Friday, April 16, 2004

Yesterday morning (1 AM), I called Yerevan and learned that I was expected a meeting the following afternoon. I happened to be in Stepanagert at the time, so as to not loose time, I got in my car and drove.

As I was nearing Lachine, I came across an overturned fuel-truck. It was a 6 wheel drive army truck which had somehow hit the side of the mountain and flipped over on it’s back. Fortunately for the driver, passenger and the village that was within 100 meters of where the truck rested, it didn’t blow up, nor was the gasoline it was carrying spill.

The driver of the truck was covered in blood, but his injuries were I guess minor, as he was walking around the truck, holding his head in shock. His passenger was unhurt and said there was no need to take the driver to the hospital, but if I could hurry to the Lachine check-point and have them contact Stepanagert to send a crane to turn the truck over, that would be of help.

Since there was diesel that had spilled from the trucks fuel tank, they told me not to start my car engine as to not possibly ignite the spilled fuel.

We pushed my car passed the fuel and only after costing past a turn, did I start the car and drove on to the check-point.

I arrived in Yerevan at 8 AM, after resting couple of hours on the side Ararat plain highway.

After my meetings, which lasted most of the day and part of the night, I slept for 6 hours and then this morning headed back to Artsakh.

On my way out of Yerevan, I noticed that the check-points leading into the city were blocked and it looked very much like last week before the meeting they had a week ago. Also there were some check-points set up along the road leading to Karabagh, but they seemed to only be stopping cars heading in the direction of Yerevan. The last one I saw was in Vike and at that check-point, 2 of the police were carrying automatic rifles.

A later learned that there was a meeting in Yerevan, with attendees numbering maybe 500 people, who under the cover of umbrellas since it was raining, sang and marched from the Opera to the manuscript library.

BTW, the weather here is cold and damp. It’s raining right now. Also, my 7 puppies are doing great!!! They are less than a week old and very strong.

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