We started our journey in Armenia, which is a small country landlocked in the Caucasus. Armenia has 3 million inhabitants and shares its borders with Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia and Iran (only the borders with the last two are open).

Independent since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the history of Armenia is in fact thousands of years old. Quite a few Armenians will remind you that their country was the first in the world to adopt Christianity in 301 A.D. thanks to Saint Gregory the Illuminator.

The symbol of Armenia is Mount Ararat, the famous biblical mountain…located in Turkey. In fact nowadays, Armenia consists solely of the area formerly known as oriental Armenia. Mount Ararat is located in occidental Armenia, a much larger area, which belonged to the Ottoman Empire and was emptied of its Armenian population during the genocide of 1915. Since Noah’s Ark ran aground on Mount Ararat, we are told here that the whole of humanity is de facto from Armenian roots.

Economically, Armenia suffered a lot from the fall of the Soviet Union and from the war that followed with Azerbaijan for the control of the Karabakh region. The Armenian diaspora, past and recent (it has been estimated that about one million Armenians left the country since it became independent), is an important support for the country.

Lastly, French people who go to Armenia are reminded of the connections that unite their two countries. France was the first country to welcome the survivors from the genocide of 1915. But already in the Middle Ages, the last King of Little Armenia, in Cilicia, was a Frank prince named Leon de Lusignan. He reigned over this kingdom until 1375 after having married an Armenian princess. 
 
François
(Translation: Yolène Dabreteau)