Living In A Mosque
Kond, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online
Kond is all that is left of old Yerevan from the time in the 19th Century when the Armenian capital was a predominently Moslem village. Even the local secondary school still displays old photographs of minarets towering over the district, and a careful search can still yield discoveries testifying to Kond’s Islamic past.
Indeed, one of the mosques still stands, albeit stripped of its minarets. Since the 1920s, when the last Azerbaijani Moslems left Kond, it has been used for housing by [Christian] Armenian families that still live there, inhabiting the rooms that surround the mosque’s inner courtyard.
Kond, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online
To whom it may concern.
This photos show dilapidated state of the Gond….Is someone using for touristice attraction , sometimes poor places attract tourist too….And then some poverty preserved , though not in dilapidated state with the tourist revenue….
Comment by Garo Sernaz — December 20, 2005 @ 11:08 pm
Garo, I think Kond could really be a great place for tourists. I love old parts of cities, which is why I love Tbilisi so much. I wish someone would rennovate Kond and perhaps create crafts and other tourist sector industries to lift many of these people out of poverty. Unfortunately, tourism is in the hands of idiots in Armenia.
Comment by Administrator — December 21, 2005 @ 7:11 pm
First of all, Kond is not ALL that is left from old Yerevan. There are other treasures too. Second, Yerevan has not been a Muslim village. Current Yerevan includes many historic places developed in different times. Indeed, Muslim culture is Armenia’s treasure too, and I am proud of that. Oh, lastly. It would be ethical to mention the name of the person who did the research and wrote the article for Hetq.am: Arpi Maghakyan. Onnik did great job taking the pictures.
Comment by Blogian — December 22, 2005 @ 4:05 am
Blogian, thanks for your comments, but perhaps you can tell me where else is there an old part of Yerevan like Kond in the CENTER of Yerevan. As for the research aspect, Arpi and I went to Kond on Sunday so that she could meet someone who has unearthed a graveyard below his house.
He wasn’t there so I TOLD Arpi about the Mosque and took her to some families and later, took her there. In terms of “research” I worked in Kond long before the Caucasus Media Institute advised journalists such as Arpi to dig out stories. Therefore you are trying to discredit my work (in a very clever way) without knowing the facts.
Let me say again: I have worked in Kond since 2000, long before other journalists from CMI even touched it, and it was I that told Arpi about this mosque and the fact that there were families living in it. Okay? As for the history of Yerevan, I said there was a time when Yerevan was a predominently Moslem village, although town might have been a better word. Indeed, there is this aspect to Yerevan’s history.
No doubt Kond was inhabited by Christians and Moslems at different times during the past 200 years. It also had Christian and Moslem parts such as an Armenian quarter. Anyway, I’ll accept your apologies and assurances that you won’t try to cleverly word comments in such a way to discredit my work. Now, I wonder, when Arpi writes about the mosque, will she write that I told her about based on my research as a JOURNALIST and PHOTOGRAPHER working there from 2000-2003/4?
Of course not, and nor should she have to. But please, get your facts right about who introduced who to what before spouting crap about ethics. For the record, I have shown this mosque to dozens of people in the past five years — long before Arpi even thought of writing about Kond. She was the last person I introduced it to, and last year, I showed Filip Noubel from the International Crisis Group (ICG). Think I might have even showed Katy Pearce from Blogrel a few years back. Okay?
Now, where did I hear about it? From a resident of Kond who showed it to me in 2000. Another resident also showed me the old photos of the minarets towering over Kond from the beginning of the century that are on display in the local school. I’ve told Arpi about that as well, so the chain of information continues…
Comment by Administrator — December 22, 2005 @ 9:54 am
Just found this old post and thought I should point out that it was a simple misunderstanding between Simon (Blogian) and I. At the time he didn’t realize I was the photographer who took the pictures for Hetq or that I had taken journalists there. Anyway, it was all cleared up through private correspondence and we now know each other. Even had dinner with his family this summer.
Comment by Onnik Krikorian — November 29, 2008 @ 5:07 pm
I am just thinking may be we shall turn the armenian church in Baku into a living place or musuem too for touristic purposes. I would even place their books and pictures on armenian barbarisim against Azerbaijanis, the role of the terrorist and fundamentalist armenian church on killing of Azerbaijanis, on ethnic cleansing of Azerbainis, on the barbaric killing of Azerbaijani women and children by armenian fundamentalists, etc.
Like the Kond there a alot fo Azerbaijani heritage left in Armenia. My village is porbably one of them, the village of Gunashli in Vardenis. I don’t know what you have turned it into or how you re-named it like the other 2000 and so Azerbaijani settlements in armenia. You also descrated the graves of my grandfatehrs in my village. I am jsut wondering why Azerbaijanis are so tolerant towards armenian graveyards and the church in Baku?
Atilla
Comment by Atilla — December 5, 2008 @ 4:03 pm