Caucasus Internet Crisis

We already know that infrastructure here in Azerbaijan isn’t that great.  And it’s not too much of a stretch to conclude that infrastructure problems persist beyond just Azerbaijan, into both Georgia and Armenia, fellow post-Soviet Caucasus republics (and most other post-Soviet republics?).  Therefore, it should be no surprise that a 75-year old woman from Georgia could sever a fiber optic cable providing internet to Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan:

Internet service in all of Armenia was cut off for several hours when a 75-year old Georgian woman inadvertently cut the main service line between the two countries.

The woman was scavenging for scrap metal when she discovered the primary fiber-optic cable which runs through the two countries. Service went down when she apparently hacked into it with a shovel severing the line, officials said.

“She found the cable while collecting scrap metal and cut it with a view to stealing it,” Georgian interior ministry spokesman Zura Gvenetadze told AFP.

The damage was apparently so severe that 90% of Armenian users lost access for nearly 12 hours while neighboring Georgia and some areas of Azerbajian were also affected.

We here in southern Azerbaijan seemed to be unaffected.  Both Eli’s house and my house, however, have been mired in gas outages and electricity problems.

One last thing we all should note is that it also shouldn’t come as a surprise that this elderly woman had the brawn to exact such damage on the buried wires.  Anyone who has been to the Caucasus should know that the hands of these aged women were raised with purpose, from kneading dough and gardening to chopping down trees and hand-washing clothes.  Digging a hole was probably no sweat.

Thanks to Steve for the news tip.