Uncancelled Culture
- krolesh
- Nov 11, 2024
- 13 min read
October 2024
I love people to a fault. It's actually great, but the thing is that sometimes you're so busy loving them that you never get anything done.
As usual my hostel breakfast conversations lasted till nearly lunchtime, so I didn't check out of my hostel in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, till the last permissible minute, and then had to wait around for ages for my crowded local bus to get me to the city bus station I needed for my journey south.
I'm heading to Armenia today!
By the time I finally got to the bus station I'd missed all the morning capital-to-capital vans, and had to wait around till 3pm to get out of there.
My flash van, for the city run.
Luckily, there were cool people on board, as usual. I sat next to Won Quy, from South Korea. He's really nice, has been on the road for a couple of months, in Turkey and Georgia, and wants to head back home slowly, overland as much as possible. He's quit his job, and has set himself a challenge to be away for a year, or for as long as his money lasts.
Whichever comes first.
In front of us was Sasha, and her friend Evelyn, both from England. They're studying Russian in Tbilisi, and are heading to Yerevan, the Armenian capital, for the weekend.
Both are language students, and have lived abroad before. Sasha spent a year learning Arabic in Amman, Jordan, and Evelyn was in Taiwan, learning Mandarin. Their stories from those places were super interesting.
A blurry pic of the beautiful, darkening scenery.
Bye bye Georgia.
Hello Armenia.
The crossing was smooth, but took awhile, which normally happens when you're on some form of public transport.
We stopped quite a lot on the way, and didn't get to Yerevan till late, which was a bit annoying because I wanted to catch up with Wolf and Christian before they left for the airport at midnight, for their flight back to Germany.
Won Quy and I strolling in to the city centre.
Love that famous Armenian brandy.
Eventually I found them, at a bar near Freedom Square, and we had a catch-up for an hour or so before they had to leave.
There was very un-Muslim art in the loos
I didn't get to my hostel till after 1am, luckily they had 24 hour reception. I was very happy to finally crash out.
The view from my dorm balcony late the next morning
Wow! Fair enough! But only 50,000 American Dollars for violating? Oh, that's Armenian Dram, which is only USD 130. Definitely too lenient.
I sat here and ate plain bread for my brekky.
More memorials to fallen soldiers, this time on the Armenian side. A few weeks ago I was looking at the same things from the Azerbaijani side.
War is so stupid.
There's never a real winner, but always lots of losers.
A whole stack of Armenian political prisoners are being held in jail in Baku, the Azerbaijani capital.
This amazing hillside is called the Cascades, and alongside it is the Cafesjian Arts Centre. It may not look like much in this pic, but it's an incredibly vast and beautiful stone and marble creation that heads way up the hill, and is jam packed with stunning sculptures, and flanked by indoor galleries.
Particularly volumptuous woman
They're setting up for a big music festival tomorrow. I'm so excited, as I heard the amazing sound check of a large Armenian folk/jazz fusion band.
The views were amazing as I climbed way up to the top, but the air was misty and a little cloudy.
On a clear day you can see Turkey from here, most notably Mt Ararat, which towers a whopping 5,165m above sea level across the Turkish border, which isn't that far away.
There's loads of great sculptures to dive into.
The golden leaf at the top apparently represents Armenia's intellectual and cultural heritage, don't ask me why. Maybe it's got something to do with all the leaves in their ancient books.
They haven't finished the huge Cascades construction yet, and it seems that maybe they've run out of money to finish it, for the time being.
There's cool and sneaky sculptures in the indoor galleries.
Seated butterflies
This paisley orchid is wild
The Cascades during construction
I'd sometimes like a seat for camping. Maybe I should take this.
Nah, of course not, it's way too big.
This is way better
Trying to keep his head above water
There was incredible exhibition of, wait for it, teapots. I loved them all.
Also a teapot
The spout is in the hair
Her sleeve is spouting
Captain Hooks
Not-so-glad-iator
An incredible lion, made from bits of recycled car and truck tyres
A big, strange smile
Sculpture of Alexander Tamanian, a famous Armenian architect
Artists selling their wares
National Opera and Ballet Theatre
Yerevan's such a pleasant and relaxed place to walk around.
Although the city has only 1 million residents, it has a grandness, a spaciousness and openness about it, which seems to be reflected in the people. Locals are way more likely to connect here than they generally are in Tbilisi, even though the two cities aren't far apart and are of a similar size.
In Tbilisi the locals tend to be more gruff, more guarded, and less inclined to smile. They're not necessarily unfriendly, once you have an interaction, but their first instinct isn't to smile. An Aussie guy I met, Lochie, told me that the way Tbilisi residents initially interacted with him really annoyed him, saying "when I walk into a shop I don't wanna be looked at like I just killed someone." It was funny, because I sorta knew what he meant.
But that's not restricted to tourists of course. Because of the heavy Russian historical presence and the very open visa regulations in Georgia many people from all over the place live and work in Tbilisi. So locals don't really know a tourist from a local. They're just basically sorta grumpy with everyone, until you connect, and then they can be super friendly.
Yerevan, on the other hand, feels refreshingly light. There's loads of young people on the streets, and they're having a good time. And it's not just men. What a welcome change that is. Gangs of teenage girls are often the noisiest of the lot.
I still haven't worked out yet exactly why, historically, the vibe feels so different in the two cities. And I know it's a generalisation, so I'll keep you posted about how it evolves for me. I've met great people in both cities, it's just the initial interactions which appear different.
Armenians are proud of their good drinking water. Just like the Swiss. There's drinking fountains all over the city, and you can drink the water straight out of the taps anywhere.
Republic Square, a beautiful open space surrounded by magnificent architecture, including the National History Museum. I told Won Quy this part of the city reminded me of Europe. He said, "no, it's way better than Europe, because it's clean." Haha, that's so true of many places in Europe these days.
Local Indian shop
The old Moscow Cinema, built to resemble the slopes of Mt Ararat
Sardine can living
The Saint Gregory The Illuminator Cathedral, illuminated
It's actually pretty brutalist, architecturally speaking, which is not something you'd generally say about a cathedral or church
But beautiful in its own way
This very famous ole crooner is actually French-Armenian
The streets actually became pretty packed later in the eve.
Won Quy and I went to a buffet place for dinner. Cheap veg options. I've found a few of these type of places in the city. These old pics of Yerevan were up on the wall.
Amazing street artist and her work
This guy was amazing, playing classic songs by bashing bottles with rubber xylophone hammers, each bottle filled with different levels of fluid to give it a different note. Amazing.
His percussion section.
Won Q and I ended up in the "Beatles Pub" listening (and singing) to 70s and 80s pop hits. I couldn't believe how many young Armenians knew all the words to songs like Careless Whisper by Georgie Michael and Rasputin by Boney M. Sad but true. At least my own excuse for knowing those songs is that they were big hits when I was a teen.
Being in there was like being trapped inside a really bad radio station, but the people were so happy singing that it sorta made up for it.
Sorta.
I wandered home at about 2am. I feel totally safe strolling around this city at that time of night.
Happy 2,806th Birthday
It's actually true.
In 782 BC King Argishti I founded a fortress here in Yerevan called Erebuni, and people have lived here ever since, making this city one of the oldest continuously occupied cities in the world.
So today is the 2,806th birthday of the city, and is probably the best day of the year to be here in Yerevan. What a stroke of luck!
There was a massive city festival going on. Every woman and her cat was out on the streets, there were big music stages set up in different parts of the city, there was a wine and food festival going on, and basically the vibe was amazing and everyone was having a wow of a time.
I strolled into the city to be at the folk/jazz stage by midday, as a sound engineer I was chatting with yesterday told me a really good band that were being sound checked at the time were playing there then.
It was a warm, semi-sunny day as I wandered in. Perfect.
My hood
Earlybird crowds head to the Cascades stage
I spent the whole day and night listening to amazing music. The quality was exceptional, I was pretty surprised, given the size of the country. Most of the time I hung around the folk/jazz stage, which had everything from more old-school jazz, folk and traditional bands to full modern folk/jazz fusion bands and ensembles that were pumping out some amazing stuff. It was fantastic. My perfect place to be.
The classical stage. I also spent time here in Freedom Sauare, where full symphony orchestras were doing their thing, sometimes accompanied by opera singers.
The day passed quickly.
Later in the night Won Q and I met up and went to the big Republic Square stage for the finale festival gig, consisting of fabulous folk, pop, rock and hip hop acts, all of whom the crowd seemed to know well, as they were singing along to all the songs one after the other, and dancing like no one was watching, which no one was, because everyone was dancing.
Artists included bands like French-Armenian band Ladaniva
There's no doubt people love music here. It's so great. People sing and dance on the streets unselfconsciously, and appear completely free to just do their own thing. It's so great to be in this vibe, people genuinely appear lighter and happier here. It's really a great thing to experience.
No one really drinks much here either. Nowhere near like they do in some other Central Asian countries. In fact, the Armenian population is one of the lowest consumers of alcohol in Europe. (The Caucasian countries, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan get called Europe sometimes, it sorta depends on who you ask).
These waffles baffled me.
Wine and food stalls. The wine is really good here.
The main festival stages, where the last gig was put on. People really loved it. It was all super slick and produced, but unfortunately some of the artists were lip-syncing, and that took a lot away from it, in my opinion.
But the really good singers were live-ing it up.
Dance blur
It was an amazing gig, and afterwards people just sorta slowly meandered away contentedly. There were no drunks being rough dickheads, not caring who they annoyed or bumped into. Everyone made space for each other and didn't crowd each other. No one seemed to be in a hurry. Even when the hordes streamed across the big main roads the held-up vehicle drivers just sat, windows down, sometimes chatting to the crowds as they walked past.
Maybe everyone's just super proud to be Yerevanian today.
I sorta was too, in my just-got-here-but-feel-like-I-already-belong kinda way.
Enjoying super good vibes brings people together. There really should be more of it.
Yerevan's 2806th birthday, Oct 13th, 2024
Greying
Well, after a fabulously stimulating good vibed birthday party, it was only fitting that the next day was cold and rainy.
I imagine every single Yerevanian was celebrating the fact that the rain and the cold came during the night last night, and not during the amazing festival, just a few hours earlier.
It would have been a pisser if it’d been rained out.
Actually there was a spattering of light rain during the festival, but every artist managed to get through their set, with a little help from some quickly erected tent structures that were placed over them sometimes (and their extremely-dangerous-when-wet musical and sound equipment).
And how fitting that it was rainy and grey when I went to visit the memorial to the victims of the Armenian genocide, at the top of a hill overlooking the city, about a 45 minute walk from my hostel.
I walked through my local burbs. They’re a little rundown-looking from the outside, but probably quite different inside.
The Hrazdan River, which winds its way through the western part of the city, way down at the bottom of the valley.
Eventually I reached the vast park area which houses the memorial, as well as a huge entertainment and sports centre.
The concert hall and sports complex has a pretty funky design, with classic 80s weird concrete shapes protruding from all directions.
But almost all of the area is gardens, which, in the drizzly rain, was perfectly conducive to reflecting upon what was another of world history’s dark dark times.
An Unspeakable Tragedy
Yeah, it's so unspeakable, in fact, that I must speak of it.
I do and I don't wanna describe what happened during the Armenian genocide.
But first, a little background to the tragedy ...
Whilst Armenia as a separate state has existed for millennia in some form or other, it's been invaded and ruled by others regularly since its foundation. By the year 1900 it hadn't existed as a separate kingdom since way back in the Middle Ages.
By the early 1900s most Armenians in the region were living within the territories of the two main kingdoms that dominated the area at the time - the Ottoman Empire (Turkic) in the west, and the Tsarist Russian Empire further east.
The Ottomans were in decline. Their once vast empire, which had included Turkey, all of the Balkans, and much of northern Africa, was losing territory left right and centre - to European powers such as Italy, Britain and the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, and then to independence movements in the Balkans.
The empire's decline led to the rise of the nationalist movement in Turkey, which a political party called the CUP (Committee of Union and Peace) skilfully used to consolidate its own power base.
The Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire was concentrated mainly in the east of what is now Turkey, but there were also significant Armenian enclaves in the west of Turkey. Because they were Christians, the Armenians had already faced significant discrimination and atrocities at the hands of Muslim Ottoman forces and their proxies.
When World War I started in 1914, the Ottoman leadership aligned itself with the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria), and invaded Russia and Persia. It also fought the Entente (Russia, France and the UK) in the theatres of the Balkans, the Middle East, North Africa, and also on home soil. (Hence the ANZACs being led to their slaughter at Gallipoli in Turkey).
When the Ottomans invaded Russia, they massacred local Armenians, convinced that they were supporting the Russians. This, in turn, led to isolated rebellions by Armenians there, which the Ottomans then claimed was proof that Armenians within their empire would rise up and seek to annex eastern Turkey and create an independent state, just like ethnic groups in the Balkans had done.
This was their pretext for the genocide.
In April 1915 the Ottomans arrested and deported hundreds of Armenian leaders and intellectuals from Constantinople (Istanbul), to deprive the wider Armenian population of the possibility to organise resistance to what was about to happen.
Ottoman paramilitary forces then physically deported between 800,000 to 1.2 million Armenians from their homes, mainly women and children, sending them on death marches into the Syrian desert between 1915 and 1916. They were deprived of food and water, and subject to robbery, rape, and execution. The survivors were placed into concentration camps in Syria.
I won't go into details about the methods of killing. The roads, rivers and gorges on the way to Syria were strewn with the corpses of Armenians for hundreds and hundreds of kilometres.
Tens of thousands of Armenian men, who were already fighting in the Ottoman or Russian armed forces, were deliberately slaughtered on the frontlines of the battlefield, or simply murdered elsewhere in the region.
Ottoman forces went to great lengths at the time to hide their responsibility for the genocide, but they dismally failed, as western and other journalists were documenting it as it was happening.
After the first main wave of massacres, late in 1916 another wave of killings took place in the concentration camps, leaving only about 200,000 deportees alive by the end of the year.
Separately, another 100,000 to 200,000 Armenian women and children were forcibly converted to Islam, and made to work in Muslim households.
After the Ottomans were defeated in World War I, the defeated government then continued the massacres and ethnic cleansing of the survivors of the deportations.
The genocide put an end to almost 2,000 years of continuous occupation by Armenians in eastern Turkey. Their lands and houses were annexed, and many gifted to Islamic migrants to Turkey from other countries, and often to Kurds, many of whom were aligned with the Ottomans against the Armenians, and who were some of the main perpetrators of the atrocities themselves.
The idea was to create a Muslim-only Turkey.
It's estimated that between 1 and 1.5 million Armenians were killed during the period from 1914 till 1923. To this day, Turkey insists that the acts were a military necessity, and refuses to classify the tragedy as genocide.
Only 34 countries around the world have formally recognised the act as genocide, including France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Brazil, Russia and the US. Australian leaders have used words such as "massacres," "deportations," "crimes," etc, to describe what happened, but have fallen short of calling the acts genocide, because they don't want to piss off Turkey.
Unbelievable isn't it.
If the systematic and direct killing or starving to death of over a million people is not genocide, well then, WTF is???
The memorial, with another eternal flame.
The sky was crying.
Reemergence
So, despite such a tragic history, Armenians don't seem to be playing the victim.
Their culture is so old and so strong that the people collectively seem to want to move on, and to continually celebrate the unique and beautiful aspects of their unique cultural identity.
Cancel culture's just not working here.
It's amazing actually.
There's so much that I like about this city, and this country so far.
And I've got time to discover more of it.
My plan is to explore more of Yerevan, including some incredible sites not too far from the city, and then to move on to some other parts of the country.
I'm so looking forward to it.
But I can tell you one thing.
Yerevan's really gonna be a hard act to follow❤️
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