Oleg Kushaty, Moscow-Gabala. Exclusively to VK
Vestnik Kavkaza presents new material by Oleg Kushaty within the project "Unknown Caucasus". He has recently visited not only Baku, but also mountainous regions.
The city in the north of Azerbaijan became well-known in Russia as the location of the radio-location station of the Daryal system. Russian journalists heading to Gabala are interested in the station built in 1985. After the dissolution of the USSR, the Gabala RLS became the property of Azerbaijan, but Moscow still considers it as a main element of the missile defense system of Russia. Moscow is renting the RLS.
I learnt about the station from the internet. In the city of Gabala there are few people who are interested in the theme of military-technical cooperation between two countries. Gabala residents are focused on the changes happening in their city. The RLS is the sphere of politics and military affairs, they think. Nevertheless, Gabala natives are friendly towards the military men working at the station.
I tried to take picture of the Gabala RLS from the city, but failed. On pictures the station is like a small dot in the mountains. Only those who have never been there speak about the station as a municipal facility. In fact, the station has little in common with Gabala.
It is unfair that Gabala is known only due to the RLS. Gabala is a rich and amazing page in the history of Azerbaijan. It is a city of the present and the future with an ancient past.
From Kutkashen to Gabala
Gabala is a place with a rich ancient history, but 10-12 years ago it wasn’t interesting for tourists. Before 1991 the city was called Kuktashen, and before the 1970s it was a village. In Soviet years the village’s life was brightened only by tourists in summer. However, this is a special page in Azerbaijan’s history. 15 km from the city there are ruins of the ancient capital of Caucasian Albania – Kabala – which appeared two thousand years ago. The history of Kabala is full of ups and downs. For archeologists and historians, the neighborhood of contemporary Gabala is a still an unread book of the rich past of Caucasian Albania.
The major natural beauty of the region is the mountain chain, the gorge of Mount Bazar-Yurt and the Tufan mountains. The Damiraparanchai River, on which Kutkashin appeared, begins in the southern slopes of the Great Caucasus Range. If you think that Azerbaijan is a mainly flat country, you should see the white peaks, rocky ranges and narrow gorges. The weather is different in different parts of the city: in the north it is rainy, in the south it is sunny. Gabala residents have become used to this whim of nature, but visitors are surprised. The authorities of the city decided to build a tourist cluster here.
It is no surprise that the Caucasus Mountains are perfect for tourism. But it is interesting to give an insight on how resort complexes were being created here in the recent, capitalist era. Everything was much simpler in the Soviet past, from the paperwork to the conditions that would make the tourists happy. For example, when the syndicates decided to develop mountain tourism in North Ossetia, the financing was opened right away, and the resort zone was built over with cheap cabins without any proper facilities. The same can be said about Ingushetia, Dagestan, Adygeya. Moscow bureaucrats decided to construct solid hotels only in Kabardino-Balkaria, but then it became clear that this Elbrus tourism complex was built for high-ranking guests from Moscow, not for the locals.
Today there’s a lot of talk about the ‘development of the North Caucasian tourist cluster’, but the process of this project’s realization remains unclear. Businessmen compile development plans, bureaucrats make statements about ‘the boost the tourism development would give to local socio-economic conditions’. Forums and conferences are being held, but despite all that the North Caucasian tourist cluster still exists only on paper.
In Azerbaijan, however, the creation of a new tourism center was conceived without any pompous statements or forums. I couldn’t understand how in only a few years Gabala got four 5-star hotels, a children’s entertainment center, a health resort, an Olympic center, a number of new factories, an international airport, a new bus hub… Since 2009, each summer Gabala hosts a music festival. Baku Musical Academy and conductor Dmitry Yablonsky organized the event, and musicians come to this contest not only from the ex-USSR republics, but from Europe, the US and Israel as well.
You could study the ‘Azerbaijani economic miracle’ on Gabala’s example: a provincial town turns into a European city in a few years. When President Ilham Aliyev came to Gabala in February 2010, he had to hold opening ceremonies for a dozen new important facilities of various purposes, from hotels to bus stations.
Beltmann factory tour
Johan Beltmann organized his piano factory in the Dutch town of Deventer in 1901. The factory was active till WWII, and when it re-opened in 1950, 32 people worked in it, and they produced 190 pianos a year. In 1983 the great-grandson of the factory’s founder moved it to South Germany and joined the «Beltmann» and «Berdax» brands. In 2002 the company wanted to open a production line in China, but it didn’t work out, so a project of opening a new factory in Azerbaijan and thus restoring the Beltmann Gilan Piano brand was created in 2009. It is interesting that only locals work in the Gabala factory.
The Beltmann Gilan Piano has contracts with 18 European partners: mechanical parts of the pianos come to Azerbaijan from Germany and Austria, the wool – from England, the strings – from Austria. A very special kind of wood is needed for the pianos, and it grows only in the Alps. But the cast-iron frames are produced in Azerbaijan. The revived Beltman products are in demand in Azerbaijan, Russia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and in some EU states.
I was able to talk to the deputy head of the Gabala administration and he told me that both tourists and locals win from the Gabala tourist cluster.
- I have the impression that the Gabala region is going to continue its development as a tourist center. Is that right?
- Yes, there are a lot of places of interest here. And we want them to be known not only here, but abroad as well. We want tourists to come here because it helps us create new jobs and increase the budget income. We have created 9,796 new jobs in a few years, and that’s a lot for an agrarian district. We have various ethnic groups living in our region, which is only 25km from Baku: Azerbaijanis, Russians, Lezgins, Udins (there are only 10,000 of them in the world, and 4,000 live in this region). But we have no inter-ethnic problems whatsoever. And we have all the necessary conditions now to greet guests from abroad. We have a lot of plans: a ski resort, golf club and so on.
- All these new facilities… how many years did it take?
- Only 10.
- So before Azerbaijan became independent it was a normal agrarian district?
- Yes, not all of its residents even had electricity or gas.
- How do you see the future of your region: tourism or industry?
- Tourism, of course. And it’s almost impossible to combine the two. We need good ecology. We have industry, but not to the extent that it starts damaging the environment.
- But what about the Gabala Radar station?
- I was born here and I can tell you, just like all my other compatriots, that it does no damage.
- Do the residents of the region still take up agriculture?
- Of course, especially now that the people own the land, and the climate and the soil give us good harvests.
- Do people often choose to leave the region?
- It was like that in the 1990s. But now the process is reversed. We have created a lot of new jobs and there are places for people with a higher education. This process started some 15 years ago.
