Nagorno-Karabakh opens a new hotel

Today, the city of Shushi, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), hosted a solemn opening ceremony of the new hotel "Avan-Shushi-Plaza", which was accommodated in the only high-rise building of the city.

The nine-storey building was erected in Soviet time and suffered a lot in the course of the Karabakh conflict. Within the last 15 years, the authorities of the NKR have several times attempted to restore the building, trying to repair it; however, they failed to restore it completely.

In April 2010, the construction and repair works were undertaken by natives of Armenia, now living in Los Angeles: Aikush Klegeidi, Alek Bagdasaryan, Nik Kanyan and Sheila Papayants. The NKR authorities gave them the building for the works; and the businessmen became co-owners of the "Avan-Shushi-Plaza".

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed by Sarkis Galstyan, acting director of the hotel, that the hotel was in operation for 24 days; it has 31 rooms and is able to accommodate 70 guests. "Our one-bed room costs 4500 drams (1 US dollar = 360 drams) per day; a two-bed room is twice as that accordingly," he said and added that the low rates will survive till spring of 2012.

Alek Bagdasaryan, a co-owner of the hotel and the chair of the joint-stock company "Avan-Ishkhan", said that all the revenues of the hotel will be directed at improvement of the city of Shushi.

In his turn, Yura Avanesyan, Deputy Mayor of Shusha, has noted that now the city operates three hotels. "We already see some revival and growth of flow of tourists. New workplaces are created," he said.