Jason In England: Yerevan, Armenia 2016

DAY 1

I went to Yerevan, Armenia for a conference by the Armenian Shakespeare Association in late September and early October. I had a full day before the conference started and had time to see a bit of the city by myself. My first stop was the Blue Mosque, the only mosque in the city and one that was built by the Iranian government on the site of a mosque that had been there for hundreds of years. There are no pictures of that as my card was filled up and I needed to re-format it. Then I went to the largest Armenian church in the world, Surp Grigor Lusovorich Cathedral. Built in 2001 to celebrate 1700 years of Christianity in Armenia it is massive, but very unimpressive. There are pews and no candles, both of which are absolutely bizarre in any orthodox church outside of North America. Even though there was no place to light candles, you could buy the tall thin ones you see everywhere else in orthodox churches. I even saw an old man pushing a wheelbarrow (a wheel barrow!) overflowing with bundles of these candles to the small desk where you could buy them.

The Blue Mosque. A mosque had been on the site for hundreds of years before being destroyed by the Soviets. This was rebuilt by the Iranian government and is the only mosque in the city.

Surp Grigor Lusovorich

Mt Ararat from the front of the cathedral.

Interior of the cathedral, looking almost Protestant.

This baldacchino is right inside the front door. The cover is medieval (making it the oldest part of the building. Priest are changing the oil in the lamp that hangs directly above a relic of St Gregory.

Most churches were destroyed by the Soviets, but one that survived was a tiny, tiny church called Katoghike (meaning cathedral). Unfortunately it was closed for reconstruction, but the modern church built next to it was open. It was just as much of a let down. Pews. No candles. Sterile. It seemed to be like a orthodox church designed by Protestants. There were places to light candles outside, but the wind made it really hard to light them.

Katoghike church seen through the arch of the Surp Anna church.

A piece of stone work removed from the Katoghike for renovations.

One of the best things about going into an orthodox church is the smell. The hundreds of candles are beeswax, making everything smell like honey. If you visit near a service the smell of incense will also hit you. Not in the Armenian churches. Although the candles are dyed yellow to look like beeswax, but there are make of paraffin. So to recap on the modern churches I visited: pews, no awesome beeswax smell, no candles. Really, a big disappointment. But this would be changed later.

I spent the rest of the day just walking around. Went to the Vernissage Market to see knickknacks and antiques for sale. Ate lunch at a Lebanese place. Finished the night gorging myself on Georgian food and wine.

Carpets at Vernissage market.

First meal in Armenia.

Religious and soviet items at Vernissage market.

These poor little furies were for sale on a sidewalk in front of a toy store. I passed by it a few more times and it looked as if the rabbit was sold.

DAY 2

Today we had lunch before the opening of the conference. Before we met for that I went to the GUM Market, a Soveit-built market hall selling lots of stuff. LOVED IT! I saw a bunch of cheese and took a picture. The old man setting the stall up posed for me as he held up long strings of salty cheese. He gave me a sample and so I bought some. Then it happened. The man pointed at a large (3 litre), old bottle of Smirnoff vodka, tapping it and smiling while saying something in Russian. He turned around and bent down, opening up the large fridge behind him. He turns around with a massive jar of clear liquid and an old, faded and pickle label on it. Taking off the lid he produces a small teacup, dips it into the jar and hands it to me. It smells strong. Not much worse than normal vodka I think. I taste it, smile at the guy who indicates I should down it I succumb to social pressure and take what was maybe 2-3 shots of homemade vodka. He grabs a bag out of another fridge. I think it was goji berries. He seemed to be saying the vodka was made from them. A man from another cheese stall came over with a large slab of a semi-dry, stringy cheese with a bit of surface mold. He gives me a sample and it was delicious! I couldn’t buy more because I didn’t think I was going to be able to eat the small bit I already bought. I went on my way to the next section of stalls: SPICES!

I wanted to buy two spices that are very hard to get in the UK (unless you pay a lot online): blue fenugreek and marigold powder. I think I found the first one (called suneli) but could not find the latter. But I ended up buying barberries, svan salt, and dry adjika. I know that means nothing to most people, but it excited me. I walked around the rest of the market, seeing a lot of interesting things, like:

We had a welcome lunch and then an opening event with readings of Armenian sonnets and a singer from the state opera house. This was all at the American University in Armenia. It is housed in the old soviet building that used to be the seat of the Communist Party of Armenia.

After this we had a group trip to the Armenian Genocide Museum and Monument. It was a very good museum, but was of course sad and depressing.

DAY 3

Today was the first full day of the conference. We were at the State Literature and Theatre Museum just off Republic Square (the main square in the city). I was the very first paper and so was, naturally, nervous. My paper was called ‘Imposed Meanings: Shakespearean Performance in The Cathedral Context’. It looks at the way in which site specific performance forces new meaning onto plays that make the critic look at its meaning differently, taking the space into context. I focused on a production of The Merchant of Venice in the lady chapel of Worcester Cathedral. Doing this draws connections between Portia and The Virgin Mary via feminine power and anti-Semitism…basically a big geeky nerd fest.

After the papers and lunch we got in a bus and left the city to go to two of the most visited sites outside of Yerevan: Garni Temple and Geghard Monastery. On the way up we stopped by a lookout to see Mt Ararat. Eventually we got to Garni. This is the only pagan temple left in the country. It was destroyed in the 20^th century by an earthquake and then rebuilt by the soviets. There are remains of a church, Roman bath house, and Bishop’s palace near the temple, all on the edge of the amazing Garni Gorge.

We then got in a bus and went to Geghard Monastery. It’s name comes from the spear that supposedly pierced Jesus’ side at the crucifixion that was held at the monastery for centuries before being moved to Echmiadzin. The monastery was begun by monks who carved out chapels, churches, and living areas in the solid rock of the mountain. These were added to by the monks when three large churches were built next to the existing monastery. It is one of the most amazing buildings I have ever seen. I really regret not having more time there.

That night we went to the opening ceremony for the Yerevan International Theatre Festival, which included a very interesting play by an Uzbek theatre company in Russian and Uzbek.

DAY 4

More conferencing today. Had a bit of time to go back to the Vernissage market. Then we went to the house of the famous Armenian Soviet composer Arem Khatchatorian. The house was given to his by the state for his work.

Day 5

Today we were back at AUA for the final day of the conference. The British Ambassador to Armenia spoke and there were some great papers by the keynote speakers. We took a trip to Echmiadzin, a town just outside Yerevan that is the seat of the Catholikos of the Armenian Church…basically the Armenian equivalent of the Vatican. The main cathedral is medieval, but there has been a church on the site since 301AD, making it one of the oldest Christian sites in the world.

That night we went to a production of Macbeth done as a 20 minute comedy by an Iranian theatre company. Believe it or not, comedic Macbeth worked.

DAY 6

Today I went with one of the delegates from the conference to the house of Sergei Parajanov, a famous director. His house is full of a dioramas he made reflecting his films, history, and traditional Armenian stories. There was also a room with his artwork from his time spent in prison.

We then met a few others from the conference for lunch then went to the Matenadaran, the museum of ancient manuscripts. Unfortunately there aren’t any pictures as I forgot to buy the pass.

Lunch....I still think about how good this meal was.

The Matenadaran.

Jasmine, the woman who organised the conference, took us to the old train station. There are only a few trains from Yerevan now, and since the border between Georgia and Russia closed there are even fewer. It seems surprising that it can even remain open. A train came in while we were there; apparently it is one of only a handful each week.

Jasmine is the one next to me.

This was the old Soviet seal of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. Every other SSR got rid of their seal except Armenia. Jasmine said that it was because the Armenian seal featured Mt Ararat, and not a soviet symbol.

Puppies!!!

Statue of Sarkis, a national/mystical hero from Pre-Christian times that was made a saint after the adoption of Christianity.

DAY 7

I took a Soviet themed tour of the city today. It was really corny but very enjoyable. The guide kind of acted like she was an Intourist guide (the official Soviet tourism agency), which made it genuinely funny when she spoke in the first person about life in Soviet Yerevan.

The first stop was the Bangladesh Market. This is a market on the outskirts of Yerevan. During the Soviet period people were assigned housing, and the story goes that a man got assigned an apartment in this area, far from the city centre. He called up the housing office (or whatever it was called) to complain that he had been sent to Bangladesh (meaning he was out in the middle of nowhere, far from anything). The name stuck.

This was a little shop in the metro that has not changed since the Soviet period.

The remains of a Soviet fertiliser plant in Bangladesh.

Sheep (most likely waiting slaughter) on the road outside Yerevan.

This was an apartment block outside Yerevan. The Soviets designed it to look like the cyrillic abbreviation for USSR from the sky (looks like CCCP in Latin script). Only one of the letters was built before the end of Communism.

There were massive gas shortages in the 1990s in Armenia. As a protest people began taking pieces of radiators out of their apartments and reusing them, making thinks like this bench.

Possibly the funniest potato advert ever!

This is the last Lenin statue on public display in Armenia. It is the the courtyard of an apartment building, next to a mechanic.

After the tour I walked to the cascade, a massive stepped structure built into the hillside at the end of one of the nicest pedestrianized streets in Yerevan. It houses an art gallery and each platform has statues and other art installations. Spent the rest of the day walking around and seeing the city again before going back to a Georgian restaurant and eating an unhealthy amount of amazing food and wine.