The jewel in the crown of the 220-acre Armenian Quarter is St James’s monastery, now at the centre of a storm that touches on identity, history, politics, memory and dignity.

“I’m Armenian.” “Oh, you’re Albanian? I was in Tirana recently and I liked it a lot! By the way, do you all still speak Aramaic?”

To say that I was gobsmacked would not be much of an exaggeration. I’d never before been asked if I spoke the language of Jesus. And who would wish to have their identity and heritage so summarily swept away by such erroneous assumptions, even if they were made innocently by a momentary acquaintance I had met at a conference?

Misunderstandings are not uncommon. Few in the UK have heard of the Armenians, despite the fact that there are an estimated 10 million of us. Three million reside in the Republic of Armenia itself; there is a vast diaspora, quite different culturally, with large communities in Russia, the US, France, Australia, Georgia, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Argentina and Canada. One of the oldest communities in the diaspora is in Jerusalem, where some 2,000 Armenians live, largely centred around the Armenian Quarter in the Old City. The first recorded Armenian pilgrimage to the Holy Land was in the early fourth century. The jewel in the crown of this small geographical space – just 220 acres – is St James’s monastery, which houses the Armenian Apostolic Church’s Jerusalem Patriarchate, a school that teaches Armenian, English, Arabic and Hebrew, a seminary, a library, a museum housing precious manuscripts and rare artefacts, and a cemetery.

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