Episode Details

“This recording was taken from the yard of Vahandukht Melkonyan – an 89-year-old great-grandmother and the last person left living in an almost-abandoned Armenian village. Her home sits on the border with Turkey. Just a few hundred meters from her home, across that border, are the ruins of the famous 11th-century Armenian city of Ani. Even though Vahandukht looks at Ani from her garden every day, she has never been able to visit: this border has been closed to civilians for over a hundred years. But she is so close that she can hear sounds from the ancient city, including the muslim call to prayer.

We did a whole episode with Vahandkht on our show Country of Dust: https://countryofdust.com/podcast_episode/the-last-tonir/“