ALMA Posted February 25, 2008 Report Share Posted February 25, 2008 It’s hard not to go to a country from the former Soviet bloc without a James Bond moment. I had a perfect one on arrival at Yerevan Airport – a pleasing concrete flying saucer of a building. A police officer kept starring at me. Perhaps I should have been a tad more nervous but, despite the severe green serge uniform and over-large Soviet style peaked cup, her pointed stilettos were oddly attractive, Well perhaps not oddly at all. Anyway, Armenia. Some of the nicest and most hospitable people you could ever wish to meet-and one of the poorest countries you could ever expect to find, certainly in Europe. Not that capital Yerevan lacks modern hotels and fin bars and restaurants. But out in the country, times are obviously hard. Churched out. A lot of that may be the legacy of Soviet times, where beauty does not seem to have been consideration. There are lots of unfinished concrete structures on a massive scale blotting the landscape. But there is also quite a few medieval churches-40,000 ancient churches and monuments in fact- beautiful for their remote settings and simplicity, if not for their stripped interiors. After visiting Ethiopia last year, and now Armenia, I don’t think I need to see an old church again for at least a good decade. Armenia was the first country in the world to embrace Christianity, a fact o which it is pretty proud. This isn’t the place to go into that history, but Yerevan’s Matenadaran or manuscript museum will give you an inkling. Some 12,000 ancient manuscripts hark back to the glorious days when the Armenian kingdom stretched from the Caspian to the Black Sea. I’ll drink to that. Now it covers and area fraction of that size and a conflict between Azerbaijan and Karabagh stutters on its borders. A ceasefire has held for ten years, but there is no peace deal yet. Yerevan’s Ararat distillery, which makes the cognac that was Winston Churchill’s favourite- and that the British PM was supplied with throughout World War 2- holds a vat ready to be breached on the day the treaty is signed. You can add your name to the autographs from all around the world that ask for peace – not just in this region. Well who’s against world peace? The bad guys in Armenian terms, are the turks who were responsible for the death of 1.5 million in 1915 – a genocidal campaign still yet to be acknowledged by our Nato partners in their capital Ankara. Hitler is said to have launched his better known Holocaust by asking; “Who remembers the extermination of the Armenians?” Fair point. The Holocaust memorial is another mass of concrete, moving in its simplicity and with an eternal flame essential for any understanding of the soul of this country but also worth a visit for the view of Yerevan. The site is dominated by a massive statue of Mother Armenia, replacing an earlier one of Lenin. Times have changed. Groaning with food. One thing that seems in no danger of falling out of favour in Armenia is eating. “Is this second breakfast, or first pre-lunch?” becoming a joking refrain during my trap. The country’s poverty belies – as it often does – the generosity of its people. I’d sit down to a table groaning with food, eat my way through a massive plate of cheese, bread, vegetables and chicken, then realise I’d just finished my starter. If I was lucky. Sometimes that was just the pre-starter. Yerevan enjoys a busy nightlife, with a sophisticated café culture. A slew of casinos has just been moved to the outskirts of the city near the airport, but there is still an abundance of bars and clubs. Crime seems practically non-existent, with the biggest hazard facing visitors being potholes hidden by incomplete roadwork. There’s also the hazard of cheap vodka, which I realised I had succumbed to when I heard myself enthusiastically singing in Russian in a karaoke bar. I didn’t know I know I spoke Russian, but there you go. I wasn’t actually as surprised by that as by the fact that I didn’t know I could sing either. When I started singing in Armenian – one of the oddest languages I’ve ever heard I realised it was probably time for bed. December 2000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVO Posted February 25, 2008 Report Share Posted February 25, 2008 Nice find. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALMA Posted February 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2008 Nice find. Yes, though I thought more could be added and there was a bit of exaggeration when it comes to poverty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gamavor Posted February 26, 2008 Report Share Posted February 26, 2008 It’s hard not to go to a country from the former Soviet bloc without a James Bond moment. I had a perfect one on arrival at Yerevan Airport – a pleasing concrete flying saucer of a building. A police officer kept starring at me. Perhaps I should have been a tad more nervous but, despite the severe green serge uniform and over-large Soviet style peaked cup, her pointed stilettos were oddly attractive, Well perhaps not oddly at all. Anyway, Armenia. Some of the nicest and most hospitable people you could ever wish to meet-and one of the poorest countries you could ever expect to find, certainly in Europe. Not that capital Yerevan lacks modern hotels and fin bars and restaurants. But out in the country, times are obviously hard. I stopped reading somewhere here.... I know already what he is going to say. Blah,blah, blah...soviet autocracy, poor, underdeveloped, nice churches.. Every westerner that I met has some kind of obsession when visiting a country belonging to the former Soviet block. I laugh inside hard at them... As if, they are trying to compensate for something that they have missed. Firstly, I do not exactly know what is wrong with being poor. We have not robbed anybody unlike our neighbors and the "civilized Europeans", who robed the rest of the world for centuries. However, NO! If you ask them...it is not because they robed anybody! It is because they are Competitive!!! In Crime? Secondly, Armenia is NOT in EUROPE! Learn some basic geography MORONS! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALMA Posted February 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2008 I stopped reading somewhere here.... I know already what he is going to say. Blah,blah, blah...soviet autocracy, poor, underdeveloped, nice churches.. Every westerner that I met has some kind of obsession when visiting a country belonging to the former Soviet block. I laugh inside hard at them... As if, they are trying to compensate for something that they have missed. Firstly, I do not exactly know what is wrong with being poor. We have not robbed anybody unlike our neighbors and the "civilized Europeans", who robed the rest of the world for centuries. However, NO! If you ask them...it is not because they robed anybody! It is because they are Competitive!!! In Crime? Secondly, Armenia is NOT in EUROPE! Learn some basic geography MORONS! Wow, someone is angry I thought he has made some good and true point (hospitable people, generous, etc) but I think we have such a great history that he should have mentioned about in stead of saying that Armenia isn't the place to go into that history, I wonder what he was thinking of And regarding poverty, it again makes me wonder what exactly he has seen, or maybe hasn’t seen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vera Posted December 16, 2009 Report Share Posted December 16, 2009 QUOTE Secondly, Armenia is NOT in EUROPE! Learn some basic geography MORONS! This question can be argued both ways. Often it is left to pick whichever you'd like to be true. A lot of of pick Europe... Far too many reputable maps have listed Armenia (and the entire Caucasus) as part of Europe. The last nation to want to reject this tendency, it would seem, should be Armenia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunt Posted January 5, 2010 Report Share Posted January 5, 2010 Marquis de Sade has some interesting things to say about Armenians. Apparently our ancestors conducted themselves in a sadistic manner, hahaha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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