Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, nestles under the shadow of Mount Ararat; on a good day you can see the mountain through the mist and the smoke. It’s an odd kind of town, centred by a downtown government and shopping quadrant that has all the glitz of Glendale, California, or even Beirut – both homes to significant parts of the large Armenian diaspora. Yerevan is one of the oldest continuously occupied cities in the world, which is a point of pride for Armenians who have outlasted a series of foreign occupiers – Persians, Ottomans and Russians. The prosperous Kentron District and the area bordering historic Republic Square have been a hive of construction cranes since the early 2000s as money from the wealthy developers of the diaspora has poured into new hotels, boutiques and luxury residences.
But move much beyond the lively and bright cafés serving surj (Armenian coffee) and freshies (fruit smoothies) in this small central district and the aspect shifts to some of the worst urban poverty – blighted Soviet-era highrises and neglected infrastructure – in this part of the world. It’s like moving from light to darkness. More than a third of all Armenians live in greater Yerevan, but very few are able to afford the luxury of the city centre. Beyond Yerevan the Armenian countryside is remarkably beautiful and almost half the population (46 per cent) are still involved in agriculture.
