In a city not yet bicycle friendly and where crossing streets remains hazardous duty, the Segway people mover is alien to Yerevan in concept as much as in its rare presence. Yet, like nearly every other Western fad or fashion that eventually turns up here, the Segway – a stand-up scooter that looks like an old fashioned lawnmower turned backward – has rolled into Armenia.

Last spring a Segway distributorship opened on Saryan Street in the capital, and soon strollers on the major boulevards of the city center were being dodged by upright rollers that drew stares befitting apparition.