RUINS OF ANI

From Yereruyk, you have to go a little north and stop at Haykadzor, to enjoy the most beautiful view of Ani, as a sign at the entrance of the village says. Nowhere are the ruins of Turkey's former capital more visible than from this place, which was used as a hiding place during the Soviet era. Today, access is allowed, but there is no question of crossing the Akhurian, which is guarded as it was during the Cold War. A paved road leads to the edge of the ravine, facilitating the panoramic view of Ani, whose remains of thick walls and "one thousand and one" churches stretch out on a grassy plateau, beyond a medieval bridge of which only the powerful pillars remain. To visit Ani, as suggested by Yerevan agencies, Armenians must make a 450 km detour through Georgia.

To his misfortune, Ani is located on a strategic border, drawn by the Soviet-Turkish treaty of Moscow in 1921, in the absence of the Armenians. The Soviet side had unsuccessfully called on Turkey to return Ani, arguing that it was "of enormous importance to the Armenians from a national, historical, and artistic point of view", but would cede the site and territories of Kars and Ardahan that the Russians had conquered from the Turks in 1875! In 1968, the Soviets will still try in vain to obtain the return of Ani, in exchange for 2 Kurdish villages in the north of Armenia. Turkey has long refused to promote Ani, hiding her Armenian origins, when it did not bombard the monuments, but aware of its tourist potential, Turkey has nevertheless committed to restore it and registered it as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017. But the restoration of the still standing facades of the magnificent Ani Cathedral has hardly convinced specialists, starting with the Armenians, who would like to work on a site where Armenian and Russian archaeologists were active at the beginning of the 20th century, when the region was Russian. Celebrated in 2001 as the "capital of Armenia" on the 1000th anniversary of its foundation, Ani fuels nostalgia for the lost homeland, like Ararat. A nostalgia that lives on in these desolate regions, repopulated, after the genocide, by the Armenians of Mouch and Sassoun (near Van), who heroically resisted the Turks before reaching Russian Armenia. Known for its nationalism, this rural population attached to its traditions nourishes the hope of being able to return to its ancestral lands. Every April 24, the villagers light torches to remind "those opposite" that they have not forgotten.