Gallivanting Grandma

August 19^th Thursday

Breakfast the next morning was on the patio of the hotel along Lake Van. I had difficulty sleeping last night because there was no air conditioning and the room was very hot. I tried to open the window but the noise from the nearby road kept waking me up as cars whizzed by until the early hours of the morning.

It was a warm brilliant morning and the sunlight reflected brightly on the lake. I was tired but energized by the idea of being in Van. I’m pretty sure that my grandparents had never visited the famous lake, although they probably knew about it. They never mentioned it in conversations with me when I was young. Also, transportation from Sebastia to Van would have been very difficult for them a hundred years ago.

Breakfast by Van Lake

The sun was shining brightly in a cloudless blue sky. The heat was already starting to grow. I met everyone by the pool and we had coffee and chai with a surprisingly large assortment of breakfast offerings.

Fresh Baked Bread in the Morning

The kingdom of Urartu, the biblical Ararat, flourished near the Van Rock, from the 13th through the 7th centuries BC.  The Urartians borrowed much of their culture, including cuneiform writing, from the neighboring Assyrians with whom they were usually battling.  The Assyrians never subdued the Urartians, but joined with several other tribes to cause the downfall the the Urartian kingdom.  By the 6th century BC the region was settled by the Armenians, who are believed to be the descendants of the Urartians.  After the fall of the Byzantines in 1071, Turkish emirs ruled the region until the Ottomans took over in 1468.  The Ottomans destroyed the old city of Van before Russian occupation in 1915.  The new current city of Van was built 4km east of the old site.

The Countryside of Van

After breakfast, we all gathered and boarded the vans for a tour of the Van region. The city is located right on the lake with dry brown grassy hills rising behind it to the east.  Our first destination was an old Armenian church which was located in a Kurdish village.  The villagers maintain the care and upkeep of the church by charging a small donation fee.

In A Kurdish Village

We drove into the Kurdish village and immediately the children circled the van.  The women peeked out from their doors and windows, men began to gather with curiosity, and the children happily greeted the strangers.

A House in the Village

In this village the children came prepared with lovely beaded head-scarves, which they claimed they had made by hand.  The children were charming and it was hard to move beyond them to the church.  In the other villages, it was usually the boys who gathered to talk to us.  In this village, the girls greeted us.

Kurdish Girls

The door of the church was small and encircled with Armenian writing.  Inside the long abandoned church, it was cool and dark, dimly lit by a couple of incandescent light bulbs.  The dome was gone and covered with wood.  The caretaker and his family had arranged wooden slats to display scarves and other trinkets to sell to visitors.

Interior of the Former Armenian Church

Close-up of Stone Ornamentation Inside the Church

Kurdish Girls in the Village

The city of Van is a fairly large city with a population of almost 400,000 people.  According to the guides, the majority of the people who live in Van are Kurdish.

Taking Photographs on the Road

After we left the village, we stopped along the road to take photos of Van in the distance.  Then we stopped at a place where we could see the tombs of some Urartan kings close-up.  As the story goes, one of the kings comes out of his tomb on a special day every year to see if there is world-wide peace.  If there is no peace, he returns to his cave for another year.  When there is peace, he will leave his cave and join the people.

Urartu Tombs

This time young boys scrambled down from the high rocks like mountain goats to greet our vans.  They were really cute, jostling for a close position and calling out “Hellos” in English!!  None of these children are begging for money.  They are curious about us and want some recognition and ask to have their photos taken.  Then they laugh when we show them their image on the back of the camera.

Young Boys Greeting Our Van

Van was bustling with people and cars and looked like any other busy Turkish city with shops, food stores, department stores, pharmacies, etc.  The Lonely Planet Guidebook gives these encouraging words: “Van is different in spirit from the rest of southeastern Anatolia – more urban, more casual, less rigorous…”  It was a relief for us after the warnings about Erzurum.

Modern Street in the City of Van

We stopped at a busy intersection and got out of the vans to go into a jewelery store to look at silver pieces. We all got out of the vans and went into the store. The silver jewelery was beautiful and unique. They were made in the Armenian silver jeweler’s technique using Urartu designs and symbols. The pieces were so unique that I had to buy something. So I bought a necklace and earings. We took a long time to look at the beautiful jewelery. Chris explored the neighborhood and found another good bakery.  We also bought some yummy baked goodies at the corner bakery to eat for a casual lunch on the road.

Bakery Selling Simit

Then we went to the Archeological Museum. As we entered, we met some Armenian people from Canada. They were also cousins and two were from Montreal, who spoke French, and the other two were from Toronto and spoke English. We compared travel ideas and notes and they said to make sure to sing the Lord’s Prayer in Akdamar Church.  They also told us not to pay attention to the guards who might complain about our singing.

Archeology Museum

The museum was very interesting.  It had a good collection of Urartan artifacts and explanations of where they come from and how they lived thousands of years ago. There were also several Khatch Kars (“cross stones” literally) in good condition with Armenian lettering and Urartu cuneiform inscriptions. These were used as grave markers for important people in ancient times.

Ancient Cuneiform Writing

I was very happy that we had a chance to visit the museum. Then we returned to the Merit Hotel, picked up the Zeronians and went to the shore of Lake Van to go to Akdamar Island.  There is virtually no water sports on the lake and no resorts. There are natural sand beaches, but very few people venture into the beautiful turquoise water.

View from My Window at the Merit Hotel

Lake Van is the largest lake in Turkey and the second largest in the Middle East. The lake water is alkaline and is rich in sodium carbonate and other salts. It was formed by a volcanic explosion of Mt. Nemrud, whose last eruption was in 1440 AD. It is more that 74 miles across at its widest point and has an average depth of 561 feet according to the guidebook.

Ferry Boats to Akdamar Island

The water is not suitable for drinking or irrigation because of its high salinity and only a very limited species of fish can live there. The lake is surrounded by fruit and grain-growing agricultural areas. The lake was the center of the Armenian Kingdom of Ararat from about 1000 BC. Along with Lake Sevan in today’s Armenia and Lake Urmia in today’s Iran, Van was one the three great lakes of the Armenian Kingdom, referred to as the “Sea of Armenia” in ancient times.

Calm Lake Van

We drove a few miles down the shore of the lake to a place where ferries wait to take people to Akdamar Island. Armen bought tickets for all of us and we boarded the boat.

Boats to Akdamar Island

Akdamar Island is the second largest of four islands in Lake Van. It is home to the 10th century Armenian Church of the Holy Cross (Armenian: Սուրբ Խաչ, Surp Khach), which served as a royal church to the Armenian Vaspurakan Kingdom and was the seat of the Armenian Catholicos from 1116 to 1895. The ruins of Armenian monasteries also exist on the other three islands of Lake Van: Lim, Arter, and Ktuts.

Skipper of the Boat

The origin and meaning of the island’s name is unknown, but is often attributed to an old Armenian legend. According to the story, an Armenian princess named Tamar lived on the island and was in love with a commoner. The youth would swim from the mainland to the island each night, guided by a lantern she lit for him. Her father learned of the boy’s visits. One night, as she waited for her lover to arrive, her father smashed the lantern leaving the boy in the middle of the lake without a guide to indicate which direction to swim. They say his dying cries of “Akh, Tamar…” (“Oh, Tamar”) can be heard to this day at night. The legend was the inspiration for a famous Armenian poem by Hovhannes Tumanyan.

Akdamar Island

We were the only passengers on that particular trip. The sun shone brilliantly in the flat calm water. The breeze of the moving boat felt wonderful on my face as the boat chugged along to Akdamar Island in the distance. The young Turkish captain of the boat had lively turkish music playing quietly in his cabin and we asked him to raise the volume. We danced and swayed to the music in exuberance as the boat sailed closer to the island. It was a joy to watch the island grow larger as we approached it.

Landing on Akdamar Island

We could just see the top of the famous steeple of the Church of the Holy Cross on the other side of the island from the boat dock. We got off the boat and walked up the steep stone path and around to the church. On September 19th there will be the first church service in this church with Armenian priests officiating since 1915. It will be a grand event. I wish I could be there to see it!

Armenian Church of the Holy Cross

The outside of the church is in remarkable condition. The ornamentation stone reliefs around the church are in excellent condition due to recent reconstruction efforts.   They are magnificent!

Each one depicts a story from the bible and they continue around the outside of the church building. We climbed up the high stone steps and went inside. Efforts have been made recently to restore the paintings and one can see the beauty and brilliant colors of the original works of art.

Stone Reliefs

There were two Turkish guards walking around the church. They weren’t threatening; they were just smoking and entertaining each other with conversation. We admired the exterior and interior of the church and we noticed that it had wonderful acoustics right under the main dome in the middle.

Interior of the Church

We then called everyone together, and we all stood right under the dome and we started to sing the Lord’s Prayer (Hymer) in Armenian. All 18 of us started to sing – what a sound!!! – but then the guards yelled at us to stop. We continued for a few minutes, but they shouted at us and we had to stop singing.

Cousins

Armen stepped in and began to talk to the guard who seemed to be in charge. Armen talked to him in Turkish for a long time. A few of us milled around and finally, Armen said that we had permission to sing!

Armen and the Turkish Guards

We quickly gathered everyone again and started to sing the Hymer in Armenian under the church dome as loud as we could, facing up to the heavens in honor of our grandparents and parents and all the other Armenians who could not sing or pray in their home churches or country any more. It was a really strong emotional experience and I had difficulty continuing to the end.  Filled with tears and sorrow, we thought about our grandparents and parents and the sacrifices they made and how difficult their lives had been as survivors.  We remembered their parents who were lost in the genocide.  WOW!!  What an experience…….

Exterior of the Church of the Holy Cross

Later, I asked Armen what he had said to the guard to get him to change his mind. He said that he told the guard that we were 20 people and when we went home we would each tell another 10 people that the Turks would not let us sing in the church. Then those 200 people would tell another 10 people each, that the Turks would not allow singing in the church. And those 2000 people would tell another 10 people each and quickly hundreds of thousands of people would know that the guards at Akdamar do not allow singing and it would bring disgrace to the government.  Armen also said that he told the guard that people would be singing on September 21st during the service, so if the Turkish government allows singing next month, of course they will allow it today!

We all thanked the guards for allowing us to sing in Akdamar Kilisesi, the Turkish name for the Church of the Holy Cross, and smiled appreciatively at them. They looked relieved that they were saved from an international and major incident.

The Lucky Seven Cousins

We explored the exterior of the church and the grounds around the church and then happily walked back to the boat. It had been quite an experience and quite a day….

Our Ferry Back to the Mainland

We returned to the Merit Hotel to relax before dinner. The weather was hot and dry and everyone needed a refreshing shower.

Dinner between the Lake and the Pool

There was a cool breeze blowing off the lake near the pool in the evening and we ate a good relaxing dinner. Afterwards we all gathered in the lobby to talk and laugh and share our experiences. It was actually too cool to sit outside!

Sunset Over Lake Van

August 18th  Wednesday  The weather was sunny and hot; a thunderstorm at dusk

The highway between Kars and Van runs directly south and it is a long day’s drive to the city of Van. Kars is located in the north eastern part of Turkey close to the borders of Georgia and Armenia. Trains and buses run regularly across the Georgian border to Tsibili and we saw signs pointing toward the frontier.  For now, the border between Armenia and Turkey is closed and there is absolutely no transportation between the two countries.

We pulled off the road and into a small village, named Digor.  It used to be an Armenian village and there are supposed to be the ruins of five Armenian churches in the area.  We drove through the center of the village and stopped in front of an old woman’s house.  Behind her house is the ruins of an Armenian church.

The woman spoke to Setanik in Turkish and said that she was 82 years old and has lived in the house since she was a child and that the church had been in ruins all her life.  However, her mother told her that her grandmother prayed in the church many years ago.

Many Armenian women were forced to marry Turkish men and raise their children as Muslims.  The woman raised 10 children in the house is a grandmother and great-grandmother.  There were several younger women nearby and a few children were playing near the house.  She smiled and seemed to enjoy talking to Setanik.

Older boys gathered by the van and talked to Chris.  They told him about more churches in the region and wanted to show us where they were.  Since we didn’t have the time to follow the young boys, we got back into the van and drove slowly back through the village.  A man waved at the van and Celcuk stopped to inquire.  The man said that another man had pictures of the church.  We waited a few minutes and a man appeared with two old photographs of Armenian churches.

He proudly showed them to us.  He did not want to sell the photos to us, but was talking about them in Turkish. Unfortunately, we could not understand what he said and the usual crowd of men gathered around us to find out what was going on.  Meanwhile, Chris got off the van and went into the barber shop on the corner.  We laughed about him getting a haircut, but we had to go and someone ran to call him.

The terrain became more rocky and mountainous, the farther east we traveled. Someone said that there was an old folktale about a man who had a dream that rocks were thrown from the heavens and that rocky place became Armenia. Another suggestion was that when Turkey and Russia divided the land after World War I, the Turks took the better, more fertile fields for themselves and gave the less desirable land to the Soviet Armenians.

Jemal Offering Turkish Cookies

During the long drive we entertained ourselves during the long ride by singing French songs, listening to Selcuk’s Turkish music CDs, dancing in the aisle of the van, and telling stories. Satenik passed the microphone back to Nicole and Francoise and they led us in a French & English song-fest. Selchuk was even inspired to sing a beautiful song in Turkish. He had a great collection of music CDs from many cultures: Kurdish, Persian, Turkish, and Armenian. The music from the countries is similar “Middle Eastern” music to my ear, but Selcuk says each country’s music is different. We enjoyed driving through the rough countryside listening to Middle Eastern/Turkish music.

We stopped a few times along the road to take photos of interesting sights. We were all looking forward to our first glimpse of Mt. Ararat, which is the national and spiritual symbol of Armenia. The famous mountain is now located on the Turkish side of the Armenia/Turkey border, and both countries claim the mountain as their own.

Mt. Ararat is supposed to be the traditional resting place of the biblical Noah’s Ark after the 40-day flood. Perpetual snow and cold near the peak keep people from uncovering the Ark and over the years, various groups have explored the mountain in the hopes of finding the remains of Noah’s Ark.

The summit of Mt. Ararat is 16,946 feet above sea level. It is a dormant volcano and its last eruption was June 2, 1840. Along the sides of the road there were large black rocks probably volcanic stones. The upper third of the mountain is covered with snow and ice throughout the year. Adjoining Mt. Ararat (4000 ft. lower) is the peak known as Little Ararat. The first recorded ascent was in 1829. While we were staying at the hotel in Van, we met a man who was part of an expedition to climb the mountain that week.

Across the road from the place where people stop to take photos of Mr. Ararat, was an outdoor “tea shop” which was set up by an enterprising Kurdish family.  Chai, as it’s called in Turkey, is the very popular drink of choice any time of the day or night.  Several members of our party stopped to have chai along the road.  It was raining and it seemed to be a good time and place to stop for a break.

We drove on toward Van and after a while, took another break near a beautiful waterfall.  It seemed to be a family rest-stop with a snack bar near the parking lot. There was also a large rustic restaurant on the other side of a rope bridge spanning the gorge.

The WCs were a bit of a walk behind the restaurant. The young man sitting between the men’s and women’s sections was asking for one Turkish lire to use the facilities, instead of the customary .50 which was typical everywhere else in Turkey. We commented on his enterprising nature.

Before we entered the city of Van, we drove to a large natural rock formation which is located about 3 kilometers from the center of the city of Van and Selcuk parked the van. It is called Van Castle or the Rock of Van which dominates the view of the city.  The van was parked near the ruins of the old city which was destroyed in 1915.  A few buildings have survived and there is a stone mosque near the parking lot.

This had been a sacred place to the ancient Urartu people who carved out burial caves high up into the rocks.   Armenians are descendants of the ancient Urartu, so many people believe that this land rightfully belongs to the Armenian people. There are supposed to be numerous ‘khachkars” (Armenian stone crosses) carved into the southern side of the rock.

The sun was setting and it cast a beautiful light on the stones. The mosque near the parking lot glowed in the golden light. We walked around a little and watched families carrying plastic bottles of water. We wondered if there was a spring nearby.

It was getting late and we all got into our vans and drove to the Hotel Merit right on the shore of Lake Van. It was a large modern looking stone building with a large lobby and seating area on the ground floor. Through the glass doors past the reception desk is a large inground pool with tables set around the pool. The pool area is right along the lake shore. At the right angle it looks like the pool continues into the Lake Van.

We received our room assignments, took our luggage up to our rooms and reconviened by the pool for dinner. There was a large tent-like structure to the right of the pool and this was a buffet area set up with all the food in a semi-circle of tables along the outer edge of the room. On the left were many choices of appetizers or mezes as they’re called in turkish. Then the many choices of meats and vegetables, both hot and cold, and then the desserts and finally the chai area. Everything looked delicious.

Entrance to the Merit Hotel on Van Lake

The main problem was that there were many little gnats hopping around the tables by the pool and I could not sit there or bring food to the table. I suggested taking the dish into the lobby and eating there. The manager moved us away from the pool and those tables were better so we could eat.

Side/Back View of the Merit Hotel From the Road

It was very late by the time we finished eating. We sat for a short while in the lobby to talk but then everyone returned to their rooms for the night. It had been a full and exhausting day.

Massive Wall Around Ancient Ani

Later in the day, on August 17th we finally went to Ani.  This was something that everyone was looking forward to.  It was a very hot and sunny afternoon.  We had dropped off our luggage at the Grand Ani Hotel and Selcuk drove the van through the dry barren landscape for the 20 minute ride to the ancient Armenian city of Ani.

Ani is located in the Turkish province of Kars across the border of the current Republic of Armenia.  Ani was once the capital of a great medieval Armenian kingdom.  It was one of the major cities along the ancient Silk Road and various other trade routes crossed through the city.

Main Path Through the Ancient Kingdom

King Ashot III chose Ani for the site of his capital in 961 AD.  Successive kings built a citadel, great churches, and monasteries within mighty city walls at the edge of the deep river gorge.

One of the Many Churches

Ani had been called the “City of 1001 Churches”. It’s many religious buildings, palaces, and fortifications were among the most technically and artistically advanced structures in the world, at that time.

Church Near the Armenian Border

At the height of its glory, Ani had a population of between 100,000 to 200,000 people and was the rival of Constantinople, Baghdad, and Cairo.

Border Between Turkey and Armenia

Ani flourished for less that a century before being conquered in 1045 by the Byzantines, then by the Seljuks in 1064, followed by the kings of Georgia, and then various Kurdish emirs.  In 1239, the Mongols swept in, and finally in 1319 a strong earthquake cleared out the Mongols.  Ani has been in ruins ever since.

FRUSA Cousins & the Zeronians

Many of Ani’s churches survived the earthquake and have lasted through the centuries.  Some people say that the ruins of the churches seem to “float on a sea of grass above the collapsed rubble of the rest of the city.”

Armenian Chapel

We walked through the huge gateway in the massive stone wall and were awestruck!  Original paths lead visitors to the ruins of the buildings.  Adequate signs give information about the former structures.

The Ruins of a Building

We walked around the entire ancient city for several hours.  I cannot describe every building here, but have included a few of my photos.  There are books and articles written for readers who want more information about the ancient city of Ani.

The Ancient Kingdom of Ani

We were flabbergasted!  It was 7:00 PM.  The sun was setting, it was getting late, we were hungry, and everyone had expected to spend the night in Erzurum.  Armen did not mention that we were leaving the city.  Everyone was tired because we had been on the road since 10:00 AM in the morning, we had not stopped for lunch, and we had a two hour ride ahead of us to Sarikamis.

The final ‘s’ in Sarikamis has a little ‘comma’ under the letter in Turkish.  That gives the letter ‘s’ an “sh” sound. The name is pronounced, “Sarikamish”, but spelled Sarikamis.  My computer does not have squiggly underscored letters, so I’ve spelled it both ways in this piece as a reminder of the sound of the name.

We left Erzurum and continued to drive through rural Eastern Turkey.  The sun set and the road was pitch black.  As we continued, we noticed drops on the windshield and realized that it was raining.  The only lights were from the occasional car or truck heading in the opposite direction.  The highway had two-lanes: one lane heading in each direction.  There were no lights on either side of the road.  There was only darkness all around us.

Selcuk did a great job of driving in the dark, but we felt sorry for him because he celebrates Ramazan and had not eaten or had a drop of water since sunrise.  He must have been exhausted.

Sarikamish was the site of a battle between the Russian and Ottoman Empires during the First World War. It took place from December 22, 1914 and January 15, 1915.  The outcome was a Russian victory.  Both sides had approximately 100,000 soldiers each.  The war zone was almost 900 miles wide from the Black Sea to Lake Van.  The forces were concentrated at each side of the border at the fortresses of Kars (Russian) and Erzurum (Ottoman).

The Ottoman troops were ill prepared for the brutal winter conditions and suffered major casualties.  The elevation of the area ranges from 5000 to 6000 feet above sea level and winters are snowy and very cold.  The Russian Tsar visited the battle front on December 30th, telling the head of the Armenian Church that “a most brilliant future awaits the Armenians.”  With these words, the fate of hundreds of thousands of Armenians was endangered, as the Ottoman Empire perceived its large Armenian minority as a source of treachery and disloyalty and did nothing to discourage (and perhaps, encouraged) anti-Armenian feeling among its populace.

The relationship between the Armenians and the Ottoman Empire had already started to deteriorate after numerous massacres in eastern Anatolia during the 1890s.  The Ottoman government claimed that it had a legitimate defence against a projected Armenian uprising in favor of a Russia and Western Allied invasion of the Ottoman heartlands.  On his return to Constantinople, Enver Pasha blamed his failure to win the Battle of Sarikamis on the actions of the region’s local Armenians, initiating the repressive measures against the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian population.  This was an early stage of the Armenian Genocide.

We finally saw lights high on a hill and drove up to a huge ski chalet!  It was 9:00 o’clock at night and we had arrived at Sarikamis!  We stepped out of the van, it was pitch dark beyond the hotel, and the air was actually quite cold.  We had no idea what was “out there”. We hastened inside and registered. It felt like we had entered The Twilight Zone.

We entered the huge lobby of a hotel that could have been in any ski resort in the world: Vermont, Idaho, Chamonix, St. Moritz, Switzerland. There were heavy wooden beams on the ceiling and along the walls, big leather chairs, pictures of deep snow and skiers, and skis on stone walls.

lobby of the Sarikamish Hotel

In two hours we had travelled from hot noisy exotic Erzurum to a quiet, peaceful ski chalet in the middle of nowhere and we were the only guests in the entire hotel!

We freshened up in our rooms and then went down to dinner in the hotel dining room. Waiting there for us were “The Zeronians” from Pasadena, California.  This was the other Armenian family that Armen had booked to join us during part of our Anatolian tour. Joe & Marilyn Zeronian, their two adult children, one spouse, and four grandchildren.

We also met our new guide, Satenik Usta.  She is an Armenian who was born in Istanbul and spoke English and French as well as Turkish.  Satenik had been guiding the Zeronians all around Istanbul and they all flew into Erzerum in the afternoon.  Jemal, who is Selcuk’s father and the other half of the family business, picked up the Zeronians in his white Mercedes van at the airport and drove them around Erzerum before driving to Sarikamis earlier in the afternoon.

We sat down to a late Turkish dinner at a long table. Over dinner, we learned that Armen would ride with the Zeronians and that Satenik would be our guide for the rest of the trip.  Soon afterwards, we finally went to bed. It had been a very long day……

On the morning of August 17th, everyone woke up early to see where we were.  It had been pitch black darkness when we arrived late last night and we had no idea what the place looked like.

View from my window!

The Sarikamish Hotel was perched on a hill high above the main road.  The view from the window was vast brown hills of farmland as far as the eye could see.  Far in the distance below there were houses and perhaps villages.

Side view

There were pine trees close to the building giving it a ski lodge appearance.   The morning air was cool. In the winter this is a major ski area with great amounts of snow.  We ate breakfast with the Zironian family in the dining room and then prepared to leave Sarikamis.

View of the Sarikamish Hotel from a distance

It was just a two hour drive to Kars, (rhymes with ‘farce’) which was our next destination.  Selcuk expertly drove into the city of about 74,000 people.  We noticed a distinct military or police presence in Kars.  There were uniformed men with machine-guns posted every few blocks.

Armed Guard on the Street

We arrived at the modern Grand Ani Hotel near the center of the city and checked in.  One thousand years ago the Kars region was part of an Armenian kingdom.  In the late 1890s, 21% of the population was still Armenian.  Today, there are no known Armenians living in Kars.  Orhan Pamuk’s novel, Snow, takes place in Kars.

Kars is a city in Northeastern Turkey and is the capital of Kars Province.  The city is 5800 feet above sea level and winters are cold and snowy.  Some sources claim that the name, Kars, is derived from the Armenian word, “harse” which means bride.  Historic sites in the city are the Armenian Church of the Apostles (937 AD), a 15th Century Ottoman stone bridge, a 19th Century Russian cathedral, and the huge Citadel which dominates the city.

Kars Citadel

The walls of the Citadel date back to the Bagratid Armenian rule of 880-1045, but its present form was established in the 13th Century.  The Turkish claim that it was built by the Ottomans in the 16th Century, but historians have proven that this is false.  Kars was under Russian rule from 1878 through 1920, which accounts for the Russian style buildings in the city.

According to sources, the region produces some of Turkey’s best butter and honey, and thick rough wool carpets.  Today most travellers go to Kars on their way to the ruins of Ani, the great medieval Armenian capital which is located 28 miles to the east, on the Turkish-Armenian frontier.

We were now a caravan of two bright white Mercedes ‘Sprinter’ vans.  The Zironian Family in one van and our international cousins in the other.  We drove through Kars and up a steep hill which was located in the center of town. Our hill looked across to the Kars Citadel on the next hill.

Kars Citadel With Turkish Flag

We stopped at the top of the hill to see a huge cement monument dedicated to “peace” between the Armenians and the Turkish people.  The unattractive cement monument is of two tall statues, men I suppose, facing each other.  They are about to extend their hands to each other in a handshake, but there are no hands on either figure.

Monument to Peace

There was one very large cement hand on the ground and we all wondered out loud if or when the city, or the Turkish government, was planning to put hands on either statue to commemorate peace with a handshake.

The monument is on a high hill close to the center of the city of Kars.  We all left the vans and walked around the top of the hill to admire the fantastic view and take photos.  Several mosques could be seen below, as well as the former Armenian Church of the Apostles which was built in 930 A.D.  It was converted to a mosque in 1579 and then converted into a Russian Orthodox church in the 1880s.  It was converted back to a mosque in 1998.

Suddenly, as we stood there admiring the view, the “call to prayer” from the mosques in the valley began their chants.  They sounded as if they were calling and responding to each other because the Imams had different pitched voices.  It was quite an experience to hear the voices echo through the valley.  High above them, we all stood silently listening to the chanting.

When the the “call to prayer” had stopped, we turned around to see Jemal walking around and eating a huge sandwich!  Clearly, he was not celebrating Ramazan!  It was about 1:00 PM and everyone was hungry for lunch but we had become accustomed to skipping lunches with Armen in charge.  Jamal waved and called us  to go to his van.

Impromptu Lunch

The back door was open and in the storage area he had placed large round loaves of ekmek (bread), strips of local cheese, peeled cucumber, and juicy long green peppers.  He invited everyone to make their own sandwiches and we enthusiastically joined in.  Bravo Jamal!

After our surprise picnic, we boarded the vans again and continued down the steep hill to visit the Church of the Apostles in the valley.  A Turkish man with a religious cap stood in the doorway of the former church.  He acknowledged our presence and with a serious expression, allowed us to enter the building. The architecture of the church was clearly Armenian church architecture and we carefully stepped over the threshold.

The Church of the Apostles

Later Satenik and I were walking around the outside of the church to admire the stone carvings on the outer walls.  We saw a man standing with his hands open and extended sky-ward.  He looked like he was praying.  Muslim men usually pray with their hands at their side.

Satenik walked over to the man and began to speak to him in Turkish. He simply said that when he came to the former church he was inspired to pray outside and he chooses to pray in his own way.  Later, Satenik said that she thought he or his family might have been Armenian, or perhaps Russian Orthodox, or Greek.

A Mosque behind the Church of the Apostles

Then we drove the short distance to Ani, the site of the ancient Armenian kingdom. To be continued…….