What a complex affair, over there in the Caucasus. Chechnya, Ingushetia, Cherkessia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, South Ossetia... one by one, these names seem to symbolize endless trouble. But how things really stand there, we know little about – except that Vladimir Putin likes to have a firm hand in it. And yet. Amid this turmoil, …
That their country is so mountainous is entirely the Armenians' own fault, Sira humbly admits. When God was assigning each nation their portion of the world, the Armenians weren’t even present – they were busy drinking. It wasn’t until they realized …
It’s three thirty when we reach the industrial outskirts of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. This city has over a million inhabitants, meaning that one in three citizens of the country lives in its capital. And the city is even older than Rome, our guide Sira proudly notes – by exactly 29 years. We know this …
Gradually, Zvartnots comes into view through the window. For Armenians, this is a very special place. It was here that Gregory – before he was called the Illuminator – cured King Trdat of his madness and thus …
Today, our final destination is the fortress city of Akhaltsikhe, with a short detour to the Vardzia cave monastery. For now, though, we are still in the highlands, far from the valleys. Scanty farmhouses barely rise above the ground, bracing against the biting cold of the wind-swept plain. Here and there …
Here and there, a lone pumpjack, a nodding donkey as it’s sometimes called, extracts some oil, but that's an illusion. This fertile region doesn’t thrive on oil, but on agriculture. Sixty percent of Georgian wines are produced in Kakheti. This is even reflected in …
From Rustaveli Avenue, we make our way down to Freedom Square. Back when the Soviets were still in charge, this was Lenin Square, dominated by an imposing statue of Lenin. In August 1991, the Georgians swiftly put an end to that. The statue was toppled, and the square …