It’s mid afternoon in a mountain village close to the Azerbaijan border and the air is thick with the smoke of a dozen chargrill barbecues. Men are turning giant skewers of chicken and lamb on the coals while their obedient sons fan the flames, dressed in traditional Armenian costume.

High above the gorge the sun is pouring down from a cloudless sky and beyond the river bridge there’s dancing: troupes of young men and women, linking arms, kicking their legs and singing in unison as wild music blares out from speakers beneath the chestnut trees.

On the trestle tables there are baskets overflowing with freshly picked fruit and bottles stacked up high, filled with a dark red liquid. It’s semi-sweet wine from the areni grape because today, October 1, is the annual Areni wine festival.

You know you’re in wine country the moment you arrive at Yerevan airport. You can’t really miss it as there’s a 20ft high inflatable wine bottle parked outside the terminal.

A Christian country sandwiched between predominantly Muslim Turkey, Iran and Azerbaijan, Armenia likes its alcohol. They also produce what they say is the best brandy in the world and driving into town the advertisements are everywhere for Ararat brandy.

My driver deposits me at the quaint Villa Delenda, one of the few surviving relics of 19th-century town houses in the capital, Yerevan. Outside its ivy-covered walls stone bollards line the cobbled pavement, stencilled with a Kalashnikov assault rifle and the words “Defend Yerevan”.

Was this, I wondered, a reference to the deadly on-off conflict with Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region? No, says Maryam, one of the girls who run the villa as a guesthouse, with part of the proceeds going to charity. It’s a campaign to stop the developers from bulldozing the last of Yerevan’s historic buildings.

Inside the villa its all woven carpets, wooden floorboards and exquisite locally-made ceramics which they sell from a shop in the basement. A kindly old woman bustles around me, speaking only Russian. It’s late and the staff have gone home but she fetches me a bowl of potato soup, floating with mushrooms and herbs, and stands, arms folded, to watch appreciatively as I wolf it down with hunks of bread.

She tells me her name is Amelia and I wish I had enough Russian to ask her about her life. I put her age at about 75, meaning she would have lived two thirds of her life in the USSR, when Armenia was part of the Soviet Union, before it disintegrated in 1991 and Armenia became an independent country.

Despite the developers, Yerevan is a delightful capital. Its wide, leafy boulevards are lined with cafés and wine bars where Armenians like to sit chatting late into the night.

People here still talk about the recent visit of the world’s most famous living Armenian, Kim Kardashian, when her husband, the singer Kanye West, jumped into a fountain after a concert and invited the crowd to join him.

Armenians from the large overseas diaspora who visit for the first time are said to be pleasantly surprised by how modern, safe and civilised Yerevan is, and then rudely disappointed to find the suburbs and roadsides littered with the hangover detritus of the failed Soviet economy.

Driving out of the capital on my first morning, two things are immediately apparent. The abandoned, derelict factory buildings and the grim, Russian dormitory blocks surrounded by empty carcasses of old vehicles, rusting oil tanks and decrepit machinery overgrown with weeds. Armenia needs a clean-up.

But then you look up to the horizon and there, towering over everything, is the magnificent, awe-inspiring snow-capped peak of Mount Ararat, 5,165 metres high and just across the border in Turkey. “It used to be ours,” lament Armenians.

The mountain, together with its smaller sister, Little Ararat, form a stunning backdrop for the monastery of Khor Virap, meaning “Deep Dungeon”. This hilltop fortress is allegedly where St. Gregory the Illuminator was incarcerated for 12 years by a pagan king who was then cursed by sprouting the head of a boar. On a more practical note, my advice would be to get there early to beat the coach tours.

We drive on, to two more jewels in Armenia’s cultural crown: the Hellenic-style temple of Garni and the monastery at Geghard. Both are nearly 1,500m up in the foothills of the Geghama Range where the air is cool and fresh. Buzzards soar on the wind then swoop down into the ravines to snatch prey.

Garni is a sort of miniature Parthenon, built in the 1st century AD, reduced to rubble by an earthquake in 1679, then rebuilt in the Seventies. It’s an extraordinary building in a dramatic setting but Geghard Monastery is, to my mind, even more impressive.

Up a steep, cobbled road, through an archway, past pine trees swaying beneath yellow crags, this World Heritage-listed monastery is named after the lance said to have speared Christ’s flesh at the crucifixion.

My driver and I enter the main church, protected by high walls, and suddenly we are plunged into semi-darkness and 800 years of history. Devout Armenians are crossing themselves as they enter and lighting thin candles in a tray of sand.

Outside in the breeze I glance up at the rock face above and can see it is pitted with ancient caves: monastic cells once inhabited by monks. Somehow I can well imagine this place surviving intact for a further eight centuries.

Back at the wine festival in Areni, on my second and final day, the sun is slowly sinking towards the top of the gorge and people are winding their way home in groups, clutching bags and bottles.

I stop to talk to an elderly couple selling necklaces of dried cherries. The old man places one around my neck then resolutely refuses payment. He and his wife ask me to take their photograph and they sit there side by side, this happy old couple, perched on a wall, leaning into each other with this stupendous view behind them, all sunlit vineyards and ochre mountain ravines. And then I feel somebody fiddling with my pocket.

My urban antenna immediately makes me think I’m being pickpocketed, but then I realise it’s just a kind old fruit vendor, donating me some apples from his stall. We both laugh.

The apples are crisp and succulent and I eat them one after another on the way back to the car. It is a scene of utter peace and tranquillity and I make a vow: next year I’m bringing my family.

The essentialsGetting there

There are no direct flights to Armenia from the UK. Aeroflot, Ukrainian International Airlines, Air France and KLM all offer indirect services.

Staying there

Villa Delenda in Yerevan (00374 1056 1156; info@villadelenda.com) offers double rooms from £40 a night, including breakfast. Staff can arrange a private car, complete with their own excellent driver, Artus.

Currency

£1 = 592 AMD (Armenian Dram)

A three-course meal with wine cost as little as £10 in a mid-range Yerevan restaurant.

YSMU Alumni Association, headed by the Indian graduate Arun Dabas, has been operating in the United Kingdom for more than 4 years.

The structure created by Vice rector for external affairs and international partnerships Yervand Sahakyan provides an opportunity to connect YSMU graduates, as well as non-graduate doctors, working in the USA, Belgium, Poland, India, Great Britain, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Armenia.

Arun Dabas, head of the YSMU Alumni Association in the United Kingdom, is a family doctor.

45-year-old specialist studied at a medical university from 1994 to 2000. Then he returned to India and after passing the relevant exams, in 2004 he managed to get a job in Great Britain.

In 2013, Arun Dabas trained in dermatology at Cardiff University in Wales, and in 2018 in mental health at Staffordshire University.

Now he is a clinical tutor at Warwick Medical School, Clinical Lead Community Services at Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust.

“In the beginning I wanted to become a football player. I was the captain of the Indian football team at YSMU. At that time, our team was the only one that took the first place in the tournament,” Arun Dabas fondly remembers during his visit to the medical university.

His elder sister is a graduate of a medical university too and also works in Great Britain. His wife is a dentist, they have 2 children – an 11-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl.

Arun Dabas does not talk much about himself, instead he enthusiastically tells about the establishment of the YSMU Alumni Association in England.

“During my studies I loved Armenia very much. My journey as a doctor started in Yerevan, continued in India, and now I am in the United Kingdom. Due to my connections, I want to support future local and foreign doctors studying in Armenia, ensuring their progress, strong connection with each other, as well as the opportunity to train university specialists and exchange experience in this developed European country,” Arun Dabas says.

In 2015 in Oxford he met with Yervand Sahakyan, Vice-Rector for External Affairs and International Relations.

“The vice-rector has always been like a father to us, we are infinitely grateful to him. There is no such thing in any university in the world. It was in Oxford that we decided to launch a new, very important initiative. Three years later, on September 10, 2018, we have officially established the YSMU Alumni Association in the United Kingdom”, Arun Dabas remembers.

Initially, the union consisted of 12 graduates, now it has 38 members. Among them – family doctors, ophthalmologists, cardiologists, orthopedists, urologists, gynecologists, radiologists.

“Doctors with different narrow specializations united under one idea – the Alumni Union. One of the YSMU Indian graduates, who is a member of the structure and speaks Armenian very well, now works at the Red Cross office in Geneva”, Arun Dabas adds.

According to him, the structure also closely cooperates with well-known Armenian doctors operating in Great Britain.

“We plan to create a website of the Alumni Union, through which it will be easier to establish communication and disseminate the necessary information. In partnership with the YSMU Career Center, we support generations of alumni in the UK wishing to receive medical education at our university, help students learn about Armenia and medical university from around the world, and help find employment and networking in the UK after graduation”, Arun Dabas says.

YSMU Alumni Association in England organizes internships for local students as well.

“The development of their practical skills is supported by the graduates of the medical university, who, in turn, get the opportunity to gain work experience,” adds the President of the YSMU Alumni Association in the United Kingdom.

Author: Tatevik Ghazaryan

Armenia is a land of epic vistas, crumbling churches and many surprises CREDIT: AP/FOTOLIA

It’s 25 years since Armenia gained independence from the Soviet Union, and to mark the occasion Telegraph Travel has unearthed a few things you probably didn’t know about the country.

1. It’s home to the world’s oldest winery

At least that’s what the archaeologists claim: in 2011 they discovered what is thought to be the oldest winery on the planet, found, of all places, in a cave near the village of Areni. 

2. It was the first nation to adopt Christianity…

Christianity spread to the now-defunct Kingdom of Armenia soon after the death of Jesus, though it took until the early 4th century for it to be adopted as the state religion. Still, that was earlier than any other country on the planet.

3. …And it has the churches to prove it

From millennia-old monasteries to crumbling cathedrals, Armenia is scattered with Christian places of worship: they don’t call this the “land of churches” for nothing. It’s impossible to identify the best basilica in the land, but one of our favourites is the 9th-century Tatev Monastery; a stunning building in an area of unremitting beauty.  

4. Chess is part of the curriculum

Which explains why Armenians are so good at it. Indeed, since breaking free from the Soviet Union, the country has proven itself to be a world beater at the sport: the men’s team have won the European Team Championships (1999), the World Team Championship (2011) and the Chess Olympiad (2006, 2008, 2012), while the women’s team have scooped the European Championship (2003).

5. It lost 1.5 million people in the Armenian Genocide

In 1915 the Ottoman government orchestrated the systematic extermination of 1.5 million Armenians, an act known as the Armenian Genocide. Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, denies it was genocide, but governments of 28 countries – including Britain, Russia and France – recognise the events as an act of genocide.

6. More Armenians live abroad than in Armenia

The events of 1915 forced millions of Armenians to flee abroad, where they established strong communities in the US, Russia and France. There are thought to be some 5.6 million people of Armenian descent living abroad, which is greater than the population of Armenia (3 million).

7. It has celebrity connections

Armenia is the ancestral homeland of Cher, Andre Agassi and Serj Tankian, the frontman of American metal band, System of a Down, one of the groups at the forefront of publicising the injustices of the Armenian Genocide. Armenia is also partly responsible for the Kardashians – dad Robert was second generation Armenian American.

8. Armenians think they know where Noah’s Ark is

There’s a widely-held belief in Armenia that Noah’s Ark is embedded in ice atop Mount Ararat. Despite many expeditions, said ark has never been found, but that doesn’t stop it appearing on Armenia’s coat of arms. 

9. Its national symbol is in Turkey

Snow-capped Mount Ararat is the principal national symbol of Armenia and is considered by many Armenians to be sacred. The massif has featured prominently in Armenian art and literature and is depicted on the country’s coat of arms, however it is actually located within Turkey. It hasn’t always been that way: the holy mountain has been passed between the Kingdom of Armenia, Persia, Russia and Turkey. 

• Read more: The best hotels in Turkey

10. It has one of the world’s oldest capitals…

The Armenian capital, Yerevan, is one of the world’s oldest inhabited cities, constructed as it was 29 years before Rome. Overlooked by the snow-capped Mount Ararat, the capital has a bewildering number of historic buildings, not to mention a clutch of excellent museums.

11. …Which is known as the “Pink City”

Yerevan gets its pretty pink hue (and moniker) from the rosy volcanic rock that was used to construct many of the city’s buildings.

12. Churchill had a taste for Armenian cognac…

During the Second World War, Joseph Stalin shipped several dozen cases of Armenian cognac to Winston Churchill, which the then-British prime minister consumed with gusto. His love for brandy was no secret: by his own estimate he had drunk enough brandy to fill three railway carriages by the time he was 71.

13. In fact Armenian cognac oiled the wheels of Yalta

The Yalta Conference – a meeting in the Crimea between Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin D Roosevelt to discuss Europe’s post-war reorganisation – is believed to have been largely fuelled by Armenian cognac and wine. One of Churchill’s aides at Yalta famously wrote about the then-British prime minister “drinking buckets of Caucasian champagne which would undermine the health of any ordinary man”.

14. It has a record-breaking cable car

According to Guinness World Records, the longest non-stop double track cable car is the Tatev Aerial Tramway, which clocks in at 5,752 m (18,871ft) long. The spectacular cable car connects the village of Halizor with the aforementioned Tatev Monastery, offering spectacular views across the Vorotan River Gorge en route.

15. It’s technically at war

Relations between Armenia and neighbouring Azerbaijan have been fraught for years and the two countries are technically still at war. The issue centres around Nagorno-Karabakh, an area of south-western Azerbaijan populated largely by ethnic Armenians. Supported by Armenia, it tried to breakaway from Azerbaijan in 1994 sparking a bloody war between the two nations. A Russian brokered ceasefire was signed in 1994, but fresh fighting broke out this year. 

16. You can go skiing there

The main ski resort in Armenia is Tsakhkadzor, which has some 27km of slopes, plus six lifts to get you up there. Expect to pay around 8500 Armenian dram (about £17) for a day ski pass.

17. It’s big on birds

Armenia is a twitchers delight, home as it is to 345 of Europe’s estimated 530 bird species. Highlights include falcons, swans and eagles, which also feature on the Armenian coat of arms.

18. The people are as hard as nails

Armenia won one gold and three silver medals at the Rio Olympics, all of which were in wrestling or weightlifting. Enough said. 

19. They like Shakira (sort of)

Many Armenians were delighted to hear about Shakira’s stunning faux pas at a concert in neighbouring Azerbaijan, whereby the Colombian singer walked on stage carrying her national flag upside down, thus turning it into the Armenian standard. Oops.

20. Its bread is Unesco-listed

Dinner tables are rarely without huge piles of lavash, a tasty flat bread that is the cornerstone of Armenian cuisine. So important is this humble dish that it was placed on Unesco’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2014.

21. It boasts the largest lake in the Caucasus

And what a beauty she is, too. Covering one sixth of Armenia’s territory, Lake Sevan is overlooked by the stunning Sevanavank monastic complex, which is one of the country’s top attractions.

22. Its women are the sexiest in the world

At least that’s according to a dubious poll of 44,000 US men, who voted Armenian women the world’s sexiest. The results were perhaps skewered by the ubiquity of Kim Kardashian, who famously “broke the internet” with her nude photoshoot for Paper magazine.

23. They don’t have much luck with the footy

Despite being Armenia’s national sport, football is not something it performs particularly well at – at least not on the international stage. Since gaining independence from the Soviet Union, the country has failed to qualify for either the UEFA European Football Championships or the FIFA World Cup. 

24. It has three Unesco World Heritage Sites

Which are: the monasteries of Haghpat and Sanahin; the cathedral and churches of Echmiatsin and the archaeological site of Zvartnots; and the monastery of Geghard and the Upper Azat Valley.

25. There’s an Armenian alphabet monument

When the Armenian alphabet celebrated its 1,600th birthday in 2005, the authorities erected 39 stone statues depicting its letters near the final resting place of the man who created it, Mesrop Mashtots. Visitors can visit the giant letters, which stand proud in the town of Aparan.