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About half the population of Armenia — 1.5 million people — resides in its capital, Yerevan, which is rich in museums, restaurants, modern hotels, clubs and galleries. It has a history that stretches back to 782 B.C. and is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities on earth, The Dallas Morning Newswrites. 

The newspaper writes that in Yerevan and throughout Armenia, women still bake lavash in a tonir, a clay bread oven; musicians blow into an ancient, double-reed instrument called a doudouk; and world leaders are aficionados of Armenian brandy, which they sometimes offer one another as gifts. It is emphasized that Armenia became the first Christian nation in 301 A.D.

“It is unlikely that you will tire of visiting Apostolic Orthodox churches, because they are architecturally distinct and magnificently situated.If you arrive when the voices of a chorus echo through a dark church, with a shaft of sunlight streaming in through a window, or you see a priest blessing a baby’s eyes, nose, ears, heart, head, feet and mouth during a baptism, you may be moved to tears,” the newspaper notes.

The Dallas Morning News also writes that you will find khatchkars (carved memorial steles with fretted patterns of cross and additional ornaments – ed.) throughout Armenia,and no two stones are alike.They were built to celebrate a victory, protect a field or commemorate an event. In the old cemetery in Noratus, one cross stone tells the tragic story of a l3th-century wedding that was interrupted by a Mongol invasion; it records the murder of the bride and groom on the most special day of their young lives.

“The Armenian people have a long history of incursions, attacks and conquest by other nations. Everywhere you go, you will hear about the genocide where more than 1.5 million Armenians died at the hands of the Turks between 1915 and 1920,” the newspaper writes adding that Turkey still denies the Armenian Genocide.

It is also noted that the Monument to Armenian Genocide tells the horrific story and is a testimony to the Armenians’ strength and resilience.