An accordion player performing in the streets of Tbilisi, Georgia… The video is here if you want to listen to him play: In an effort to preserve the integrity and objectivity of The Velvet Rocket, I should probably state my bias immediately: I loved Tbilisi. In fact, I would probably even put it in my … Continue reading
Baalbek has long enjoyed a reputation as home to some of the finest Roman ruins anywhere in the world. However, even without the Roman ruins, it would still be an interesting town… To reach Baalbek, one passes through the hot, dry Bekaa, not so much a valley as a high-altitude plain, with its Hezbollah flags … Continue reading
This is right on the border between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh in the Lachin corridor… I thought it was quite photogenic: Continue reading
This caravanserai is located at Armenia’s Sulema Pass (also known as Selim Pass) at an altitude of 2,410m… What’s a caravanserai? I didn’t know before this trip either. This caravanserai, or inn, is but one of many in Armenia; overnight spots for caravans laden with goods meant for markets in Europe and the Orient. Many … Continue reading
Known by the name Artsakh to its inhabitants and to Armenians, the alternative name Nagorno-Karabakh dates from the Khanate of Karabakh’s formal entry to the Russian Empire in 1813 – Nagorno being Russian for ‘mountainous’. Karabakh is Turkish for ‘black garden’. Nagorno-Karabakh is inhabited by ethnic Armenians, the language of Nagorno-Karabakh is Armenian and even the … Continue reading
A burned-out armored personnel carrier on the front lines of the Nagorno-Karabakh War: So, what was the Nagorno-Karabakh War all about? Below, I present to you… A History Of The Nagorno-Karabakh War Populated for centuries by Christian Armenian and Turkic Azeris, Nagorno-Karabakh became part of the Russian empire in 1805 when it was annexed from … Continue reading
On the north side of Stepanakert is the statue, pictured below, which has become the unofficial symbol of Nagorno-Karabakh (it was even on my visa)… This creation by the sculptor Sargis Baghdasarian in Soviet times, is called We are our mountains. Supposedly looking like an elderly couple with peaked skulls, the statue is intended to … Continue reading
The Velvet Rocket 