CauKazEthnoexp. VIII. Armenia. Part II. Gyumri, Vardenis, Spitak, Vanadzor

July 28, 29, 31, 2010

A mere hundred years ago, Armenians were still living in burrows, like the Egyptians in Luxor.

And today, a service charge is automatically included in every restaurant bill.

Service charge 5% 190
Total 190
Payment Due 3990 Drams
Thank you for visiting!

Not only are Armenians unable to forget the genocide by the Turks, they’ve also turned it into the single most significant event of their history. All this is very reminiscent of Abkhazia, which has become completely fixated on the past war instead of moving on. And yet for some reason not a single Western state (except for, perhaps, Israel) considers one particular episode from its past to be the foundation for its future. The topic of genocide has become such an overproduced domestic product in Armenia that it now elicits aversion among the younger generation, although most are hesitant to speak about it openly.

Running gear repair is called a “runner” in Armenian.

Photo 1: Runner, Grinding. Photo 2: Runner, Tire Repairs

Most cars run on natural gas. A directional sign made out of a gas cylinder:

Because half the cars have been converted to run on natural gas by amateurs, all gas stations have walls separating the fuel dispensers—so that if a car explodes, the other ones won’t get damaged.

Curiously, local policemen still wear Soviet-design uniforms.

Armenia is a poor country. So a white Lada Niva is considered extremely prestigious here. And the coolest white Niva owners get five-spoke rims with painted lips.

There are abandoned hand-built fuel stalls everywhere. They’re like proto-gas stations.

A digger.

Gyumri

Gyumri is very similar to Ganja in spirit—another old, somnolent, low-rise, quiet Russian town.

Selling stuff from street stalls is the basis of existence.

A post box. The only one in all of Armenia. You shouldn’t drop any letters in it— they’ll never get delivered (same as in Georgia). You need to go to a post office and hand your envelope to someone in person.

A traffic light.

A street electrical box with meters, almost like in Tbilisi.

Danger Electricity

A spider-man lives in Gyumri.

The main distinctive local feature (which, admittedly, can also be found in other places in Armenia) is the rainwater drainpipes—they’re constructed to be as perpendicular to the walls as possible.

Vardenis

I found a functioning post office here and managed to send some postcards.

Haypost. A Gegharkunik subsidiary enterprise. Vardenis branch

A Soviet artifact.

Spitak

In 1988, the city was destroyed by an earthquake.

Many people still live in shipping containers.

A typical Spitak trash can.

A shop on one of the city’s main streets.

Vanadzor

Artsy lamp posts as you enter the city.

Even though the town, like the rest of the country, is partially in ruins, you can still get a feel of its former grandeur. There’s something pleasant about the atmosphere here.

In my plans for improving the appearance of urban environments, I once came up with the idea of hanging traffic signs some distance away from posts instead of directly on them. Even a ten-centimeter offset can add pleasant depth and nice shadows. As it turns out, this has already been done a long time ago in Vanadzor. Why Vanadzor? Why not some other town in Armenia or the rest of the world? That’s one of the mysteries of ethnography.

* * *

There are wooden shade umbrellas shaped like the roofs of Armenian temples all over the country.

There are also ad cubes for the mobile operator Orange on street poles all over the country.

There’s nothing to advertise in Armenia yet.