Prince Charles Goes to Armenia May 28, 2013 - 9:15am, by Giorgi Lomsad

[MosJan]

Prince Charles Goes to Armenia

 

May 28, 2013 - 9:15am, by Giorgi Lomsadze

• Tamada Tales
  
• Armenia
  

 

 

 

Prince Charles, the 64-year-old heir to the British throne, arrived in Armenia on May 28 in the first instance of British royalty gracing the ancient South Caucasus country with a visit.

His younger brother, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, tends to favor Armenia’s arch-enemy, energy-rich Azerbaijan, and enjoys hanging out with its president, Ilham Aliyev. So, now the two rivals -- the countries, not the brothers -- are evenly paired.

Granted, the Prince of Wales was traveling on private, charity business, but that didn't keep Armenian media from buzzing. Some ponder which Armenian specialties are worthy of the royal visitor; others see a connection between the visit and British interests in Armenian gold mines; while still others have made open-ended inquires about whether the visit's timing betrays a diplomatic gesture.

On May 28, Armenia marks the 95th anniversary of the First Republic, the independent Armenian state that existed briefly between the fall of Tsarist Russia and the rise of Bolshevik Russia.

 

 

Many Armenians believe that Great Britain dropped the ball in 1919 when it withdrew its troops from the region, and shares the responsibility for the 1920 Bolshevik conquest of their republic. In a country where, as elsewhere in the Caucasus, century-old events are often discussed as if they happened yesterday, that thought carries significance. Consequently, Prince Charles's arrival is partly seen as a compensatory gesture, the Lragir news service wrote.

But the prince himself is unlikely to reminisce about such doings. Though his visit has something to do with Armenian history, it is in a very different way.

The visit was facilitated by ex-Armenian Prime Minister Armen Sarkissian, director of the London-based Eurasia House, a non-profit focused on business development and education in Eurasia and beyond. Sarkissian is now on a mission to restore historic buildings in Yerevan and hopes that Prince Charles will throw his weight behind the project. The two men both helped restore a medieval castle in Scotland, RFE/RL reported.

And where Armenia and architecture go, Azerbaijan cannot be far behind.

The London-based European Azerbaijan Society, a promo and lobbying group close to the Azerbaijani government, requested that Prince Charles, while exploring Yerevan's architectural history, also take a look at old photos of the Azerbaijani mosques that it claims once adorned the city, and to spare a thought for the thousands of Azeris driven out of their homes during the 1988-1994 war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over breakaway Nagorno Karabakh.