ARMENIA AND PATRICIA KAAS TALK BRANDY AND PEACE EurasiaNet.org March 12 2014 March 12, 2014 - 2:06pm, by Giorgi Lomsadze In the cellars of the Yerevan Brandy Company sits a barrel of brandy that has been waiting 13 years for resolution of Armenias conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan over the breakaway region of Nagorno Karabakh. Armenias favorite drink, brandy became widely popular in Soviet days when the country (and Georgia) ranked as the USSRs alternative to the south of France. For many visitors, touring the Yerevan Brandy Company, now owned by French booze giant Pernod Ricard, remains a must. On March 10, famous French crooner Patricia Kaas became the latest celebrity to descend into the companys depths for a brandy-tasting tour, and an Armenian history lesson. It may seem a bold move to ply a Frenchwoman with a beverage Armenians call cognac, yet Kaas had no reason to complain; the Yerevan Brandy Company sponsored her March 9 concert in Yerevan. In the companys cellar, she was introduced to the Barrel of Peace, a cask containing brandy from 1994, when Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a (constantly violated) cease-fire. The cask was sealed in 2001, when the US, Russian, and, of course, French chairpersons of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europes Minsk Group, the body overseeing the Karabakh talks, visited Yerevan and toured the factory. The brandy-makers vowed to open the barrel when the Karabakh conflict is resolved. Unfortunately for peace and brandy-lovers, the conflict remains a powder keg with occasional deadly escalations, and Armenia and Azerbaijan are not expected to drink themselves to peace anytime soon. The ongoing international conflict over Russias incursion into Ukraines Crimea is not expected to improve those chances. Some Armenian observers cant agree over whether or not Crimea will have good, bad or no impact on Armenia and its ethnic kin in Karabakh. For its part, Azerbaijan looks at Crimeas lot, and remembers the ongoing Karabakh conflict as a warning about the dangers when countries throw international law to the wind. Meanwhile, with the US and France at loggerheads with Russia over Ukraine, the negotiation-facilitators may soon need facilitators of their own. On the bright side, brandy only gets better with time. eurasianet.org/node/68135
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 03:18:21 +0000
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