It all started with my uncle who was living in Cyprus during the 1970s. His flatmate was Armenian. I remember my Mum telling me where it was and about how much time I spent poring over my atlas trying to find it. I was 4.

My next exposure to Armenia came in Jerusalem where I visited the Armenian churches. Armenia is one of the first places where Christianity was accepted and the Churches are beautiful. In both Jerusalem and in many parts of Turkey Churches are gradually being coerced into closing. These communities are being squeezed out.

Finally, I learned the sad history of Armenia in the 20th Century. The Armenian Genocide is one of the great unresolved scandals of the last 100 years and is not widely known in the “West”. I remember seeing the movie Ararat which deals with the tragedy and walking home from the cinema still crying. I vowed to visit Armenia one day.

Since then, I´ve bought some Armenian music (Armenian Navy Band) and am still wondering why pomegranates appear to be so important to Armenians.