A complex, multi country odyssey to uncover the history of the Armenians - a much persecuted people. The hardship and danger incurred is clear, but results in a fascinating history. ( )

“The Crossing Place: A Journey Among the Armenians” (1993) by Philip Marsden is more difficult to define. I think it is a nice travelogue, describing Marsden’s circumvent journey through the Middle East, Turkey, then Eastern Europe, eventually ending up in Armenia, in the early 1990s. He manages largely because of his Armenian network, who help him along the way – until he actually gets to Armenia, where he is treated more suspect, every foreigner a potential Russian spy. The other element of the book, trying to identify what it means to be Armenian, is less convincing. He falls to often back to the 1915 genocide, for which there are better alternatives, if you want to learn about this. The book is perhaps too much of an attempt to eulogise a people who have suffered in history, no doubt, and who have been remarkably resilient, no doubt, but who may have been at times part of a conflict, too, not just the victim – something Marsden may realise at the very end of the book, only. ( )

A wonderful travel book, now thirty years old. Philip Marsden is to be admired for his toughness, skilled observation and his enthusiasm for Armenia and its dispersed people. Much has changed in the thirty years since this edition. His visits coincide with traumatic events in Lebanon and the disintegration of U.S.S.R. Marsden has taken the time to learn Armenian; and this helps transport him from being treated suspiciously (usually as a Russian) to becoming the recipient of overwhelming generosity. (On one occasion, his taxi-driver refused the fare and offered him money).
Marsden attributes Armenian persistence to the impact of persecution and the ethnic cleansing from which they have endured for centuries. The author refers to the remarkable Armenian Christian Church; it's ground-breaking architecture (now so often in ruins) and the care with which its manuscripts are honoured.
Note of interest for Australian and NZ readers:- the persecution, expulsion and slaughter of Armenians from Eastern Turkey began on 24 April 1915 with the rounding up of 600 Armenian leaders in Constantinople, along with another 5,000 from the city's Armenian quarter. Few of these were ever seen again. This date was the eve of the futile assault by British and Anzac forces at Gallipoli, and is still observed as a national day of commemoration. I have not read of any speculation on the coincidence of these two shattering events. It gives cause to imagine that Turkey had reached a point where a total offensive was its response to threats, perceived and actual.

This 1993 work opens with the author happening on a human bone while in E Turkey. "Armenians!" explains a local shepherd, harking back to the 1915 genocide as, in an early episode of 'ethnic cleansing', the Turks turned on the Armenian population.
Marsden goes on to investigate the dispersed Armenians. Taking in various countries of the Levant, lands of Eastern Europe...and finally Armenia itself, he tries to get to the heart of this resilient and never-assimilated people.
One sees huge similarities with the plight of the Jewish people- years of pogroms and hostility, for no very apparent reason; finding success as merchants and businessmen; a strong identification with their culture...
It wasn't quite as fascinating as I'd hoped- Armenia is on my list of Places I Must Visit (we also have a relative who married an Armenian immigrant to UK). Nonetheless provides a starting point for some understanding of the Armenian diaspora. ( )

This is a wonderful book. As a result of reading it I know so much more about Armenia and the Armenia people especially in the diaspora within the Middle East.

One revelation for me was finding out about the Matenadaran Library in Yerevan which holds thousands of mediaeval MSS.

The author doesn't shy away from describing the nastier aspects of his travels towards Armenia, but at the same time he writes lyrically about the natural aspects of the countries he visits as well as the gardens which the Armenian people create wherever they find themselves ending up.

I read it in the e-book version and found it easy to read on my phone. ( )