Stephen M. Bland 

Vardan Mamikonain Poghots, the road to the bazaar in the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh

Under the bridge on Kamo Poghots

Babushka at the Shuka (Market)

Wedding party

One of the biggest employers in Karabakh, at 7 AM on Monday morning, the 210 strong staff of the HALO Trust gather at their compound in Stepanakert.

With Vera Grigoryan and cohorts at the Union of Relatives of Artsakh War Missing in Action Soldiers

Fog descends over the mountainous, heavily mined Lachin Corridor.

"We Are Our Mountains" monument, symbol of Nagorno-Karabakh

Renovated at a cost of millions of dollars, the sole airport in Nagorno-Karabakh has not seen a flight since 1992, as Azerbaijan has declared it will shoot down any planes. Inside, TV screens were on, a luggage carousel rotated and a single, glum attendant stood by an empty departures board.

The tank monument outside of Shushi, a popular place for parents to bring their children.

Once home to 45,000, Shushi now has a population of under 4,000. Many live in semi-derelict buildings such as this war-ravaged husk

Babushka at a semi-derelict mosque

Nifty solution for derelict buildings bombed out in the war; paint scenes of shops in the windows

Soviet war memorial, bullet ridden face where the sign reads 'victory'

Soviet memorial to the Great War

Once home to 150,000 & the third biggest city in Azerbaijan, now the town of Agdam is utterly derelict. We got in and out a day before heavy fighting broke out on the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh/Azerbaijan border. Fifteen were reported killed.

Burnt-out vehicle, one of many. Only a single building remains standing. Even the militia are housed in a semi-derelict

Rebuilt to the design of native son made good, Levon Haieapetian, the town of Vank features a hotel supposed to resemble the Titanic. A week before I arrived the shortly after the lumber baron was arrested in one of Putin's purges, purportedly over a dodgy oil deal

A wall of number plates taken from cars owned by Azerbaijanis when they fled the war.

Levon Hairapetyan's iconic lion cave.

A favoured hangout for local men after dark, by the gas station a camo-clad man sold knives which he'd hung from a tree.

Completed in 1266, Gandzasar is the Holy See of Nagorno-Karabakh

Graves of the war dead look out over the Mardakert District, their machine gun wielding likenesses etched on their headstones

Set high in the hills, the Dadivank Monastery dates back to the 9th Century.