An Armenian cemetery, Gyumri

Near the epicentre of a devastating earthquake in 1988 Gyumri is a town that at first glance appears to have recovered fairly well: most buildings have been rebuilt, very few are still abandoned and some display minor damage, which if you didn’t know the history you  could have put down to neglect. The graveyard, however told a different story. With a profusion of stones, monuments and graves packed tightly together, in what was hardly a small area, it obliged visitors…

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Iran 2007 – History, martyrs and cake

In the cooler NW of Iran many people speak a Turkish dialect and more importantly, the cake selection has improved markedly on the rest of country. My, albeit limited knowledge of the Turkish language came into great use in Zanjan, where I spent an evening with some local students, they were most impressed by me knowing the Turkish for fart and we got on famously after that. So if any of you take up another language don’t let the teacher…

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