| Visiting Armenia |
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 Wednesday 28th July 2010, Yerevan - The ancient monastery of Khor Virap (17th century) is overtopped by the snowy peak of Mount Ararat, the place where biblical tradition wants Noah to have built his ark, saving the world’s animals from a worldwide deluge.Under the monastery there are cob and exotic fruit pedlars. We also have our peace ark to save.
Somebody is holding a couple of doves, ready to set them free. It’s Dato and Anna, surrounded by all the other students, who let them fly towards the clear sky of this wonderful region.
A steep ladder, fixed on the side of a hole, takes to a deep well (“Khor Virap” in Armenian) where Saint Gregory the Enlightener was imprisoned by the king for twelve years.
The Saint, Father and Patron Saint of the Armenian church, after saving the king from an illness, started to build churches over the pagan temples. The beautiful Garni Temple is the only pagan work of art to have survived the destruction of the 4th century, when Christian religion became the official one.
Music welcomes us in this place crowned by the immensity of the Caucasian mountains, giving us an image of Armenia that we could have never dreamed about.
The mark of the strong emotional impact left after the visit to the museum of the Armenian genocide is difficult to remove.
A spire watches over the fire of memory that, silent, is telling the story of the scar of injustice.
Our presence, surrounding the fire, reminds us of everything we cannot prevent. Fear for the inhuman is in the photographs, in the paintings, that take us to the dark side of truth.
History, memory, mountains, stones, men and women’s unmistakable profile that revives with generations, the beauty and excitement of a land that we would like to take with us. This is Armenia’s flavour.
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