Holiday in the Caucasus (16): more in and round Yerevan, Armenia
On the last day of our tour of the Caucasus, again there was much less travelling because we were either in or around Yerevan.
We made a late start of 9.30 am and drove around the city centre while Garik pointed out key locations such as the parliament building and the presidential palace.
Since we had been in Armenia, there had not been a morning or an afternoon when Garik had not mentioned the Armenian genocide and the loss of Armenian land to surrounding nations. All this sorrow and victimhood came to the fore as we visited the Genocide Museum and Memorial.
The massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire took place from 1915 to 1922 and the number of victims is estimated at 1.5 million. The museum has been compared to Israel’s Yad Vashem or Holocaust Museum which I have visited.
In the case of the Holocaust, few doubt that it was a genocide and Germany acknowledges culpability. But, in the case of the massacre of the Armenians, not all states (including Britain) formally recognise it as a genocide and Turkey vehemently denies that it was such a crime against humanity. The academic consensus, however, is that it was such tragedy.
The museum opened in 1995 and it is an impressive and moving presentation of the history and conduct of the genocide with some 50 sections arranged chronologically, each labelled in Armenian, Russian, English and French. We had a young female guide who set out the information calmly and persuasively. I was reminded of a recent film called “The Promise” which features the genocide as background to a love story.
The memorial was completed earlier in 1968 and consists of a tall, pointed edifice split in two to symbolise the current and lost provinces of Armenia and 12 huge tilted slabs set around an eternal flame of remembrance with a recording of a lament.
From here, we drove to the town of Vagharshapat which is the home of what is known informally as the Vatican of the Armenian Apostolic Church and is called formally the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. Before doing the holy bit, in the grounds of the complex, we found a restaurant, “Agate”, where we planned to have a drink and finished up having lunch sitting outside but in the shade.
Etchmiadzin may be a site of special spiritual significance but “The Lonely Planet” guide calls it “underwhelming” and the main cathedral – originally consecrated between AD 301-303 – was closed. What is more, the temperature was now 38.5C.
We headed back to Yerevan. First, we went on a tour of a brandy company called “Noy” (which is Armenian for Noah). This distillery originally began operation in 1887 and, following the break-up of the Soviet Union, it was reopened in 1999. We had samples of three products.
Finally, in the city centre, we were scheduled to visit the National History Museum in Freedom Square very close to our hotel. In fact, of the 14 in our group, 12 had set out this morning, only seven started on the guided tour of the museum, and a mere two of us were there at the end. I stuck it out for the displays of the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age because I wanted to see the section on the democratic government of 1918-1920, only to find that this section was closed for renovation.
The formal tour of the Caucasus was over, but we still had an evening in Yerevan. Most of us went for an excellent meal with lots of wine in a nearby restaurant called “Mansoor”. Then we strolled over to Freedom Square where all the surrounding buildings were illuminated and a huge fountain area had waters ‘dancing’ to stirring music – a wonderful send-off to a fascinating tour.
It was a short night, however, as we had to leave the hotel at 2 am (!) to be at Yerevan airport for a night flight to Warsaw and then a connecting flight to London.