After a couple of days of rain, the sun finally reappeared.
Due to work, I�ve been going to Stepanagert almost every day and though the ride is long, my Mercedes has made the ride much more enjoyable.
As Raffi mentioned in his log about him not being able to picture me driving a Mercedes in Artsakh, even I�m having problems getting use to it. I say this as my car does not really match my personality. This is a car that people here connect to power, mafia and corruption.
I�ve been told that my Mercedes brings back memories of some very nasty people of our past and a time when people were living in fear. I wont get into the history of my car and its former owner, but will say it was once owned and driven by one of those people that many feared and showed a great deal of �respect� for at the same time.
One thing that is apparent, people stop and look to see who is sitting behind the blackened windows of my car. I even had one guy in a car coming in the opposite direction of me, bring his car to a total stop in the middle of an intersection to look long and hard to see who was behind the wheel. I�m not sure if the look on his face was one of seeing who is driving his friends car or if he was looking to see if it was the former owner himself, who maybe he had a need to interact with.
I�m sure when people see my car, they remember the former Prime Minister Leonard Pedrosyan�s �$170,000� Mercedes 600SEL and assume this is one of those $100,000+ cars. Little do they know (though word is spreading) that this car cost me half the price of what a new Russian made Fiat costs.
One other observation. My Mercedes is the only one of its kind on the streets of Artsakh these days. It seems that even the President no longer drives around in his Mercedes. Maybe it uses too much gas or send out the wrong message.
Due to work, I�ve been going to Stepanagert almost every day and though the ride is long, my Mercedes has made the ride much more enjoyable.
As Raffi mentioned in his log about him not being able to picture me driving a Mercedes in Artsakh, even I�m having problems getting use to it. I say this as my car does not really match my personality. This is a car that people here connect to power, mafia and corruption.
I�ve been told that my Mercedes brings back memories of some very nasty people of our past and a time when people were living in fear. I wont get into the history of my car and its former owner, but will say it was once owned and driven by one of those people that many feared and showed a great deal of �respect� for at the same time.
One thing that is apparent, people stop and look to see who is sitting behind the blackened windows of my car. I even had one guy in a car coming in the opposite direction of me, bring his car to a total stop in the middle of an intersection to look long and hard to see who was behind the wheel. I�m not sure if the look on his face was one of seeing who is driving his friends car or if he was looking to see if it was the former owner himself, who maybe he had a need to interact with.
I�m sure when people see my car, they remember the former Prime Minister Leonard Pedrosyan�s �$170,000� Mercedes 600SEL and assume this is one of those $100,000+ cars. Little do they know (though word is spreading) that this car cost me half the price of what a new Russian made Fiat costs.
One other observation. My Mercedes is the only one of its kind on the streets of Artsakh these days. It seems that even the President no longer drives around in his Mercedes. Maybe it uses too much gas or send out the wrong message.
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