Arteni

The mount Arteni is not attractive by its height (2047), but it is quite steep and symbolic, that is why our hiking with Armenian Geographic and Armenian Mountaineering and Hiking Federation promised to be very interesting.

To tell the truth, I didn’t know in which part of Armenia the mount was situated. The day before the hiking, my Armenian friend called me. Our meeting after 16 years was very exciting, but now Arsen doesn’t imagine his life out of Russia and I don’t imagine my life out of Armenia. I told Arsen about that hiking, and he was surprised, because it was near the place he was born. He was born in the village Maralik. Only then I imagined where that mountain was situated. The border of Armenia and…Western Armenia. I don’t dare to say Turkey…

I thought that Arteni should look like Mt. Ararat

And finally we are passing through familiar places. Aghtsk is the cemetery of Armenian Arshakuni Kings, a place which could be a pride of Armenians, but, unfortunately, the graves are still very unattractive for tourists. The next was Agarak. Agarak is an ancient settlement of Bronze Age, by the way, there are two layers of settlement (Early and Middle Bronze Ages), there are cultural complexes of temples, tombs. Agarak was a large town, an important trade point connecting Ayrarat to Shirak and Ani. I thought that Arteni must look like Ararat, because it consists of two volcanic mountains, Arteni and Small Arteni. But I was mistaken. Small Arteni (1753m) is so inexpressive, that you just don’t notice it. Big Arteni is huge, expressive and attractive. The mountain was shining under the sun. It is covered with volcanic glass – obsidian, which Armenians call “Satani eghunk”, which means “devil’s nail”.

There are several settlements near Arteni, such as, Talin, Areg, Arteni, Arevut and so on. These villages are mostly consist of immigrants from Western Armenia, they have been saved from the Turkish scimitar and have settled here, with the hope to return home one day. But that dream has remained just a dream already for several generations. On the way back we talked to an old woman, Margaret, from the village Areg. Margaret’s roots go to Sasoun. Her mother died with a sorrow that they couldn’t return home. Margaret’s husband managed to be in historical Sasoun, but he didn’t find even the trace of their house.

Climbing Arteni will not take much time from you. There are several difficult parts, but anyway, you won’t need any special equipment. The peak welcomes you.

The Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day on Mount Arteni

It turned out that every year, on 24 of April, which is the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, people from the villages near Arteni, those immigrants from Western Armenia, climb Arteni carrying tires on them, and they burn the tires on the top. Burning tires produce black smock which flows in the direction of the Turkish border. They do it to show the Turks that they remember what happened.

People stand in a line with their faces to Turkish-Armenian border. The binocular goes from hand to hand…they are looking for city Ani… Someone tells the story of his parents. There is a deadly silence on the other side of the border. After the genocide, nobody lives there now, only some Kurds sometimes, who graze their cattle.  Once an English traveler Philip Marsden described in his book “Crossroads-Travelling through Armenians”, that now the dogs of the Kurds gnaw the bones of Armenians.

We are sitting in a silence for a long time… Very soon Mount Arteni will be covered with the colors of the spring. Among the other flowers bluebell is prominent, because it is endemic and grows only here and in some limited places in present Turkey, once Western Armenia.

 

 

Yelena Shuvayeva-Petrosyan

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Hiking and Trekking in Armenia