Armenia and Patricia Kaas Talk Brandy and Peace –

In the cellars of the Yerevan Brandy Company sits a barrel of brandy that has been waiting 13 years for resolution of Armenia’s conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan over the breakaway region of Nagorno Karabakh.  

Armenia’s favorite drink, brandy became widely popular in Soviet days when the country (and Georgia) ranked as the USSR’s 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 company’s 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 company’s 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 Europe’s 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 Russia’s incursion into Ukraine’s Crimea is not expected to improve those chances.

Some Armenian observers can’t agree over whether or not Crimea will have good, bad or noimpact on Armenia and its ethnic kin in Karabakh. For its part, Azerbaijan looks at Crimea’s 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.

By Giorci Lomsadze

Eurasianet