By the Rivers of Yerevan we sat down and wept

Every Nation has its symbol.

France has the Tour Eiffel, standing majestic in the middle of the capital, Paris.

UK has the Big Ben, standing sturdy in the middle of the capital, London.

Italy has the Colosseum, standing beautiful in the middle of the capital, Rome.

US has the Statue of Liberty, standing watching in the bay of the largest city, New York.

Armenia has mount Ararat, standing sublime in…

Turkey.

How is this possible? Well, fasten your seatbelt and brace yourself for the most controversial topic I tried to address so far: the Caucasian conflicts and territorial claims.

This picture was taken in a special place and in a special moment, and I hope this makes up for being taken on a cloudy day when Mount Ararat was not even really visible. Online anyway you can find a lot of astonishing pictures of this mountain.

But we are not here to describe Ararat for its beauty, but for its value. First of all, there are two Ararat. The little, in the left of the picture, and the big, the one everyone refers to when they say “Ararat”. In the picture is partly covered by clouds.

Why is this picture important? It shows the symbol of Armenia, Ararat, from the place where Armenia was born, Khor Virap, in April 2015, when Armenians commemorated the 100th anniversary of the alleged Turkish genocide. If all these info don’t ring a bell don’t worry, we’ll go through them in the next 5 minutes.

First of all, a flashback: Armenia is one of the oldest countries in the world. The “Satrapy of Armenia” was established in the sixth century BC. The state changed name many times and in 301 AD became the first state ever to adopt Christianity as its main religion, a few decades before the Roman Empire. It happened in the place where this picture was taken, called Khor Virap.

The story of Khor Virap, in a nutshell, is the following: do you remember the recent news of the young missionary killed on the Sentinelese islands in the quest to bring the gospel to an Indian tribe? Well, third century Eurasia was full of those people.

One of them was called Gregory the Illuminator and chose to go and preach to the Armenians of the Caucasus. King Tiridates III at first didn’t like him much. He made a hole in the ground and imprisoned Saint Gregory there for 13 long years. The saint could see no light and was fed with a basket dropped from the top of the hole.

But eventually, Tiridates changed his mind. Astonished by the resistance of the holy man, he went to talk to him, liked the message and accepted Christianity for him and his people, as mentioned above.

Since that moment Armenians have been proudly Christians for seventeen centuries despite the interference of bigger Muslim neighbours like Iran, Azerbaijan and Turkey and the dominance of Communist, atheist Soviet Union until the last independence on 1991.

Ararat became their holy place, the sacred mountain. Israeli have Sinai, Indians and Nepali have Kailash, Armenians have Ararat. Three mountains, guess what, resting today on someone else’s territory.

Ararat was special because it was lying right in the middle of Armenia. It was considered “Armenia” all the territory within 200 miles (320km) from its peak. It has been for centuries depicted on the country’s Coat of Arms and still is today. It’s the title of poems, songs, the name of beers and brandy, it is depicted in the local currency, it is painted in a picture hanging in every Armenian house.

But then came the wars: many of them, in which Armenia lost, then reconquered, then lost again its holy mountain to Persians, Russians and Turkish. The last one, the Turkish-Armenian war, was a conflict within the First World War: between 1915 and 1920 the Ottoman Empire, then Turkey, chased the Armenian population away from its eastern provinces, reconquering Ararat for good and killing in the process between 800,000 and 1.5 million civilians. That is, between 40% and 75% of the whole Armenian population.

Armenia became almost a desert and was easily conquered by the Soviet in 1920, ceasing again to exist for more than 80 years.

Armenia is now independent, but still without its Ararat. The relation between Armenia and Turkey is still somehow tense. The border between the two countries is closed, though the citizens can visit the other country going through Georgia, and the younger generations are trying to build ties. Many Turkish are willing to recognise the genocide and many Armenians are willing to welcome Turkish tourists in their country.

Still, nobody, no Armenian no Turkish no foreigner, can climb Ararat like any other mountain: you need a special permit and to be escorted by a national guide in every step. Some say it’s because on the mountain lies not less than The Ark of Noah!

It’s not just today’s hype: those who think Ararat hosts the ark, got this information right from the main source: mount Ararat is described as a final resting point of the Ark in the Bible itself: it is mentioned right in Genesis (for the curious, chapter 8 verse 4).

This doesn’t prove the presence of the Ark. But surely proves Ararat has been a special place for the people of the middle east for at least 3 millennia. And every day it can be seen from almost every corner of the small state of Armenia, dominating the landscape from the capital Yerevan, inspiring people as it did with Gregory and Tiridates in Khor Virap.

Today the disputed Turkish-Armenian border is marked by the river Aras, a stream so small one can almost jump across it if it wasn’t fenced. It lies a few hundred meters east of the monastery of Khor Virap, and you can see it in the picture.

“No one can take Mount Ararat from us; we keep it in our hearts. Wherever Armenians live in the world today, you will find a picture of Mount Ararat in their homes. And I feel certain that a time will come when Mount Ararat is no longer a symbol of the separation between our peoples, but an emblem of understanding”

- Serzh Sargsyan, former Armenian president.