Learning how Armenia works

At first some music I heard in buses: Artur Sarkisyan - Derzkaya

I decided to learn the Armenian alphabet before going there. It was hard but very valuable.

The 36 main Armenian letters. Found at a door in Vagharshapat.

The complete alphabet has 39 letters. It has small and capital letters so one has to learn 77 characters in total. It takes therefore more time than the about 30 characters for the Cyrillic alphabet (exact number depends on the language), the 52 characters for the Latin alphabet or the 33 characters for the Georgian alphabet. In Armenia I could read these scripts (plus some Greek):

Meanwhile I forgot most of the Armenian letters due to lack of practice but in Armenia it helped a lot. If you want to travel around you simply need it to see the direction of the buses, to read street names, order food in a restaurant etc. Without Armenian it is hard because Cyrillic is not often used for street signs and information plates, even not in the touristic places. This is for example the plate with the directions of the Metro:

This is the metro station "Zoravar Andranik" and the trains run to "Barekamutiun".

The metro was the second place where I realized that something is strange with this country. As I wrote it was the 100th anniversary of the genocide and therefore they had a very interesting exhibition in the metro stations with stories from survivors. Here are two examples:

Just read it...

...and this one as well.

I made this photo of a sculpture in the metro:

In the Eritasardakan station.

when I got problems with a woman from the metro company. Quickly she and a man came and tried to confiscate my camera. There was no sign that photographing is forbidden and also on the exhibition plates no deny symbols were visible. As a meanwhile experienced traveler I understood the real issue and gave the woman a few hundred Dram and then everything was OK. She acted like a tourist guide, unfortunately in Russian and showed me what I should photograph. That was so ridiculous that I did not take any further photo just to shock her, which worked ;-). Later I read that photographing in the metro might have been forbidden, but googling brings you tons of images. So if this is a real rule (which I still doubt) it is senseless.

The entrance building of the Hanrapetutian Hraparak (republik square) station is interesting:

The view from above shows that is has the form of a flower.

Directly at the entrance should have been the tourist information. But it was closed some months ago. I could not believe it. This was the first time in a country without any tourist information. People told me that the government had to save money. Stupid idea because tourists bring money but the Armenian way of thinking is quite different as you will see.

Well, what to do on a rainy and cold day? A good method to learn about a country is to go shopping as the locals do. Only in terms of hotel prices Yerevan is quite expensive. Fortunately it is always possible to find a hotel for normal prices (30 -50 € the night) outside the center. The other prices are acceptable for tourists but high for the Armenians. In Yerevan the salary of average people is in the range of 300 - 500 € per month but look at these prices and note that 500 Dram are about 1 €:

These are the prices like in the supermarket here around the corner in Germany. But we get a much higher salary.

Outside Yerevan the salaries are lower but the prices are at the same level. That is one of the reasons why so many Armenians have to work abroad, mostly in Russia. This has a strong effect on the whole country as you will see.

The price table also shows that alcohol is cheap. When you go into a supermarket you will be surprised about the large racks with strong alcohol.

1 liter of high quality vodka for 4 €.

Cigarettes are also cheap

I got the impression that countries with problems offer the people cheap alcohol. In Bolivia you can buy pure alcohol for the price of bread and in Cuba it is the same with rum. In many countries alcohol is cheap but when you also see drunken people in the streets during the day it is a sign that the country has problems. By the way, going to Germany gives you the same impression: Cheap alcohol compared to the salaries and many drunken people in the inner cities. So Germans have problems too, despite that they live in a rich country.

Back to the shopping idea. The main pedestrian street was empty:

The Northern Avenue.

and the stores there sell the same overpriced luxury stuff as in the Europe. So that cannot be the real shopping place for average Armenians. The Saint Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral should be visited by a tourist and on the way to it there should be some shopping sites.

Armenian churches don't have much ornaments, drawings and the like. They appear therefore quite functional.

The cathedral and the Andranik Ozanian statue.

The western front.

The north front.

The altar is hidden behind a curtain when
there is no church service.

Place of the holy remains of Gregory the Illuminator,
the founder of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

The cathedral was opened in 2001 but the surrounding was never finished. This is something you will notice in many places in Armenia.

Unfinished surrounding.

Houses south to the cathedral

The area southwest of the cathedral consists of poor houses. The alleys there form a bazar where you can by everything.

Southwest of the cathedral.

And opposite of the cathedral you find the former cinema “Rossiya". It is an impressive, massive building that was run as bazaar in 2015. (In 2016 the "Rossia" mall was opened next door.) It was interesting to walk through a former cinema that is a wild shop for clothes and jewelry. I quickly noticed that people suspected me. I felt that every second market woman made a photo of me with her smartphone. I tried to ignore that and took some photos of the architecture:

The cinema seen from the cathedral.

When you don't know it, you might think it was once a palace of culture.

The former top rank is now used as storage.

At some point I was annoyed by the people photographing me and I made a picture of a person. Bad idea! Suddenly I was surrounded by strong guys grabbing my camera. They forced me to delete every image on which a person was visible, so this is the only image from the bazaar I could keep:

Boring!

I could not understand a word but nevertheless understood that I should leave the place. I tried to leave but could not find the exit. So I came back unexpectedly. Then I saw the reason: They were dealing there. Packs of money were exchanged. Something was smuggled inside of cans etc. I starred at them, they starred at me but nobody said anything.

Welcome to Armenia!

Sightseeing above Yerevan

After the arrival in Yerevan and the first walk-trough it was of course time to climb up the famous cascade.

You should listen to KC Lights - Sundown when you are sitting on it watching the sun go down.

Yes, the weather was horrible

Closeup of the big lady.

Some days later with almost perfect weather.

The cascade contains the Cafesjian museum of art.

This is the topmost and missing part.

One can see that the construction was never finished.

View to the opera.

At the right is the Karen Demirchyan Complex,
on the hill in the middle of the image is the Tsitsernakaberd.

I had not enough time to visit the Tsitsernakaberd. It was the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide and when you travel in Armenia you will stumble over this topic in any case several times every day. I will talk more about this in a future post about Shushi.

View to the TV tower.

The typical view of the Ararat. Most of the time it is too
misty to see it clearly. I could never see it.

After you made it to the top of the cascade you are at the entrance of the Victory Park. Meanwhile I have been in other former USSR countries and I am amazed that every city there has its own permanent amusement park. Even the smaller towns have this.

Interesting monument in the park.

Not many people because it was a normal week day and quite cold.

Some action.

Looks a bit strange but well, it is the victory park.

The Mother Armenia statue.

View down to university building. At the right border of the image is
the famous Matenadaran manuscript museum.

Such a nice view but the former Arazul
restaurant is abandoned.

The park contains the small Areni lake.

When leaving the park to go down the cascade look north and you will see these impressive blocks:

Wow!

Entrance of the victory park.

I saw the blocks and was searching for a nice place to take a picture. I went down the street and was suddenly verbally attacked by a man. I could not understand anything but it was clear that he wanted me leaving the street immediately. He took a pistol and then called somebody with his cell phone. I kept cool and went down the street because it is a public street and I hate that people who think they can make their own laws. A minute later a big Mercedes car came, man with pistols jumped out and guided it into this complex:

I could not resist to photograph the entrance of the complex
before I had to run away.

The complex from behind.
 

Another building in the neighbor complex.

This was the first time I got the impression that Armenia is a special country where rich people can do what they want. Sadly I got the right feeling. Armenia has huge problems. That the rich people are corrupt is one of the reasons. More about this will follow.

Woher kommt die Unzufriedenheit?

Wenn man reist, stellt man schnell fest, wie gut es uns in Deutschland im Vergleich zu den meisten Menschen der Welt geht. Ja, wir sind uns dessen bewusst: Wir haben immer Trinkwasser, das noch dazu ganz bequem aus einem Wasserhahn kommt. Wir haben jederzeit Strom und Internet. Wir haben eines der besten Gesundheitssysteme der Welt, eines der dichtesten und besten Straßennetze. Es gibt ein hervorragendes Nahverkehrsangebot, Züge und Busse fahren nach Fahrplan in dichtem Takt. Unsere Schulen bieten freien Zugang für alle Kinder. Unsere Lehrer sind exzellent ausgebildet, unsere Berufsausbildung ist ein Vorbild für viele Länder. Im Ausland blicken Leute neidisch zu uns und Einige nehmen große Gefahren auf sich, um bei uns ein besseres Leben zu starten.

Dennoch sind wir nicht zufrieden. Man könnte daher meinen wir sind ein Volk von Pessimisten. Dies sind wir nicht. Fakt ist aber, dass sich viele abgehängt fühlen und frustriert sind. Warum? Stellen Sie sich vor Sie sind zu zweit. Die andere Person hat 1000 € die sie verteilen kann. Wenn Sie der Verteilung zustimmen, dürfen sie beide das Geld behalten, wenn Sie ablehnen, bekommt keiner auch nur einen Cent. Ihr Gegenüber könnte Ihnen also 10 € bieten und 990 € behalten wollen. Würden Sie zustimmen? Objektiv gesehen, ist das sinnvoll, denn 10 € ist besser als nichts. Dennoch würden Sie sicher empört ablehnen und lieber auf das Geld verzichten. Wir sind soziale Menschen und wollen wertgeschätzt werden. Passiert dies nicht, entsteht Frust. Schauen wir uns um, passiert genau das. Wir haben zwar eines der besten Gesundheitssysteme, aber nicht alle haben denselben Zugang dazu. Privatpatienten kommen z. B. schneller an Untersuchungen. Wir haben tolle ICE-Züge mit einer verlockenden 1. Klasse, aber nicht alle können sich den ICE leisten, geschweige denn die 1. Klasse. In den Reisebüros hängen Bilder von Traumzielen, die für viele nur ein Traum bleiben. Wir sehen also ständig Sachen, an denen wir nicht teilhaben können. Man fühlt sich abgehängt. Das ist verständlich, denn hätte im Experiment von eben Ihr Gegenüber nur 20 € zur Verfügung, wären Sie mit den 10 € sicherlich zufrieden. In beiden Fällen bekommen Sie 10 €, sind einmal aber unzufrieden, beim anderen Mal erfreut. Zufriedenheit hängt also offensichtlich davon ab, was in unserem Umfeld verfügbar ist und was wir davon nutzen können.

Auch wenn wir objektiv gesehen in einem reichen Land leben, ist dennoch ein Teil unserer Bevölkerung arm. Das kann man sich an einem Beispiel verdeutlichen: Moldawien gilt als Armenhaus Europas, denn 200 € im Monat ist ein normales Gehalt. Eine Fahrt im Stadtbus (ohne Monatskarte etc.) kostet aber auch nur ca. 12 Cent. In Freiburg sind es 2,30 €, also 19 Mal mehr. In Deutschland müsste man also 19 mal 200 = 3800 € monatlich verdienen, damit man auf demselben Niveau ist. Ein Museum in Moldawien kostet im Bereich 25 Cent Eintritt, bei uns im Bereich 5 €. Auch wenn ein Moldawier also rechnerisch viel ärmer ist, kann er dennoch am öffentlichen Leben teilhaben. Für die Beispiele gibt es sicher auch Gegenbeispiele und in Moldawien liegen viele Dinge im Argen, sie verdeutlichen aber, dass es immer der Vergleich mit der direkten Umgebung ist, der entscheidet. Kann man nicht teilhaben, ist man nicht zufrieden. Was nützt eine Autobahn, wenn man kein Geld für deren Maut hat? Gibt es im Land hingegen nur Schotterpisten ist man nicht so frustriert, auch wenn objektiv gesehen die Straßen schlechter sind, denn schließlich müssen alle mit ihnen auskommen. Anders ausgedrückt ist es eine Strafe vor einer Achterbahn zu stehen und Anderen beim Fahren zuzusehen, ohne selbst einmal fahren zu können.

Wir mögen erstaunt sein über die Wut im Internet, die vielen Protestwähler bei Wahlen und das mangelnde Vertrauen in die Politik, aber dies ist die logische Konsequenz mangelnder Teilhabe. Je ungleicher Werte verteilt sind, desto weniger kann man sie nutzen, desto mehr fühlt man sich frustriert. Die Frustrierten fragen sich zu Recht, warum sie etablierte Parteien wählen sollen, die Ungleichheit geschaffen oder nicht verhindert haben. Die Lösung liegt eigentlich auf der Hand:

Ehe man etwas Neues erschafft, muss man dafür sorgen, dass alle etwas vom Bestehenden haben. Wenn man etwas Neues erschafft, muss man sich vorher Gedanken machen, wie alle davon profitieren, ansonsten sollte man es lassen.

Übertragen wäre das: Ehe man neue Krankenhäuser baut, muss man sicherstellen, dass alle gleich behandelt werden, dass also alle in eine gesetzliche Krankenversicherung einzahlen, egal wie viel sie verdienen. Wenn es eine Erbschaftssteuer gibt, dann sollte sie so sein, dass jeder prozentual gleich viel zahlt, und keine Personen bevorzugt werden. Wenn man ein Schwimmbad baut, muss man ein Konzept haben, dass es auch von einkommensschwachen Personen genutzt werden kann. Wenn man neue Arbeitsplätze schaffen will, muss man sicherstellen, dass diese auch so fair bezahlt werden, dass man sich davon die Traumreise ersparen kann.
Die Protestwähler protestieren dagegen, dass das oft nicht der Fall ist. Es wird höchste Zeit für alle Parteien wieder Gleichheit und Teilhabe oberste Priorität des politischen Handelns einzuräumen.

Persian new year in Yerevan

It has been now almost 2 years since I have been in Yerevan. I went there in March 2015 by train from Tbilisi.
Why? I was amazed by Georgia and especially be the progress that country made in only 10 years. I heard a lot of bad stories about the times before: police criminals, bribing everywhere, rotten roads, circuit breakdowns etc. Almost everybody told me that I just have to go to Armenia to see how Georgia was before the Saakashvili presidency.

I chose the train that run every second day overnight between the two capitals, see my older post. It was a short night with some Armenian beer but an interesting one. I met Gints, a Latvian journalist who had been in Azerbaijan before. He told me a lot about the politics between Armenia and Azerbaijan which helped me a lot to understand the country. You will see by my following posts how important the conflict with Azerbaijan is for the Armenian society and government.

In contrary to the Georgian beer, the Armenian
beers are not my taste.

Too strong taste and bitter for me.

Let's start with the Armenian capital Yerevan. We arrived early in the morning on a rainy day.

For this situation the song Young-Holt Unlimited - Soulful Strut fits perfectly.

The impressive railway station was empty except of the few passengers from the train. I felt that there were as many taxi drivers waiting for customers as passengers in the train. A short look at the smartphone showed that the inner city was only 2 km away. The hotel of Gints was in the inner city so we decided to walk there to see something. It was a strange walk because one taxi driver did not stop to molest us. Gints speaks Russian but there was no way to tell him to leave us. They yelled at each other louder and louder. The taxi price was lowered bit by bit the closer we came to the center but first when we could already see the Saint Gregory cathedral the taxi driver left us alone.

We found Gint's hotel and I went on to find a hotel as well. This was unexpectedly difficult since the season starts in April and in March many hotels are closed. Moreover the prices were unexpectedly high. A room for less than 50 € was hard to find but asking around was, as always, the solution. This way I met an incredibly nice Armenian and stayed in his large hostel as the only guest. Its location offers great views over the city.

I had to deliver two passports for Italian bikers stranded in Yerevan. Since the german embassies are obviously one of the most unfriendly ones in every capital (I reported here often about this topic), the German business association helped. Their office is in the Marshal Baghramyan avenue so it was the ideal street to start some sight seeing:

This is the Baghramyan statue. Baghramyan was a marshal
of the soviet army and is honored in Armenia as a hero.
The house is the American University of Armenia.

A typical house of Yerevan: red tuff stones
making it the "red city" and architecture
from the 1920/30s.

The presidential palace.

The building of the national assembly.

The Armenian National Academy of Sciences by day...

... and by night.

Yerevan was a mid sized town when it became the capital of the new constructed Armenian soviet republic. In effect is was almost completely rebuilt as planned city under the architect Alexander Tamanian. Therefore the inner city is a unique architectural ensemble. I love it! The architecture lives from strict forms with only few ornaments. One of the most impressive examples is the Republic Square:

  

  

At night the illumination is impressive.

 

3 different styles: An arch of Tamanian's trade unions
and communications building and a new building
partly made from walls from the pre 1920 era.

The National Gallery of Armenia. Unfortunately it was not possible
to enter it because it was visited by soldiers. The next day the same
and on my last day a week later the same and even with a public roll call.

The Rebublic Square metro station has
the form of a rosette, see this satellite image.
 

The inner city contains also some new buildings. This is for example the northern avenue:

View in direction of the Republic Square. 

View to the Opera Theatre.

There are only few residues of buildings from the era before Tamanian's rebuilding. This is an image of the Republic Square from 1916:

Note the small buildings and their simple style. Image from Wikipedia.

In the area south to the square are some old buildings from that time:

This part of the area was already under demolition to be rebuilt.

 

 

We met the evening to go out somewhere. It was hard to find something suitable. It was a normal workday and the only recommendation we got was a Persian hookah bar. Well, it was Nowruz (Persian new year) and so we learned a bit about Persian culture. By the way, the work of the lady that keeps the pipe smoking was impressive. The whole evening she had to suck on the many pipes to keep them smoking or to light them up. I wonder if these people don't get lung cancer sooner or later.

Gints and the large hookah.