Quick! What is Maryland's state flower?*
What other states share a border with Maryland?**
The bombardment of what Baltimore fort during the War of 1812 inspired the composition of the Star Spangled Banner?***
See, I told you. But seriously, all condescension aside, Armenia has actually been on my radar for about ten years now. My friends and I moved to Boston in 2001, a city with a fairly large diasporic population of Armenians, and I took up work for a courier service driving a van, picking up packages from local businesses. I was replacing an Armenian man named David, so for the first two weeks of my employment there, and his last two weeks, we'd spend each day together driving around as he taught me the duties and responsibilities of my new job, which apparently included taking plenty of naps in the van, and saying sexually suggestive things to the receptionist at Peabody & Arnold. He would often tell me about his life in Armenia or about Armenian culture, as he had immigrated to America just a few years prior. He would do so in ways that showed he genuinely wanted to give me knowledge about his Armenian heritage and the important role the Armenian people have played throughout the course of history. This was my first exposure to the Armenian pride that I now know and admire.
A year later I found myself working at an insurance company of all places. The cube next to mine was occupied by a young, first generation Armenian-American fellow named Shant. He told me many things about Armenia - about the genocide, about how the present day border encompasses just a fraction of the area it once had, how Armenia was the first Christian nation, and where to get the best falafel in Boston. Coming from a long familial line of tailors, his father owned and operated a tailor shop downtown. A pair of vintage Levi corduroys I had been clinging on to had a broken fly, so I had Shant ask his father how much it would cost to fix. His father said it might be less expensive to simply buy a new pair of pants, obviously unaware of what a fussy dandy I am. I was willing to pay whatever it took, so I gave the pants to Shant for his father to fix. Two days later he brought the pants back with a brand new zipper and told me that his father would not accept payment for the work. This was my first exposure to the Armenian hospitality I now know and appreciate. Really appreciate.
Years went by and I can't say I thought much about Armenia at all. In fact it wasn't until last year while reading a book about the history of Iran that I happened to learn more about Armenian history in relation to the countries around it. Armenia, as we know it today, is located in the South Caucuses, bordered by Georgia to the north, Azerbaijan to the east, Iran to the south, and Turkey to the west. Under Tigran the Great, the Armenian Empire stretched from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean (an area larger in size than California), and crossed over the present-day borders of the neighboring countries mentioned above, as well as Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, which all still have significant populations of ethnic Armenians. After the empire fell to Rome in 66AD, and for pretty much the next 2,000 years, the Armenian people, and their sovereignty, would be subject to the imperial ambitions of the Byzantines, the Persians, the Ottomans, and others. In 1915, as the desire for freedom from Ottoman rule percolated among the Armenian people, and distrust of the Armenian people grew among the Young Turks, Armenians were deported in mass numbers from Ottoman controlled territories, including that of historical Armenia (roughly the eastern most third of present Turkey). This area was, and still is considered the heart of Armenian culture and identity, where they had lived as "Armenians" for more than two and a half millennia, and for even a millennia before that as patriarchal tribes that went by other names. Unfortunately, deportation was not the only way that Armenians were dealt with. Up to one and a half million men, women and children were brutally killed or left to die during the deportation process, leaving a scar on the collective conscious of modern Armenia. In 1918, after breaking the shackles of Ottoman control, the Democratic Republic of Armenia was established, but a mere two years later it was reluctantly incorporated into the Soviet Union, in which it remained until 1991.
Oddly enough, Armenia's tumultuous past was one of the many things that endeared it to me. It might have been my penchant for underdogs, or the general similarities I've noticed to that of Ireland, a country of which I am technically a citizen and have a great fondness for. Two relatively small countries (though one landlocked and one surrounded by water), both with majestically storied histories, but subject to constant invasion and subsequent rule by other peoples (the Normans, the Vikings, and the English in the case of Ireland). Both historically devout adherents to traditions of ancient Christianity, their respective countrysides spotted with mediaeval monasteries, which often doubled as places of learning, detrimental to historical record keeping and enlightened advancement of both countries. The ancient lichen covered grave stones of each nation feature crosses with intricately carved interlace designs of peculiar similarity. They both have not only national heroes who are revered for their heroics in battle, but also those who are recognized as personifying the soul of the nation through poetry, literature and art. And of course, like the unfathomable loss of life suffered by the Armenians, one million Irish died and one million more fled the country as a result of English malfeasance during the great potato blight, and the culmination of centuries of institutionalized poverty.**** Ireland also fought for and won independence for the first time just three years after the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Armenia, which left the northern Irish province of Ulster under English control, rendering it the epicenter of sectarian violence for the next 75 years until a ceasefire was agreed to in 1998 - a situation that is similar to that of the Armenian conflict with Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Karabakh.
It had been roughly three years since I had been outside of the United States, not including trips to Niagara Falls and Toronto, and the monotony of living and working in New York City was beginning to take it's toll on my psyche. I had spent a year living in Japan from 2007 to 2008 and now found myself yearning for the same kind of enrichment and stimulation I had experienced there. So I finally decided to take a bit of a trip. Though no destinations immediately came to mind, I knew that the standard fare of Western Europe would not suffice. I was looking for someplace I generally had no preconceived notions about. Someplace where I knew I would be a complete outsider. Not necessarily a place that would be considered undeveloped, and while "westernized" countries were fine by me, I didn't want to go someplace "western". I had considered South America, particularly Peru, but soon set my focus on countries in Western and Central Asia, finally narrowing it down to the Caucuses. After further deliberation, and an inexplicably growing affinity for one country in particular, I made up my mind to travel there. That country was of course Armenia. The more I read about it, the more enticing it became, and as a native of the Genesee River Valley, which is typically flat and densely forested, photos I came across of majestically mountainous and often treeless Armenian landscapes that appeared to stretch out into an infinite horizon, sunk the hook in even deeper.
In early March, after a few weeks of price watching, I bought my ticket to Armenia on Aeroflot airlines, with a layover in Moscow. That final moment after entering all of your credit card information, in which all that lies between you and what may either be the time of your life, or a vacation from hell, is the click of an HTML button that says "Buy Ticket", can be a harrowing one. Because you know that by clicking that button, you are essentially thrown into a contractual obligation with yourself to be someplace far away, at a certain time in the future, no matter what happens between now and then, and no matter what you find out about that place before you have to actually get on a plane and go there. But that click can also be a moment of exhilaration, one that fuels your daydreams, that injects your mundane life with childlike anticipation, and gives you something to finally look forward to. It can be a click that sets into motion some sort of life changing experience that will leave you in a state of constant reminiscence, forever thirsting for more. In that final moment, without trepidation, I clicked. And I can say now with confidence that I'm sure as hell glad I did.
* ** ***
**** Ironically enough, and against the wishes of Queen Elizabeth, the Ottoman Empire sent monetary aid and three ship loads of food (which the English attempted to block) to help Ireland.
