Go East- Part 3,Հայաստան

ARMENIA V BULGARIA, World Cup Qualifier, Yerevan, 11th October 2013

Go East finishes up quite far east, indeed to this date, the furthest East I have ventured in Europe, and only on one solitary occasion when I went to Japan have I been further in this direction thus far. I guess I should be thankfully, having been to Georgia the year before, the now defunct carrier British Midland stopped off in Baku, Azerbaijan, and while we could walk around the terminal etc, we had “in transit” cards, thereby avoiding an Azeri stamp in my passport. Such thoughts were prevalent in my mind as I stood like a lemon at the passport control desk at Yerevan airport for nearly twenty minutes while the girl firstly disappeared with my document, and then stood fretting with a colleague over the inordinate number of stamps in it. The issue seemed to be, while I had checked in and out of Argentina and Uruguay multiple times, I had a more recent stamp into Serbia, but not one out, and I had a stamp out of Macedonia, but not one in?! The border control between the two had obviously been quite relaxed, unlike here in Armenia. Eventually, with military disdain, an angry thump of the stamp and I was in. It didn’t feel like a great start.

Armenia is of course a very withdrawn land, and yet it’s people are often described as the Italians of the old Soviet Union. A landlocked country with four International borders, and only 1 ½ of them are ever open if you’re lucky, with the half being with Iran, which largely depends on the current political situation. Turkey historically and naughtily took Armenian land, including the awe-inspiring mountain Ararat, held dear in Armenian hearts, fabled to have been the mountain in the story of Noah in the bible. One of the last acts of the Ottoman Empire was to slaughter millions of innocent Armenians, in a genocide only outdone by the Nazi’s against the Jews. Yet while that particular horror show is well documented and remembered, the Armenian genocide is only acknowledged as such by a third of the world’s countries as so many don’t wish to upset modern day Turkey with such matters, which seems incredulous, but should I be surprised. The baton of evil against Armenia has passed to Azerbaijan who would wipe the country off the map if they thought they could get away with it. The border between these two is closed, and on constant high alert, and given Azerbaijan’s oil riches, Armenia can only really hold its own thanks to assistance from Russian troops permanently stationed in this region, as both countries claim rights over the flash point region of Nagorno Karabakh. Azeri club Qarabaq is just flying in the face of Armenia. Perhaps these historical and ongoing conflicts explain the insular nature of the Armenians, who have left in droves over the decades and tend to live in clusters around the world sticking very much together as a community, often very prosperously too.

I first encountered Armenian culture and cuisine in Buenos Aires, a peaceable addition to the citizens of the Argentine capital and its culture, but even down there, when a local TV station started showing a Turkish soap opera, they took to the streets to protest. It lost them a lot of respect at the time, with an issue very few knew anything about down there, or even cared about. It is an example of not being able to move on, which is sad, and in my opinion, having been to Armenia, as beautiful as it is, the people need to learn to open up to the world a little more, old school values are holding it back. Georgia is the only border that is open, and having been there twice I am familiar with the idea that even these two are not great friends, just ”tolerating” one another. From my own experience of the two nation’s, Georgia is more welcoming and West looking. A deep rooted love for Georgia swept through me in 2012, and loved my second visit in 2017 too.

That is not to cast undue aspersions on Armenia, seven years on it may well have become less Soviet, but it still doesn’t look to make comfortable peace with two of its neighbours. The European Championship qualifiers for 2008 placed Azerbaijan and Armenia in the same group, this was obviously before UEFA bent the rules to allow “petty” squabbles to keep nation’s apart, indeed perhaps these two “non” played matches were the catalyst. These fixtures remain the only International unfulfilled competitive fixtures since the USSR refused to play a World Cup play off match in Santiago, Chile protesting that the stadium was being used by Pinochet to torture and murder left thinking individuals.

The arrival in Yerevan was very early in the morning, having negotiated some unpleasant air turbulence caused by the sheer size of neighbouring Ararat mountain on the atmospherics. The Hrazdan Hotel had no view of the mountain, but down the road a little and this colossus sits on the near horizon for practically all of Yerevan to view. It must be a constant reminder and feel part of Armenia, even if it remains 100 years on, part of Turkey. You just have to look at the local football club names to realise the loss of this mountain still hurts, with Ararat Yerevan as well as Noah FC both named in honour of this most beguiling land form. Rarely has a mountain taken my breath away, but Ararat certainly captivated me for the entire trip.

Writing these tales, if read in isolation it’s fine, but if read this in conjunction with part 1 of tiddly tales, ICT in Romania and St Petersburg, you’d think what is this guy on! I guess this story squares the circle and puts the second of all four of my Eastern relationships out there. In search of love once more I had ventured this far, but also took the opportunity to meet a girl I had known for years via Facebook. On the very first full day in the country, Helen and her husband, together with her sister amazing sister Christine and her husband arrived at the hotel in two vehicles with a view to whisking Asta and I off to Lake Sevan. This lake is the largest waterway in Armenia, it’s own inland freshwater sea if you will, and at 1,900 metres it’s the highest lake in Eurasia. This was mid-October, and while the sun was shining in the capital it could still get quite warm, but the winter winds were howling up at Sevan and snow was occasionally falling too. It was a wonderful day, finished off by an amazing meal of locally caught fish in a restaurant by the lakeside. I would meet up with Helen and Christine again towards the end of the trip, and they remain great friends.

The spectacular Hrazdan stadium was just around the corner from the hotel, and almost daily we would walk along a street high above it, admiring the snow covered Ararat mountain, as well as this rather grand stadium. It seemed like the perfect venue for the game I was planning on taking in, Armenia were hosting Bulgaria in a World Cup qualifier. Tickets were purchased from a supermarket in downtown Yerevan, no undue queue of purchasers, unlike the only time I ever went to a supermarket here to buy tickets for Scotland v The Netherlands in a Euro play off game. Some folk had been outside Morrison’s since 5 am, I arrived at 7, still handily placed to guarantee purchase.

Come the evening of the match, a leisurely stroll round from the hotel was all that was needed. Walking back from the city after a meal the night before, the Hrazdan lights were on as Armenia got thumped by France at U21 level, there was hardly anyone watching though. Perhaps this was pre-Soccerstand app on my phone, or I just hadn’t noticed but had the chance allowed, I would have taken in this match too, particularly given what happened next. As soon as we turned the corner and were high above the Hrazdan, with just over an hour to kick off it seemed immediately unlikely that this was the venue for the game, all the lights were off! The tickets were all in neat Armenian writing but no use to anyone outside the Armenian world as it’s an indecipherable language. Asta finally took a closer look at them, and it transpired the game was in the Republican Stadium on the other side of town! We headed to the main road and flagged down a taxi pretty quickly and sped off through horrendous rush hour traffic. We had a little time to spare upon arrival, but had to negotiate security checks as well as walk round to the opposite side of the ground to get into our section.

As soon as I saw the interior of the Republican Stadium, I realised that this was the favoured national stadium, even though it is much smaller than the Hrazdan. I had seen games from here often on TV, with its very distinct patterned iron work around the roof of the stadium. Armenia were having their best ever qualifying campaign, and earlier in the group they had made the world sit up and take notice in thrashing Denmark 4-0 in Copenhagen. Italy were out of sight at the top, but a play off place was still possible by finishing second, and both these countries were fancying the chance of making it that far, although Denmark had taken some form revenge winning the return game in Yerevan 1-0 while I was in Serbia the month before .

The Republic Stadium wasn’t full, but it was pretty close to it, and the youthful, always boisterous support rarely waned throughout what would become an absolute epic encounter. The Bulgarians weren’t here in great numbers, fenced off from the baying crowds around them, and the intensity of the home support seemed to put them on mute for the entirety of the game. The first encounter in Sofia had been won 1-0 by Bulgaria but came with a nasty fight between the players that resulted in a home red card, and that tension was still prevalent in this all or nothing fiesty joust.

The game was lively enough, with near hysteria breaking out every time Armenia threatened the visiting goal, but the highlight of the first half had been the jaw dropping sunset that lit up the sky behind the main stand. It was fitting after such a vision of beauty, that the deadlock was broken by a piece of poetic footballing skill as Aras Ozbiliz curled an exquisite free-kick up and over the Bulgarian wall and high into the top right hand corner of the net. It hadn’t been hit with any great power, but the execution was artistry in itself and it left the keeper flapping. That was practically the last kick of the first half, and sent an already excited ground into overdrive. It has to be noted that the free-kick award just outside the Bulgarian box had resulted in a straight red card for Nikolay Bodurov.

Sometimes a half of football comes along that just never stops giving, and the second half here in Yerevan was one of those occasions. The boom or bust aspect saw Bulgaria come out in the second half fighting for their lives. Just after the hour mark they pulled level with an equally beautiful free kick that veteran Roman Berezovsky couldn’t keep out. He then pulled off a stunning save to keep the game at 1-1, but not before the visitors were reduced to nine men, following a second yellow for Svetoslav Dyakov. Even with two missing and twenty five minutes to go Bulgaria refused to stop attacking, and it led to the most crazy end to end action, with Armenia getting too excited in front of goal with some horrendous misses along the way. A draw was no use to either, but the winner, when it arrived was only three minutes from the end, the culmination of a fine Armenian move as Yura Movsisyan broke free at the edge of the box and slotted it home for utter bedlam to break out. Armenia had won, with the cool head of Henrik Mkhitaryan standing out amid the chaos around him. Bulgaria’s footballing star had hit yet another low, but to this day it shows little signs of an immediate return to anything considered acceptable by the standard of the days of old.

Armenia went to Italy for the last game in the group the following month and came away with a creditable 2-2 draw, but Denmark won again and jumped into second place. However, with nine groups, the worst second placed side would miss out on the play offs and that accolade befell the Danes. For Armenia, that campaign was the high point of the independent land endeavouring to qualify, and while they can still pull off the odd surprise, they have gone backwards. Not winning their group in the lowest tier of the inaugural Nation’s League hurt, especially as Georgia will go into the playoffs for a place at Euro 2021, assuming they go ahead.

Yerevan was in buoyant mood after the win, with much street singing and dancing going on as we headed back through the city. Yerevan has some absolutely stunning buildings, it has after all been a city since 782 BC, making it one of the oldest settlements in the world. Republic Square is the main square and it is absolutely stunning. The Opera house is an exquisite building as is the area called Cascade, with walkways and escalators whisking up to the top via intriguing art displays on each level on the way up. The views back over the city and towards Ararat are breathtaking. You can walk yet further to visit the enormous statue named Mother Armenia.

Just as I was relaxing into the most Soviet feel land of all my trips, I was taking a snap of the Armenian emblem atop a building, which transpired to be a government one, and I received a tap on the shoulder and a wag of the finger from a chap with a very large, classic Soviet policeman’s hat. I guess in the old days it might have required the film to be stripped out of my camera at best, but oddly the only time I have been made to delete a photo was in Verona more recently, when I took a photo of the entrance to the stadium from the street but a fancy car was parked there, and the man on the gate stood over me to make sure I had deleted the photo!

All in all it was a fabulous week in Armenia. The only subsequent encounter with Armenian football came in the unlikely surroundings of Perth a few years later when St Johnstone squeezed out a 2-1 win over Euro debutantes Alashkert Yerevan on the night, but went out on the away goals rule, thereby saving themselves a trip to Almaty in the next round! A half and half scarf for this encounter in Perth now resides in Yerevan with Christine’s son! After the warmth of welcome they gave me, it was the least I could do for them, and hope I will see them all again some day.