Dilijian, Armenia to Tbilisi, Georgia

 After a nice breakfast, Dennis picked Nico and me up at the hotel and we headed north towards a small town called Koghd where HERA had made some grants. Lynel and Dennis wanted to follow up on a grant made to a hairdresser and nail salon and also visit the local art center. It was about a 3-hour drive up the m4. Most of the route was flat, but a long stretch was up and down some serious mountains along the border with Azerbaijan. As a matter of fact, the border between the two countries is again a spaghetti-like line with the result that at times the road actually took us into Azerbaijan territory.  As the war between Azerbaijan and Armenia is still hot in some areas, we all fell pretty quiet while Lynel negotiated the hairpin turns up and down the mountains. We saw no military on the whole length but there are reports of sporadic shooting across the border. It is beautiful scenery but we all were very relieved to arrive at the small Armenian town of Koghd,an hour from Georgian border.

There we visited a nice art museum selling various handicrafts which had received a sewing machine 2 years ago from HERA.  It had a large selection of paintings by local artists. I spent my last Armenian Dram on some nice embroidered purses done on the HERA machine.

Then we walked around the corner to visit a hair and nail salon which had received a HERA grant of chairs and a nail manicure table. We were met by Maria and her two assistants who proudly showed off their nice salon which is geared to doing haircuts on Children and nail jobs for the parents. She told us that she had trained 4 young girls who had gone off to set up their own salons in different cities in Armenia. Dennis indicated that they could apply next year for a further grant.

When we arrived at the border we had to go first through Armenia exit authorities and then we drove about 200 yards to the Georgia entry border. When the Armenian authorities examined our passport and test results, Nico said to the Armenian border guard: "Look, Alex's test paper has no stamp on it" This was because I received the test results by email while the other 3 had returned to the testing clinic and had their test result paper stamped.  Luckily, the guard did not react and let me leave. I was rather upset at that moment as Nico could have caused me to be stuck back in Armenia while the rest of the team left. But it all turned out fine and we then sailed through the Georgian border control with no problems. It felt good to be out of Armenia and in Georgia where no war is going on. I never thought I would be happy to arrive in Georgia.

My final thoughts on Armenia are somewhat pessimistic. They had a war in September 2020 with Arzaibaijan mainly about control the Nagorno Karabakh, which was land claimed by Armenia but totally in the territory of Azerbaijan. It has a population of only 143,000 most Armenians but is landlocked. It was an area that claimed to be independent, calling itself the Republic of Artsakh. It was never recognized internationally.

During the period of Russian rule under the USSR, it was an Oblast. But the two countries have been fighting about this piece of land since 1918. Then the USSR controlled the area and there was a period of calm. With the dissolution of the Soviet empire, tensions arose again. In  1991, full-scale war broke out and lasted until 1994 by which time Armenia had occupied 14% of the Azerbaijan territory. Armenia was accused of ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijanis. Ironic, after Armenia had suffered the same fate under the Turks.

In 2016, the two countries clashed again.

Apparently, the newly 2018  elected prime minister of Armenia, a former journalist, met with the president of Azerbaijan early in his mandate and the two agreed that the situation should be peacefully resolved. However, right-wing forces in Armenia rebelled and started rattling sabers. Azerbaijan had accumulated a huge drone force which wiped out the whole Armenian war machine and resulted in 5000 Armenian deaths. A peace accord was brokered by Russia which saw most of Nagorno taken away from Armenia. But the fighting goes on daily despite the presence of many Russian peacekeepers. Armenia totally lost the war but goes on spouting nationalistic slogans and the country is on edge. The silly politicians of Armenia have not only lost 5 or 6000 troops but also a huge part of their war equipment and have tarnished the reputation of the country.

In fact, the war has resolved little. The borders are still a mess, Nagorono is still unsettled and if one looks at a map of Armenia, there is a huge piece of Arzaibaijan is to the Southwest of Armenia called Nakhchivan. It cut off from Azerbaijan and all transport must go through Iran to the south.

This mess is in the air and not resolved. It is sad, as it is a beautiful country and the people seem so nice. Politicians seem unable to do their job and the country is constantly on the brink of clashing again. I enjoyed seeing the country but would not return until this situation has been resolved peacefully. I can imagine that this has also ruined any chance of Armenia being able to attract any long-term foreign investments for years to come. In a country that is in dire need of creating jobs for its youth, this is a tragedy. I understand that some 100,000 young people left the country in the last year as they saw no future in their own county.

I was lucky to get to know the country and I can only wish them luck in finding a peaceful solution.