我丈夫的校对。

Reference:

1. Accessed 08/08/2016, VPN needed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia

2. Accessed 08/08/2016, VPN needed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia%E2%80%93Azerbaijan_relations

3. Accessed 08/08/2016, VPN needed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagorno-Karabakh_War

4. Accessed 08/08/2016, VPN needed. https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%BA%B3%E6%88%88%E5%B0%94%E8%AF%BA-%E5%8D%A1%E6%8B%89%E5%B7%B4%E8%B5%AB%E6%88%98%E4%BA%89

5. Accessed 08/09/2016, http://www.bilibili.com/video/av5370641/

6. Accessed 08/08/2016, VPN needed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Armenian%E2%80%93Azerbaijani_clashes

7. Accessed 08/08/2016, VPN needed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Armenian%E2%80%93Azerbaijani_clashes

8. http://www.weather-forecast.com/locations/Jermuk

9. Accessed 08/10/2016, VPN needed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jermuk

10. http://mostotrest.ru/en/press-centre/photoarchive/29/326/

11. Accessed 08/10/2016, VPN needed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambling_in_Russia

12. http://www.moneyslots.net/slots-articles/gambling-in-russia-ussr-1970-1991/

13. http://www.worldcasinodirectory.com/easteurope-casinos.asp

14. Accessed 08/10/2016, VPN needed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_Armenia

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08/10/16

2016年8月10日

English by Notamage (Or simply: Mage)

英文来自：后悔没练过法师号（或者简称：法师号）

Chinese by 格兰芬多某学生.

中文翻译来自：格兰芬多某学生

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yexirong · 5 years

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Armenian Stone Crosses in Gandzasar Monastery

Some researches about the movie HERE, translating by me with the writer’s approval to post.

Armenian Stone Crosses in Gandzasar Monastery

----Blog 1 in the “one morning one sentence” series (Part 1 of 2)

甘扎萨尔修道院的亚美尼亚十字碑

----一句英语耗掉一个清晨系列之一（上部）

“These stone crosses were hold after the bombardment of Azeris, after this war that you know about. ”

这些十字碑在阿塞拜疆的轰炸下幸存，就是那场你们都知道的战争。

In the 2011 movie “Here” (running time ~1hr 26min) [1], when Gadarine, the female lead, goes on a tour of a monastery, you might barely (or not at all) hear a tour guide talking in the background. Yet, out translation team put together two lines of conversation about stone crosses, and his talking triggered my OCD to search for more information.

在2001年的电影《这里》的一小时二十六分钟是，当，也就是女主角，参加了一个修道院的观光是，你可能很难（或者根本没有）听到一位导游在背景里说的话。但是我们的字幕组还是整理了两行关于十字碑的对话，而这些话引发了我的强迫症去搜集更多的相关资料。

In this post, I will cover three topics: the monastery at Gandzasar where those stone crosses mentioned in the movie are located at, what are Armenian stone crosses, and the most recent time when historical sites in Gandzasa were in danger.

在这一期里，我会谈论三个话题：电影里提到过的那个在有十字碑的甘扎萨尔修道院的位置，什么是亚美尼亚十字碑以及最近一段时间甘扎萨尔的那些历史名胜景点所面临的危险。

1. Monastery at Gandzasar

1、甘扎萨尔修道院

Gandzasar means “the treasure mountain” in Armenian. The movie aims to show the monastery as ancient and faded, matching a low point in the storyline, so the scene was shot on a cloudy day with the faded wall and the mold growing on it in clear view (Figure 1).

甘扎萨尔在亚美尼亚语中意思是“珍贵的时刻”。这部电影的目的在于展示古老，败落的修道院，配合了故事情节的低潮期，所以那一幕看上去是在一个阴天拍摄的，配合着褪色的墙壁何在清晰的视野中不断生长的青苔。（如图1）

Figure 1. Still frame from the movie “Here”. [1]

图片1 截自电影《这里》。

However, as a relatively famous tour spot, the monastery is not as depressing as it seems in the movie. Figure 2 is a picture of this monastery from Wikipedia. Its beauty under sunshine is absolutely stunning.

然而，作为一个相对著名的旅游景点，修道院并没有像电影里面看上去的那样令人压抑。图片2是来自维基百科的一张关于这个修道院的图。在阳光下它看起来美极了。

Figure 2. Monastery at Gandzasar from Wikipedia [2]

图2. 甘扎萨尔修道院，图片来自维基百科

The monastery was built to honor John the Baptist, starting in 1216, under the patronage of an Armenian prince [1]. The year of 1216 was also the ninth year of the Jiading period of the Song Dynasty in Chinese history, the year when Henry III became king of England, and the same year when Genghis Khan decided to start the ancient Mongolian "western conquering" [2]. The monastery was consecrated in 1240, estimated to be one year before Genghis Khan’s army reached the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia’s neighboring kingdoms and its own border [3]. This Kingdom had a history of being open, and it survived without Mongolian conquest for about a century by cooperating and intermarrying with its neighbors [4]. Although frequent warfare has occurred in the Armenian area since then, much of the medieval Armenian religion and art has survived.

修道院的建立是为了向施洗约翰表达尊敬之情，于1216年在当时亚美尼亚国王的赞助下开工[1]（亚美尼亚于1991年起独立成为总统制的共和国）。1216那一年也是中国宋朝的嘉定九年，同时是亨利三世在英国称王的时期，在同一年，成吉思汗决定开始古蒙古的“西征”[2]。修道院在1240年时作为供奉神的地方，也就是在大约成吉思汗的军队抵达西里西亚王国的邻国亚美尼亚王国，并把它化为己有的一年前。这个王国曾经有过对外非常开放的历史，并且依靠着与邻国的合作及通婚从古蒙古过的征服中存活了下来。尽管从那之后亚美尼亚地区战乱频繁，但是仍有大量的中世纪亚美尼亚宗教与艺术相关的东西幸免于难。

The Armenian kingdom (much larger than Armenia’s current border) was the first on earth to set Christianity as a state religion in 301 AD, establishing the Armenian Apostolic Church, which is one of the oldest Christian branches. This branch does not believe in Miaphysitism like most others do [5]. They also celebrate a different birthday for Jesus (Epiphany Day) on January the 6th, not December the 25th.

亚美尼亚王国（远大于现在的亚美尼亚的边境）在公元301年建立了世界上第一个基督教国家，建立了亚美尼亚使徒教会，而这是世界上最古老的基督教分支。这个分支并不像其他分支那样相信一性论的教派。他们也会庆祝耶稣的另一个生日（主显节），也就是在一月六号，而不是十二月二十五号。

Armenian churches have unique architectural features as well. You might have remembered from the movie, that Gadarine stares at a very narrow vertical window for quite a while (Figure 3). This window design is one of the common features in Armenian architecture. Among many other features are pointed domes, sculptural decoration of external walls, and heavy use of stones. You can find these reoccurring features in Armenian churches built at different time points in the last millennium.

亚美尼亚教堂同样有着独特的建筑特色。你也许记得在电影当中，Gadarine盯着一个非常狭窄的垂直型庄户看了很久（如图3）。这个窗户是亚美尼亚建筑的��色之一。在其他众多的特点皆为拱形穹顶，外墙上有大量的雕塑装饰以及大量的运用石头。你可以发现在上个世纪的不同年代这些特点都在亚美尼亚的教堂建筑中有所重现。

Figure 3. Still frame from the movie “Here”. [1] “The semi-circular tops of the narrow windows (one apiece on the northern, southern and western sides) is（are） ornamented with deep flutes culminating in a fan-shaped decor.” [7] (If you are interested in Gandzasar Monastery, I strongly recommend you to read the reference [7].)

图片3. 截图来自电影《这里》[1] “这个狭窄窗户的半圆形顶部（在北面在北面、南面和西面各有一个）由在扇形装饰的边缘深深地”（如果你对甘扎萨尔修道院感兴趣的话，我强烈推荐你去看这个参考文本。[7]）

2. Armenian Stone Crosses

2、亚美尼亚十字碑

Another Armenian art that has survived through time are the cross-stones, which are referred as “stone crosses” by the tour guide in the movie. They are also known as the “khachkar”. (I was hoping this word would somehow be pronounced like “Khadgar”… but it’s not.) In 2010, their symbolism and craftsmanship were added to the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage [8]. Figure 4 shows what some of the stones in Gandzasa Monastery look like.

另一个在时间的长河中幸存的亚美尼亚艺术品是十字碑，也就是电影当中提到的“刻有十字架的石头”。它们同样被称呼为“khachkar”（我曾经希望这个单词的发音类似于“卡德加”……但它并不是。）在2010年，他的象征意义以及工艺技术被联合国教科文组织添加到了非物质文化遗产名录当中[8]。图片4是一些甘扎萨尔修道院的十字碑的展示。

Figure 4. Armenian cross-stones in Gandzasa Monastery. [6]

图片4. 甘扎萨尔修道院的亚美尼亚十字碑。[6]

These stones are all very ancient. Like carved stones in other cultures, they were used to represent souls of the living or dead; celebrate war victories, or record of important constructions.

这些石头都非常古老。就像其他文化中的雕刻过的石头一样，他们曾经被用来代表生者或死者的灵魂、庆祝战争的胜利或者是那些重要建筑的剩余部分。

The cross, which carries the well-known Christian religious meaning, is usually the most obvious symbol and is located either simply in the middle, or centered at the gold ratio point close to the top of the stone. One can usually find leaves, grapes, and pomegranates surrounding the cross [8]. Remember Will (Ben Foster’s character) mentioned about seeing a pomegranate-yard during their hike? Pomegranates are the Armenian symbol of life. Armenians believe that each mature pomegranate has 365 seeds, representing each day of the year [9]. Similarly, in our own culture, the seeds of pomegranate symbolize fertility and can be found on blankets, bed nets, or anything being used by the wife (wives) of a family. On the more ancient cross-stones, I find it hard to recognize pomegranates, because they usually look more like a testicle than a kind of fruit.

这个背负着广为人知的基督教宗教意义的十字架通常是最显著的标志，而且要么位于正中央，要么是位于石头顶部的黄金分割点的中央。而且一般可以看到十字架由叶子，葡萄和石榴包围着。还记得Will（由Ben Forster饰演）提到过的关于他们在远行途中看到过一个石榴园吗？石榴在亚美尼亚是生命的象征。亚美尼亚人相信每一个成熟的石榴有365颗种子，分别代表着一年当中的每一天。相似的，在我们自己的文化当中，石榴种子象征着香火旺盛，在被子，床单以及其他女性用品上我们都可以找到它。我发现在更加古老的十字碑上很难区分出来石榴，因为它们通常看起来更像是睾丸而不是某种水果。

For example, Figure 5 is an enlarged view of the stone at the most right, and you can find four pomegranates pointing towards the center of the cross. (Please do correct me if these four are not pomegranates, because this is only my guess.) The cross-stone in Figure 6 is also from the Gandzasar Monastery, and you can find two piles of grapes hanging from the top, pointing towards the horizontal line of the cross at each side respectively.

举个栗子来说，图5是一个石头右侧的放大图，而你可以发现四个石榴都指向了中间的十字架。（就算我看错了也请不要纠正我，因为这只是我的猜测。）图6的十字碑同样来自于甘扎萨尔修道院，而且你可以找到两挂挂在顶上葡萄，分别指都指向十字架的水平线。

Figure 5. Enlarged image of one khachkar at Gandzasar Monastery [6]

图5. 一个甘扎萨尔修道院的十字碑的放大图[6]。

Figure 6. A large 13th-century khachkar at Gandzasar Monastery [10]

图6 . 甘扎萨尔修道院里一个巨大的13世纪的十字碑[10]

3. The Danger

3. 修道院所面临的危险

Beside time and fungus, the stones face human danger as well. You might remember that in the movie, at the border of Nagorno-Karabakh (Figure 7) (Karabakh from here on), Ben Foster’s character has a difficult time negotiating with the soldiers. The tension is due to regional political conflicts, including frequent wars in the past several hundred years [11], up to the 1990s. I will try to cover a bit more on the recent wars and their background in the second half of this blog, but here let us take a look at the dangers faced by the Gandzasar Monastery in particular, starting with “the bombardment of Azeri(s)” mentioned by the tour guide.

除了时间和真菌之外，这些石头同样面临着来自人类的威胁。你也许记得在电影当中，在纳戈尔诺-卡拉巴赫（阿塞拜疆共和国自治州）的边境（如图7卡拉巴赫的位置），Ben Foster饰演的角色在与士兵们的谈判中有一段非常艰难的时期。其中的压力来源于当地的政治矛盾，包括在过去几百年中频繁爆发的战争，一直持续到二十世纪九十年代。我会争取在文章剩余的后半部分尽量多说一些近期的战争和它们的背景，但是在这请允许我们先看一下甘扎萨尔修道院所面临的危险，从由（电影中的）导游提出的“阿塞拜疆的轰炸”开始。

Figure 7. The location of Karabakh on a world map. Armenia is adjacent to its west and Azerbaijani to its east. [11]

图7. 世界地图上卡拉巴赫的位置。亚美尼亚在它的西边而阿塞拜疆在它的东边。

In the autumn of 1991, Azerbaijani bombed Karabakh, while peace mediating teams from surrounding countries and political powers were working hard towards a peace agreement. The bombardment undoubtedly ruined the potential for peace in Karabakh. During the bombardment, one Father Superior’s house inside of the Gandzasar Monastery was destroyed. An unexploded bomb was later found at the north area (Figure 8) near the wall. As far as I could tell, that is the same wall as where all the cross-stones are located.

在1991年的秋天，阿塞拜疆哄着了卡拉巴赫，就在周边国家都在达成和平调停，各方政治力量都在致力于达成和平契约的时候。这场轰炸毋庸置疑的摧毁了卡拉巴赫达成和平的可能性。在轰炸期间，一位修道院院长位于甘扎萨尔修道院所内的房屋被炸毁了。一段时间后一颗未引爆的炸弹在北边靠近墙的地方被找到了。我可以说的是，那就是所有的十字碑所在的那堵墙。

Figure 8. The unexploded bomb at Gandzasar [12]

The walls in Gandzasar Monastery and many other Armenian churches survived the bombing, but they are now facing an “improvement”, which may just be equivalently dangerous. Well-funded businessmen from Russia and Karabakh have invested millions of dollars for the tiling of the monastic complex walls (Figure 9). This “facelift” project has drawn wide public controversy. From young activists on Facebook to the head of the government Tourism Department, people have argued the rebuilding of war-torn Karabakh is destroying historical and cultural values, as well as violating rules of UNESCO and leaving the current heritage certifications of those historical sites in question [13]. However, there are also people who work for the churches, and believe that the main value of the monasteries relies on their inner culture, not on the decoration, and therefore the tiling should not be a huge concern. They also pointed out that the current walls were not genuine either, due to the multiple reconstructions throughout Armenian history. The group directing the tiling project has told media that unless the wall (which has already survived bombing, time, and fungus for hundreds years) is fortified, it will collapse soon [13]. According to the media, this project should have been finished two or three years ago, but I cannot find images of what the monastery looks like now. If you have recently visited the area, please let us know more about the changes.

甘扎萨尔修道院的那些墙和其他大量的亚美尼亚教堂从爆炸中幸存了下来，但是它们现在面临着一个所谓“改善”，而这可能和爆炸一样危险。来自俄罗斯和卡拉巴赫的有钱的商人已经在往修道院复杂的墙上贴瓷砖投资了数百万美金（如图9）。这场“整容手术”项目已经引发了广泛的社会讨论。从脸书上那些年轻的积极分子到政府旅游局的领导，人们对修复卡拉巴赫战争区的修复会破坏历史及文化价值争论不休，不仅违背了联合国教科文组织的规定，而且还将把现存的名胜古迹的遗产认证留在一堆疑问里。而然，还有一些为教堂工作的人相信，修道院的核心价值存在于他们的内部文化当中，而不是在着谢装饰品中，因此哪些瓷砖并不是一个大问题。他们还指出，因为亚美尼亚历史上多次对墙体的修复，这些墙也并非最原始的。领导贴瓷砖项目的团队和媒体说，除非这堵墙（一堵已经从爆炸、时间和真菌中幸存了几百年的呛）被加强了，不然的话他很快就会坍塌的[13]。根据媒体的说法，这一项目应该在两到三年前就结束了，但是我未能找到现在的修道院的图片。如果你们近期参观过这一区域，请告诉我们那里发生的变化。

Figure 9. Gandzasar Facelift: Vandalism or Restoration? [13]

图9. 甘扎萨尔整形手术：破坏还是修复？[13]

I will pause this first Blog here, and continue the second half next week. The focus of the second half will be more about the regional tension between Armenia, Karabakh and Azerbaijan, and also about how the Soviet collapse influenced this area and the people, just as was referenced in the movie.

这篇文章就暂时写到这里，剩下的一半下周继续。剩余的一半将聚焦于更多亚美尼亚、卡拉巴赫和阿塞拜疆现存的压力，同时也会说到电影中提到的苏维埃政权的垮台对这一区域及人民带来的影响。

Of note：

Many thanks to the members of the translation group for Ben Foster [14], especially to those contributed to the translation of “Here”. Sincere thanks to 格兰芬多某学生’s translation of my writing, and thanks to my husband for proof reading.

小记：

非常非常感谢Ben Foster字幕组的成员们，尤其是那些对翻译《这里》有所贡献的成员。真诚的感谢格兰芬多某学生对我的写作的翻译，同样也非常感谢我丈夫的校对。

References:

[1] Bilibili link to the movie “Here”: http://www.bilibili.com/video/av5370641/

[2] Accessed on July 29th, 2016. (VPN needed)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandzasar_monastery

[3] Xiaodan Chen (2013). 中国历史博览第四卷. 青苹果数据中心出版

[4] Lococo, Paul (2008). Genghis Khan: History's Greatest Empire Builder. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books.

[5] Accessed on July 29th, 2016. (VPN needed)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Apostolic_Church

[6] Accessed on July 29th, 2016.

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/30130824

[7] Accessed on July 29th, 2016. (VPN needed)

http://www.armeniapedia.org/wiki/Gandzasar_Monastery

[8] Accessed on July 29th, 2016. (VPN needed)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khachkar

[9] Accessed on July 29th, 2016.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/507851295462077483/?from_navigate=true

[10] Accessed on July 29th, 2016. (VPN needed)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khachkar#Endangered_khachkars

[11] Accessed on July 29th, 2016. (VPN needed)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagorno-Karabakh_Republic

[12] Accessed on July 29th, 2016. (VPN needed)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Gandzasar

[13] Accessed on July 29th, 2016.

https://www.armenianow.com/arts_and_culture/31002/gandzasar_karabakh_church_fence_tiling_controversy

[14] 大头要红本福字幕组http://weibo.com/u/5973779194?refer_flag=1005055013_

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Want to learn more about this series? Please refer to:

http://sagopalm.lofter.com/post/1e422858_bcbc7fa

#movie here #Armenian Stone Crosses in Gandzasar Monastery

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