Thank you for the welcome. As I stand here in Erivan looking out on the central square, inevitably called Lenin Square, I can’t help feeling a bit sorry that Armenia has to describe itself as a Soviet Republic. It could have done so much better if it had retained the independence that it won just after the Bolshevik Revolution. Or could it? Would it have survived at all? Who knows? Throughout its history Armenia has been squeezed and crushed by its neighbours: the Turks, the Persians, even the Georgians. The Soviet juggernaut had little difficulty in swallowing this tiny country with its population of only two million as soon as the Bolsheviks had won the civil war. But at least this rump of a once great nation still exists as some sort of an entity, and its people can feel at home here. This is more than can be said for the large numbers of Armenians living in Iran, Turkey and other places further afield.