Armenia
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Serge is Armenian. Like most Armenians around the world, he wasn't born in Armenia. Armenia remains a dream, a subject of stories, yet still, against all odds, a place. I took a walk through this beautiful world Felt the cool rain on my shoulder

*Sigh*

Armenia is a small, landlocked Christian nation surrounded by mostly non-Christian neighbors. Azerbaijan over there, Iran down there, and Turkey right there.

Turkey and relations with Turkey and the Armenian people's terrible history with that country being the central and defining issue of Armenian identity. In a present day political reality, 103 years after what just about anyone would call genocide. Turkey has always adamantly denied that, saying it was simply a messy war. Yerevan is the capital of Armenia, a city of about 1 million people.

Mount Ararat looms over it, a cultural touchstone and a constant reminder of what was done on the other side. Think of Armenia and chances are you think instead of an Armenian. Maybe someone you know or maybe someone on TV. These guys for instance, famous Armenians.

We needed an Armenian. I needed an Armenian to push me over the edge, help me find a window, a lens with which to look at a country which, for some reason, I'd managed to not visit on my travels. Then this guy reached out: Serge Tankian, frontman for the Armenian-American band System of the Down. And the whole thing started to fall into place. Serge first visited Armenia 17 years ago.

Since then, he's performed a number of shows, including one with System of a Down during the centennial of the Armenian Genocide. We meet up at Dolmama, his favorite restaurant in Yerevan, and right away, I identify a potential problem.

Well, my first question is, are you a pescatarian? Yeah. How does one... You're like, what the f*** are you doing? This is a landlocked country in the heart of like meat on a stick, so... Yeah. Well, I'm interested to see how you navigate your way through this week. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, we've got amazing trout and lots of great veggies. I'm just busting your balls. Of course you are. So how Armenian are you? I mean...

That's a really good question. You were born in... Yeah, I was born in Beirut, grew up in L.A. I'm Armenian by culture. Both my parents are Armenian. My grandparents...

ended up in Syria and Lebanon because of the genocide. And how Armenian am I? That's a really good question, man. Majority of Armenians that live in the diaspora didn't voluntarily migrate. They were forced migrations, pogroms, after the genocide. So they ended up in the Middle East and Europe and different parts of the world. So we have this kind of feeling of being kicked out. And that longing is different than other diasporas, I think, because of that.

Diaspora Armenian communities, wherever they are, have been held together by deep feelings of nationalism and injustice for what happened to them and how the world refused to acknowledge it. Dolmala specializes in modern versions of Armenian classic dishes. Hoshlama, a braised lamb shank served with rice pilaf. It's a big little snack. That is a leg of...

A leg of lamb. A little guy, yes? Yeah. Wow. It's pretty, too. So, Monty's like my grandmother used to make it, but it looks completely different than this, because this is vegetarian Monty. They're like little boats with spices and onions. You probably thank Genghis Khan for this. The dumplings. He made it happen. He took all the manuscripts, killed a million people, but brought the dumplings. But he left you dumplings. He left me, yeah. That's awesome.

Yeah, this is what my soul needed. Good. What was it like coming back the first time? How old were you and what was it like? I had a mystical connection because I had never been to Armenia and we had only read about it in books per se, you know. Armenia, modern Armenia is different, you know, than what I had thought of, you know, because it's thriving, it's young, you know, it's got a lot of interesting dynamics. And I remember the first time I flew back to LA, the feeling that I got getting out of the plane is,

Why am I back here? Like it was a weird thing where it's this inescapable feeling of kind of the land having some kind of pull on your blood or something like that, genealogy. I don't know what it is. Do you think that Armenia looks to the west for anything?

Yes, definitely. I think, you know, culturally, Armenia is very European. Culturally? Culturally. But? Politically, it's very much tied into Russia. Not just as an ex-Soviet republic, but there's a lot of economic investment from Russia. And Russia, obviously, based on the last two world wars, is extremely, what's the word, they're very afraid of their borders, let's say. Yes, they are acutely sensitive to... Acutely sensitive to... Particularly this area.

There are 3 million Armenians living in Armenia, another 8 million around the world. Ever since the genocide, it's been a long existential struggle for survival. Recent history is defined by three major events: a massive earthquake in 1988, followed by the collapse of the USSR in 1991, and then a full-scale war with Azerbaijan in 1992.

Not to mention limited employment opportunities and most significantly its borders, of which approximately 80% have been closed due to relationships with its Turkish and Azeri neighbors. Things have not been easy for Armenians. On a hillside overlooking Yerevan sits a sprawling memorial to the genocide of 1915. On the other side of town, another memorial, the Yerevan Cascade.

Richard Giragosian is an American-born professor and political analyst who now lives here in Armenia. How many were lost during this? Most estimates historically put it around 1.5 million. That's a lot of people. Especially a lot of people when we look at the per capita, when we look at the impact this had. So what happened? ♪

In the early 20th century, what was historically Western Armenia was under the control of the Ottoman Empire, present-day Turkey. Justifying their actions by the widely held sentiment that Christian Armenians would align themselves with a hostile and also Christian Russia, then undergoing its second revolution and threatening their borders, the Turks rounded up Armenian intellectuals and summarily executed them.

Military and police units were dispatched to the countryside to drive out Armenians from their villages. They hanged local leaders in the town squares, burned churches, destroyed manuscripts, then marched anyone left towards the Syrian desert, deliberately starving them along the way. Those who survived scattered across the globe. They formed large and vibrant communities that survive today.

They never forgot the past and who and what had pushed them from their homeland.

Let's start with this. Genocide. Many people seem awfully and curiously reluctant to use this word. As American national or foreign policy, we use, what, catastrophe? Yeah, a regrettable series of incidents. Yeah, how insulting. Yes. But, I mean, it seems to me, just as a casual observer, any time a state actor or organization makes a concerted and organized effort to eradicate any ethnic or national group, that...

That's genocide, right? Yes. What's important though, however, is this is our defining issue. This is the unifying issue, and it's probably in many ways the only defining issue, both good and bad. For Armenians, both diaspora and living here. Yes. It's the fact that, yes, my grandfather's a survivor, every family's touched, but it's not the personal. It's also the political.

If Turkey wasn't so adamant about denying the historical accuracy, this is what makes it a living issue, a present issue.

Going forward, do you think there will be some kind of reconciliation? Well, I'm a little more positive. This is now the turning point. Armenia looking to normalize relations with Turkey. Not because of the genocide, but despite the genocide. Do you have any expectation of fruitful negotiations with Erdogan? It seems to me that things have kind of taken a downward turn. They have, but it was never supposed to be that easy or that quick.

We also need to go beyond victimization and to take more pride in survival.

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Lavash, the national bread. An ever-present feature on the Armenian table and a part of everyday life. Baked on a tonir, or underground clay oven, its preparation is passed down from generation to generation. - Little bit, little bit. - Uh-huh.

Markets like GUM near the city center date back to Soviet days, but they remain a favorite stop for an older generation of Armenians. October brings an array of seasonal produce, and Miriam and her grandmother Leah pick up ingredients for a fall tradition: Gapama, a rice dish baked in pumpkin.

The top of the pumpkin is removed and the seeds and pulp are scraped out. Dried fruit, almonds and honey are mixed with rice and baked inside. So as main course we prepared Gapama which has its own song.

Serge, usually when you bring in the dish, you sing it. We don't cook it very often, but it's an autumn meal. We have some pickles there. We have Armenian cheese there. And I'm going to serve Armenian bread. And this looks like hummus. It is hummus. And it's not Armenian. This is mutabba, yeah. We're not...

laying any claims that they're Armenian but many Western Armenian families grow up with this on the table as well. Miriam, her mother and grandmother were all born here in Yerevan. Her husband Nazareth and his family are more typical of the diaspora Armenians. His mom, Nar, was born in Beirut. Nazareth in Toronto. What language will your children speak?

Where will they live? Here? Yeah, here. No hesitation. That's the easy question to answer. But I mean, I think the two of us would like them to grow up being equally comfortable with Armenian, Russian and English. All three languages are very, very important for anyone growing up in Armenia. Yeah, I mean, they are the two largest Armenian diasporas, Russia and America. How many years?

Do you know, the first religious relationship between people was very strong. From the people of the country.

You sound wistful about the old days. Are things better now or worse?

When Armenia was swallowed up by the Soviet Union in 1922, it became the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. With that came purges and paranoia, but also a rapid industrialization, the evidence of which is still seen today in the abandoned factories and workers' blocks of another time. And a Soviet mentality and sizable Russian presence still hang over the country like a dead weight.

No matter how you felt about Soviet rule, the transition was a rough one. After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Armenia suffered terrible food shortages and a ruined electrical grid that allowed only a couple of hours of power a day, if you were lucky. The worst of those years would be 1992 to 1994. Right. But then a few years after 94 as well.

There was a lot of pilferage in the beginning. There was a lot of those dark, dark days. I'm the generation who literally learned alphabet with a candlelight. Back then we had only two hours, maybe, Mamsko? It was something to observe because during those two hours,

Someone would go to the balcony and scream in the yard, "We have lights, the electricity is back!" And everybody would go to their laundry, ironing, cooking, everything would be done in that one hour. But they raised us with love and we would play games. Mom would have her friends coming over playing guitar.

Looking back, I don't remember the darkness. I remember that it was dark, but emotionally we didn't feel that. Parents, grandparents really did their best for kids not to feel the darkness. It was heroism on their part. Especially in the winter. Especially in the winter. But also, I think we're observing a very interesting period of our history when change is happening.

Little by little and it's us who make, right Serge?

The TUMO Center is an after-school program for kids. You get to pick your course of study, be it art, technology, creative writing, whatever. There are no grades, no mandatory course requirements, and upwards of 14,000 kids are enrolled at four locations across Armenia. It's free, an entirely non-profit, privately funded venture, an investment in the youth of a young country.

The main goal is to complement their formal education. The curriculum is not mandatory. You pick what you want. You can pick music, graphic design, 3D modeling, or programming, game, whatever, photography, robotics.

The managing director, Marilu Papazian, and her husband, Pegor, are two former members of the Armenian diaspora, both extraordinary but not unusual in the new Armenia. They're not expats but repats, people who, though not born here, have chosen to come home and help build a nation. We grew up together in Beirut, then moved to the States. And the reason we moved was because of the Armenian thing. Our kid was growing up.

So we told our friends, "We're gonna move. "We need to come to go to Armenian school." So they said, "You're going to Armenia?" I said, "No, Glendale, California." But eventually we did move here 12 years ago. - Living in Glendale and keeping always saying you have to keep your identity was strange. And every time coming up with stories for the kids, you have to love your country, you're Armenian, you have to speak Armenian. - Whereas once you're here,

You just forget all about that and it's more about being a good person, having ambitions, all of that. And the Armenian-ness part, you can let that happen naturally. - Apricot vodka is a good start to a meal.

Guyane is a local favorite, a restaurant operating out of what was once a private home. Something of a throwback to Soviet days, like the Cuban paladars, when private enterprise, not to mention the spending of money on entertainment, could be frowned on, and privacy was at a premium. Trout wrapped and baked in lavash. This is not light cooking. ♪♪

There are certain things about, especially the last maybe 20, 30 years of the Soviet Union, 60s on, that not the brutal early Bolshevik Stalinist times, but later on where, you know, in terms of investment in culture and education. Well, I mean, it's very much a legacy of the Soviet Union. Armenia was kind of the nerd republic in a way. They specialized the different republics and Armenia was where they concentrated science, technology, politics,

particle accelerator, radio telescope, all of that. And so we've benefited from that. And you see a lot of our means attributing that to our genes and so on. But of course, our genes are the same as anyone else's. It's the culture that, you know, you can take the good with the bad, and the good is we're a cerebral nation in a way. That's how we grew up. We like chess. We're nerds. ♪

Armenia enjoyed a somewhat celebrated status during Soviet times, and Russian influence is everywhere still. Chess is taught in public schools, a basic life skill.

It's probably the fact that Armenia was such a powerhouse of smart, highly educated brainiacs with strong backgrounds in engineering, math, rocketry and technology. A veritable Silicon Valley of the Caucasus that largely spared them the worst of Soviet rule. And also perhaps the reason that it continues to be a leader in IT. I meet a few members from the tech community at a local brewery in Yerevan. Arthur, an industry writer.

Harot, a software engineer. And Ruben, a cybersecurity consultant. So what are you making?

What is coming of this? IT is a big... It's a big house. So, websites, web-based stuff and chip design were all over the place actually. But this comes from the old times, you know, like in Soviet times what happened is they manufactured chips, lots of electronic stuff for... I heard for Soviet submarines and things like that. But actually it was an issue of success story in the Soviet time.

I mean, you can have a success story if you were a Communist Party official or if you were doing science. Or perhaps artist, and that's it. And the science was the most clean career. I mean, you were not compromising your own beliefs and you were doing something good. If you were to imagine the perfect business or the most efficient export for a landlocked nation with most of its borders closed,

It would be information technology, right? Or to put it simply, brains. They teach chess in school? In school? Starting at what age?

- Third grade? My son hates it, he's a fourth grader. - Second grade. - So everybody plays chess, or was to-- - Yeah, you kind of-- - That already is a very different-- - I have a ranking actually. - Really, I didn't know. Come on. - Small number. - But that's a very different mentality than most places. - We have actually, my mom took me to chess class. It was not because of the country, like a super nation in chess or something, just she wanted to took me

in some place where I can develop my brains. But actually, there's a quick answer. When you are being oppressed during your history, knowledge is something that cannot be taken of you.

Anything can happen. Soviet Union can collapse. There can be pogroms, there can be emigration. They can take your home, they can take your fortune, but knowledge and skill is something that remains with you for all of the time. And that's why Armenians are investing in education, in knowledge, in skill, to invest in development of a child. All of us are children that were invested in.

The knowledge is something that you always keep with you. I think this explains a lot. So, you want to be a marketer. It's easy. You just have to score a ton of leads and figure out a way to turn them all into customers. Plus, manage a dozen channels, write a million blogs, and launch a hundred campaigns all at once. When that's done, simply make your socials go viral and bring in record profits. No sweat.

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My trip to the disputed Armenian-controlled enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh requires an early morning stop at a military base on the outskirts of Yerevan. And apparently, a flight in this thing. A smoking, flame-belching, banged-up-looking Soviet Mi-8 twin-turbine chopper whose appearance prior to boarding does not fill me with confidence.

But once up in the air, it takes me over crags and peaks and steppes across the internationally recognized border with Azerbaijan to what the Armenians call Artsakh, an isolated pocket surrounded on all sides by Azeris. Whose mountains these are is a subject of contention and conflict to say the least.

When the borders of the South Caucasus were drawn by the Russian conquerors some 200 years ago, a strong Russian presence kept ethnic and religious rivalries in check. But whenever disorder hit Russia, war has broken out here, most recently after the fall of the USSR. The brutal conflict went largely ignored internationally.

As with any war, particularly wars with an ethnic or religious component over territory, it was ugly, murderous and with atrocities committed by both sides. 1992 was a turning point. The Armenians organized and created their own army and, surprising everyone, pushed through and took full control of Karabakh and the surrounding areas. These buffer zones are ethnically Azeri and bitterly contested in the subject of continuing dispute.

There are still violent confrontations, the latest being a four-day battle in the spring of 2016. Russia's role in the conflict is suspiciously cynical. They actively arm, support and advise both sides, as it appears in their interest that there be no lasting resolution.

Travel to this region continues to be a particularly sensitive issue, especially for the Azeris. Simply by coming here, I've become, as I read in the papers a few days later, officially persona non grata in Azerbaijan. Stepanakert is the capital of the autonomous republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and overlooking it, the village of Shushi.

Shingalohats is a specialty of the region. This lavash bread is stuffed with greens and onions before being toasted atop a cast iron sheet. Horovats, basically Armenian barbecue. Meat on a stick, which is, let's face it, always good. It's our trend. Armenians try sometimes to cook it. Not the same taste.

Armenia and Karabakh. Yeah. Two different things, or the same? Not really. Karabakh is definitely part of the Armenian civilization and Armenian culture. I wouldn't separate them. I think Karabakh is part of Armenia.

Tigran served in the military and is now in Karabakh's only opposition party. Tatul is a journalist. Saro, our host, is Armenian, but born in Azerbaijan, having fled during the war.

He now runs a guest house here in Xuxi. To what extent is this not just a religious conflict? No, no, no. No, it's not religious. Not at all? No, no, no, no. No, nothing at all. This is a Christian island in the Sea of Brooklyn. Well, this is Christian island, it's true. This is Christian island. But the conflict of Nagorno-Karabakh is not religious.

There are people, hardliners here, who refer to Azeris as Turks. But they are Turks. They are Turks. They are Turks, yes. So please explain. I think probably they are not identified, they did not bear historical responsibility for the actions committed by the Ottomans. But the...

The struggle of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh for their existence is a continuation of the struggle of Armenian people to live peacefully in their historical homeland. I'm not saying that the Azeris and Turks are the same nations, but they are Turkic nations. They're working in unison. Yeah, they are working in unity today to isolate Armenia. Do you think there's a sense that...

when people look at this conflict, they think, they look back and they say this is what could happen in the future. Yeah, absolutely. It is absolutely an existential conflict. If we lose, we know that we will be destroyed. Who will help? Who cares? Who will support you if things once again get ugly? What do you think the future... No one. I think there is a clear understanding in Armenian society that we can only rely on ourselves.

But another reality is we are paying very, very high price. Since 1994, Armenians and Karabakh sites lost about 3,000 soldiers. We are losing our 18, 20 years old sons, you know. This is sad reality. And I don't know how will this situation continue. I don't know.

I think it's right time to drink for peace. For peace. You read my mind now. Cheers. Cheers. It's a three and a half hour train ride from the capital to Gimri.

Armenia's second largest city. Gimri was at the near epicenter of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that absolutely devastated much of the country in 1988, killing 25,000 people and displacing hundreds of thousands more. Recovery was made more difficult by the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union and the Karabakh War.

Manufacturing, infrastructure, the country's industrial base and political stability all crumbled along with the buildings. The cemetery on the way into town gives you a powerful reminder of how many died. One tombstone after another, after another, all dating back to the same year. Polos Meguch sits on a recently rebuilt street. Inside, I meet with three young gimratzi.

determined to rebuild and revitalize their city and their country. Anoush works for an equal rights NGO back in Yerevan. Amalia is in tech, and Gayan works in tourism. So, were you all born here? Born in this city. But two of you live here, who doesn't live here?

You live in Yerevan now? I have lived in Yerevan for four years and that's the beauty of my story. Then I came back. It doesn't matter how it was hard to suffer here. Me, my family, my father, we never fought to leave the city.

And that's why for me Gyumri history is divided into two parts. Like before earthquake, the nice story I heard from my parents and after the earthquake, the difficulties and hard times we had, but also the renaissance that now the city is changing because the generation is changing.

This is canach. This is some typical soup. - Yes. - Oh, oxtail. - Yes. - Oxtail soup, yeah. - It should be a little spicy. - Good. And this is liver and heart. - Yes. - Yes. - That's delicious. - With tomato and oil.

This, what's this dish called? I mean, I know what it is. It's a sheep's head. Yeah. This is called kiala. Kiala. In the local language. Kiala. When I was kid, I remember my father not only went to restaurant with kiala, but he brought to home for us. Oh, yeah. And I was afraid. I was afraid of their teeth. Yeah. Actually, that's the, you got the good part there. Yeah. Yeah.

So, let me ask this: technology, not just here, but Armenia in general, seems to be the major hope for the future. What do you think the city will be like in 20 years? You know, the history is not a stable thing that we can count on. But what I see 10 years ago and 10 years now, Gyomri is developing quite

It's really good. I see really good developments. And I can say that's most of the duty of younger generation. I will definitely say that. It's self-employment and entrepreneurship that is developing among the youth very, very, in a very kind of fast way these days. Because people understand that...

If you stay in Kyumri, you need to create your own stuff. We never should stop. We never should wait for others to help our city and ourselves. We should think, we should create, we should use our strong sides and to move forward.

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The GAZ M21 Volga Executive Class four-door sedan. Don't mind us, we're just Volga-ing. The ultimate in Soviet driving luxury. Corinthian leather. Nice. Yeah. Wonder what top speed on this thing is. I don't want to wonder. The decelerator isn't that great. Right. Only an hour's drive from the capital sits Lake Savan and some beautiful countryside.

So it's the Switzerland of Armenia. This is Dilijan, it's the Switzerland of Armenia. It's one of my favorite spots actually. What am I eating today? I think you're eating khash today. It's said to be a hangover cure. That's it, yeah. It's made out of legs of cows, I think. Well, I like legs of cows. I like their eyes. Not to eat, but just to look at. Yeah, me too. They're so dreamy. They are. Yeah. Oh, it's beautiful here.

Cheers, thank you. It's awesome. Well, that's a list of them. Yeah, thanks. You got gold. Yeah, yeah. I'm offering it short, but it has like, I want to do it for Armenia, for the hosts, and for the hash makers. Okay. So, three in one. Three in one. I think he knows. Bar of the sun. Bar of the sun. Bar of the sun. Cheers. It's good that we met. Cheers. Welcome.

Joining Serge and I at the table are George, his longtime manager and friend, Melina, the proprietor of the place, and Sam, a restaurateur from Yerevan, along with some friends. Hash is what hipster goofs these days would call bone broth, basically a stock flavored by roasted beef bones.

In Armenian we say khash, it means just boil. So there is big debate whether it's Georgian or Armenian. Of course every Armenian is sure it's Armenian. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? No way it's that. Don't do the lavash first, please. We're going to do the... Garlic, garlic first. How we cook it? I see. But pay attention to the salt. If you are not levelling it with the right...

Salt. Right level. Garlic level for you. It's okay. Yeah, so it's garlic so far so good. Then, okay, you have one more plate. You remove the meat. Wow, this is a... You take this very seriously. Yeah, yeah, you take it. This is a ritual. It's a ritual. Does everybody have their own style or is this the absolute, is this the way?

Yeah, but the classics say you have to eat with your hands. This is the classics. You eat with your hands. Whoever is not eating with his hands, they are teasing him. Hey, you're a loser or something like that. Really? And you're literally judged by a person if he's eating good khash or not. Oh, yeah. Like, see the guy? He's like the first. See the guy. He's harsh. You're like the Ayatollah of...

- You're very... - Yes, you may go. - Are you ready? Okay, we have a saying when we first come to a house, to a place that hosts us, we say,

which literally means "let my feet bring luck to this home". So, let your feet bring luck to our country, to Dilijan, to this home.

hosting us at the moment. Guys, with hash we do like lots of toasts, but it has to be short. This is the tree, you can't go like, Armenian toasts are very long. Because people have to be concentrated on hash. No, no, no, because it will get cold. Yeah, yeah. Well, we were always between Iran and Rome.

So we're used to be between to survive. When you, you remember you asked the very first question, what is the guy who comes back to Armenia, what they feel? They feel, I survived. I did what my grandfather wanted, what his grandfather wanted. We are here to survive. No matter, is it a war? We're going to still have this fist.

That's a good toast. Yeah, it's a badass toast. Welcome to Times Square. Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen are back together to ring in the New Year. That's not in my life! And anything could happen. Oh my gosh, so embarrassed. That's perfect TV! New Year's Eve Live starts at 8 on CNN.

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