Context of Armenia

 

Armenia ( (listen)), officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north, the Lachin corridor (under a Russian peacekeeping force) and Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan to the south. Yerevan is the capital, largest city and financial center.

Armenia is a unitary, multi-party, democratic nation-state with an ancient cultural heritage. The first Armenian state of Urartu was established in 860 BC, and by the 6th century BC it was replaced by the Satrapy of Armenia. The Kingdom of Armenia reached its height under Tigranes the Great in the 1st century BC and in the year 301 became the first state in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion. The ancient Armenian kingdom was spl...Read more

 

Armenia ( (listen)), officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north, the Lachin corridor (under a Russian peacekeeping force) and Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan to the south. Yerevan is the capital, largest city and financial center.

Armenia is a unitary, multi-party, democratic nation-state with an ancient cultural heritage. The first Armenian state of Urartu was established in 860 BC, and by the 6th century BC it was replaced by the Satrapy of Armenia. The Kingdom of Armenia reached its height under Tigranes the Great in the 1st century BC and in the year 301 became the first state in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion. The ancient Armenian kingdom was split between the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires around the early 5th century. Under the Bagratuni dynasty, the Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia was restored in the 9th century. Declining due to the wars against the Byzantines, the kingdom fell in 1045 and Armenia was soon after invaded by the Seljuk Turks. An Armenian principality and later a kingdom Cilician Armenia was located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea between the 11th and 14th centuries.

Between the 16th and 19th centuries, the traditional Armenian homeland composed of Eastern Armenia and Western Armenia came under the rule of the Ottoman and Persian empires, repeatedly ruled by either of the two over the centuries. By the 19th century, Eastern Armenia had been conquered by the Russian Empire, while most of the western parts of the traditional Armenian homeland remained under Ottoman rule. During World War I, 1.5 million Armenians living in their ancestral lands in the Ottoman Empire were systematically exterminated in the Armenian genocide. In 1918, following the Russian Revolution, all non-Russian countries declared their independence after the Russian Empire ceased to exist, leading to the establishment of the First Republic of Armenia. By 1920, the state was incorporated into the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, and in 1922 became a founding member of the Soviet Union. In 1936, the Transcaucasian state was dissolved, transforming its constituent states, including the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, into full Union republics. The modern Republic of Armenia became independent in 1991 during the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Armenia is a developing country and ranks 85th on the Human Development Index (2021). Its economy is primarily based on industrial output and mineral extraction. While Armenia is geographically located in the South Caucasus, it is generally considered geopolitically European. Since Armenia aligns itself in many respects geopolitically with Europe, the country is a member of numerous European organizations including the Council of Europe, the Eastern Partnership, Eurocontrol, the Assembly of European Regions, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Armenia is also a member of certain regional groups throughout Eurasia, including the Asian Development Bank, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Eurasian Economic Union, and the Eurasian Development Bank. Armenia supports the de facto independent Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), which was proclaimed in 1991 on territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. Armenia also recognises the Armenian Apostolic Church, the world's oldest national church, as the country's primary religious establishment. The unique Armenian alphabet was created by Mesrop Mashtots in 405 AD.

More about Armenia

Basic information
  • Currency Armenian dram
  • Native name Հայաստան
  • Calling code +374
  • Internet domain .am
  • Mains voltage 220V/50Hz
  • Democracy index 5.35
Population, Area & Driving side
  • Population 2930450
  • Area 29743
  • Driving side right
History
  •  
    Antiquity
     
     
    Historical Armenia, 150 BC

    Armenia lies in the highlands surrounding the mountains of Ararat. There is evidence of an early civilisation in Armenia in the Bronze Age and earlier, dating to about 4000 BC....Read more

     
    Antiquity
     
     
    Historical Armenia, 150 BC

    Armenia lies in the highlands surrounding the mountains of Ararat. There is evidence of an early civilisation in Armenia in the Bronze Age and earlier, dating to about 4000 BC. Archaeological surveys in 2010 and 2011 at the Areni-1 cave complex have resulted in the discovery of the world's earliest known leather shoe,[1] skirt,[2] and wine-producing facility.[3]

    According to the story of Hayk, the legendary founder of Armenia, around 2107 BC Hayk fought against Belus, the Babylonian God of War, at Çavuştepe along the Engil river to establish the very first Armenian state. Historically, this event coincides with the destruction of Akkad by the Gutian dynasty of Sumer in 2115 BC,[4] a time when Hayk may have left with the "more than 300 members of his household" as told in the legend, and also during the beginning of when a Mesopotamian Dark Age was occurring due to the fall of the Akkadian Empire in 2154 BC which may have acted as a backdrop for the events in the legend making him leave Mesopotamia.[5]

     
     
    Armenian soldier of the Achaemenid army, circa 470 BC. Xerxes I tomb relief.

    Several Bronze Age cultures and states flourished in the area of Greater Armenia, including the Trialeti-Vanadzor culture, Hayasa-Azzi, and Mitanni (located in southwestern historical Armenia), all of which are believed to have had Indo-European populations.[6][7][8][9][10][11] The Nairi confederation and its successor, Urartu, successively established their sovereignty over the Armenian Highlands. Each of the aforementioned nations and confederacies participated in the ethnogenesis of the Armenians.[12][13][14][15] A large cuneiform lapidary inscription found in Yerevan established that the modern capital of Armenia was founded in the summer of 782 BC by King Argishti I. Yerevan is one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities.[16]

    During the late 6th century BC, the first geographical entity that was called Armenia by neighbouring populations was established under the Orontid Dynasty within the Achaemenid Empire, as part of the latters' territories. The kingdom became fully sovereign from the sphere of influence of the Seleucid Empire in 190 BC under King Artaxias I and begun the rule of the Artaxiad dynasty. Armenia reached its height between 95 and 66 BC under Tigranes the Great, becoming the most powerful kingdom of its time east of the Roman Republic.[17] In the next centuries, Armenia was in the Persian Empire's sphere of influence during the reign of Tiridates I, the founder of the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia, which itself was a branch of the Parthian Empire. Throughout its history, the kingdom of Armenia enjoyed both periods of independence and periods of autonomy subject to contemporary empires. Its strategic location between two continents has subjected it to invasions by many peoples, including Assyria (under Ashurbanipal, at around 669–627 BC, the boundaries of Assyria reached as far as Armenia and the Caucasus Mountains),[18] Medes, Achaemenid Empire, Greeks, Parthians, Romans, Sasanian Empire, Byzantine Empire, Arabs, Seljuk Empire, Mongols, Ottoman Empire, the successive Safavid, Afsharid, and Qajar dynasties of Iran, and the Russians.

     
     
    The pagan Garni Temple, probably built in the first century, is the only "Greco-Roman colonnaded building" in the post-Soviet states.[19]

    Religion in ancient Armenia was historically related to a set of beliefs that, in Persia, led to the emergence of Zoroastrianism. It particularly focused on the worship of Mithra and also included a pantheon of gods such as Aramazd, Vahagn, Anahit, and Astghik. The country used the solar Armenian calendar, which consisted of 12 months.

    Christianity spread into the country as early as AD 40. Tiridates III of Armenia (238–314) made Christianity the state religion in 301,[20][21] partly, in defiance of the Sasanian Empire, it seems,[22] becoming the first officially Christian state, ten years before the Roman Empire granted Christianity an official toleration under Galerius, and 36 years before Constantine the Great was baptised. Prior to this, during the latter part of the Parthian period, Armenia was a predominantly Zoroastrian country.[22]

    After the fall of the Kingdom of Armenia in 428, most of Armenia was incorporated as a marzpanate within the Sasanian Empire.[23] Following the Battle of Avarayr in 451, Christian Armenians maintained their religion and Armenia gained autonomy.[24]

    Middle Ages
     
     
    The Etchmiadzin Cathedral, Armenia's Mother Church traditionally dated 303 AD, is considered the oldest cathedral in the world.[25][26][27]

    After the Sasanian period (428–636), Armenia emerged as Arminiya, an autonomous principality under the Umayyad Caliphate, reuniting Armenian lands previously taken by the Byzantine Empire as well. The principality was ruled by the Prince of Armenia, and recognised by the Caliph and the Byzantine Emperor. It was part of the administrative division/emirate Arminiya created by the Arabs, which also included parts of Georgia and Caucasian Albania, and had its centre in the Armenian city, Dvin. Arminiya lasted until 884, when it regained its independence from the weakened Abbasid Caliphate under Ashot I of Armenia.[28]

    The reemergent Armenian kingdom was ruled by the Bagratuni dynasty and lasted until 1045. In time, several areas of the Bagratid Armenia separated as independent kingdoms and principalities such as the Kingdom of Vaspurakan ruled by the House of Artsruni in the south, Kingdom of Syunik in the east, or Kingdom of Artsakh on the territory of modern Nagorno-Karabakh, while still recognising the supremacy of the Bagratid kings.[29]

     
     
    The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, 1198–1375

    In 1045, the Byzantine Empire conquered Bagratid Armenia. Soon, the other Armenian states fell under Byzantine control as well. The Byzantine rule was short-lived, as in 1071 the Seljuk Empire defeated the Byzantines and conquered Armenia at the Battle of Manzikert, establishing the Seljuk Empire.[30] To escape death or servitude at the hands of those who had assassinated his relative, Gagik II of Armenia, King of Ani, an Armenian named Ruben I, Prince of Armenia, went with some of his countrymen into the gorges of the Taurus Mountains and then into Tarsus of Cilicia. The Byzantine governor of the palace gave them shelter where the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia was eventually established on 6 January 1198 under Leo I, King of Armenia, a descendant of Prince Ruben.[31]

    Cilicia was a strong ally of the European Crusaders, and saw itself as a bastion of Christendom in the East. Cilicia's significance in Armenian history and statehood is also attested by the transfer of the seat of the Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the spiritual leader of the Armenian people, to the region.

    The Seljuk Empire soon started to collapse. In the early 12th century, Armenian princes of the Zakarid family drove out the Seljuk Turks and established a semi-independent principality in northern and eastern Armenia known as Zakarid Armenia, which lasted under the patronage of the Georgian Kingdom. The Orbelian Dynasty shared control with the Zakarids in various parts of the country, especially in Syunik and Vayots Dzor, while the House of Hasan-Jalalyan controlled provinces of Artsakh and Utik as the Kingdom of Artsakh.[32]

    Early Modern era
     
     
    In 1501–02, most of the Eastern Armenian territories, including Yerevan, were conquered by the emerging Safavid dynasty of Iran led by Shah Ismail I.

    During the 1230s, the Mongol Empire conquered Zakarid Armenia and then the remainder of Armenia. The Mongolian invasions were soon followed by those of other Central Asian tribes, such as the Kara Koyunlu, Timurid dynasty and Ağ Qoyunlu, which continued from the 13th century until the 15th century. After incessant invasions, each bringing destruction to the country, with time Armenia became weakened.[33]

    In the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid dynasty of Iran divided Armenia. From the early 16th century, both Western Armenia and Eastern Armenia fell to the Safavid Empire.[34][35] Owing to the century long Turco-Iranian geopolitical rivalry that would last in Western Asia, significant parts of the region were frequently fought over between the two rivalling empires during the Ottoman–Persian Wars. From the mid 16th century with the Peace of Amasya, and decisively from the first half of the 17th century with the Treaty of Zuhab until the first half of the 19th century,[36] Eastern Armenia was ruled by the successive Safavid, Afsharid and Qajar empires, while Western Armenia remained under Ottoman rule.

    From 1604, Abbas I of Iran implemented a "scorched earth" policy in the region to protect his north-western frontier against any invading Ottoman forces, a policy that involved a forced resettlement of masses of Armenians outside of their homelands.[37]

     
     
    Capture of Erivan fortress by Russian troops in 1827 during the Russo-Persian War (1826–28) by Franz Roubaud

    In the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan and the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay, following the Russo-Persian War (1804–13) and the Russo-Persian War (1826–28), respectively, the Qajar dynasty of Iran was forced to irrevocably cede Eastern Armenia, consisting of the Erivan and Karabakh Khanates, to Imperial Russia.[38][39] This period is known as Russian Armenia.

    While Western Armenia still remained under Ottoman rule, the Armenians were granted considerable autonomy within their own enclaves and lived in relative harmony with other groups in the empire (including the ruling Turks). However, as Christians under a strict Muslim social structure, Armenians faced pervasive discrimination. When they began pushing for more rights within the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Abdul Hamid II, in response, organised state-sponsored massacres against the Armenians between 1894 and 1896, resulting in an estimated death toll of 80,000 to 300,000 people. The Hamidian massacres, as they came to be known, gave Hamid international infamy as the "Red Sultan" or "Bloody Sultan".[40]

    During the 1890s, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, commonly known as Dashnaktsutyun, became active within the Ottoman Empire with the aim of unifying the various small groups in the empire that were advocating for reform and defending Armenian villages from massacres that were widespread in some of the Armenian-populated areas of the empire. Dashnaktsutyun members also formed Armenian fedayi groups that defended Armenian civilians through armed resistance. The Dashnaks also worked for the wider goal of creating a "free, independent and unified" Armenia, although they sometimes set aside this goal in favour of a more realistic approach, such as advocating autonomy.

    The Ottoman Empire began to collapse, and in 1908, the Young Turk Revolution overthrew the government of Sultan Hamid. In April 1909, the Adana massacre occurred in the Adana Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire resulting in the deaths of as many as 20,000–30,000 Armenians. The Armenians living in the empire hoped that the Committee of Union and Progress would change their second-class status. The Armenian reform package (1914) was presented as a solution by appointing an inspector general over Armenian issues.[41]

    World War I and the Armenian genocide
     
     
    Armenian genocide victims in 1915

    The outbreak of World War I led to confrontation between the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire in the Caucasus and Persian campaigns. The new government in Istanbul began to look on the Armenians with distrust and suspicion because the Imperial Russian Army contained a contingent of Armenian volunteers. On 24 April 1915, Armenian intellectuals were arrested by Ottoman authorities and, with the Tehcir Law (29 May 1915), eventually a large proportion of Armenians living in Anatolia perished in what has become known as the Armenian genocide.

    The genocide was implemented in two phases: the wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population through massacre and subjection of army conscripts to forced labour, followed by the deportation of women, children, the elderly and infirm on death marches leading to the Syrian desert. Driven forward by military escorts, the deportees were deprived of food and water and subjected to periodic robbery, rape, and massacre.[42][43] There was local Armenian resistance in the region, developed against the activities of the Ottoman Empire. The events of 1915 to 1917 are regarded by Armenians and the vast majority of Western historians to have been state-sponsored mass killings, or genocide.[44]

    Turkish authorities deny the genocide took place to this day. The Armenian Genocide is acknowledged to have been one of the first modern genocides.[45][46] According to the research conducted by Arnold J. Toynbee, an estimated 600,000 Armenians died during deportation from 1915 to 1916. This figure, however, accounts for solely the first year of the Genocide and does not take into account those who died or were killed after the report was compiled on 24 May 1916.[47] The International Association of Genocide Scholars places the death toll at "more than a million".[48] The total number of people killed has been most widely estimated at between 1 and 1.5 million.[49]

    Armenia and the Armenian diaspora have been campaigning for official recognition of the events as genocide for over 30 years. These events are traditionally commemorated yearly on 24 April, the Armenian Martyr Day, or the Day of the Armenian genocide.[50]

    First Republic of Armenia
     
     
      Territory held by Armenia and the Karabakh Council at some point
      Area given to Armenia by the Treaty of Sèvres, which was never enforced[51]
     
     
    The Government house of the First Republic of Armenia (1918–1920)

    Although the Russian Caucasus Army of Imperial forces commanded by Nikolai Yudenich and Armenians in volunteer units and Armenian militia led by Andranik Ozanian and Tovmas Nazarbekian succeeded in gaining most of Ottoman Armenia during World War I, their gains were lost with the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.[citation needed] At the time, Russian-controlled Eastern Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan attempted to bond together in the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic. This federation, however, lasted from only February to May 1918, when all three parties decided to dissolve it. As a result, the Dashnaktsutyun government of Eastern Armenia declared its independence on 28 May as the First Republic of Armenia under the leadership of Aram Manukian.

    The First Republic's short-lived independence was fraught with war, territorial disputes, large-scale rebellions, and a mass influx of refugees from Ottoman Armenia, bringing with them disease and starvation. The Entente Powers sought to help the newly founded Armenian state through relief funds and other forms of support.

    At the end of the war, the victorious powers sought to divide up the Ottoman Empire. Signed between the Allied and Associated Powers and Ottoman Empire at Sèvres on 10 August 1920, the Treaty of Sèvres promised to maintain the existence of the Armenian republic and to attach the former territories of Ottoman Armenia to it. Because the new borders of Armenia were to be drawn by United States President Woodrow Wilson, Ottoman Armenia was also referred to as "Wilsonian Armenia". In addition, just days prior, on 5 August 1920, Mihran Damadian of the Armenian National Union, the de facto Armenian administration in Cilicia, declared the independence of Cilicia as an Armenian autonomous republic under French protectorate.[52]

    There was even consideration of making Armenia a mandate under the protection of the United States. The treaty, however, was rejected by the Turkish National Movement, and never came into effect. The movement used the treaty as the occasion to declare itself the rightful government of Turkey, replacing the monarchy based in Istanbul with a republic based in Ankara.

     
     
    Advance of the 11th Red Army into the city of Yerevan

    In 1920, Turkish nationalist forces invaded the fledgling Armenian republic from the east. Turkish forces under the command of Kazım Karabekir captured Armenian territories that Russia had annexed in the aftermath of the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish War and occupied the old city of Alexandropol (present-day Gyumri). The violent conflict finally concluded with the Treaty of Alexandropol on 2 December 1920. The treaty forced Armenia to disarm most of its military forces, cede all former Ottoman territory granted to it by the Treaty of Sèvres, and to give up all the "Wilsonian Armenia" granted to it at the Sèvres treaty. Simultaneously, the Soviet Eleventh Army, under the command of Grigoriy Ordzhonikidze, invaded Armenia at Karavansarai (present-day Ijevan) on 29 November. By 4 December, Ordzhonikidze's forces entered Yerevan and the short-lived Armenian republic collapsed.[53]

    After the fall of the republic, the February Uprising soon took place in 1921, and led to the establishment of the Republic of Mountainous Armenia by Armenian forces under command of Garegin Nzhdeh on 26 April, which fought off both Soviet and Turkish intrusions in the Zangezur region of southern Armenia. After Soviet agreements to include the Syunik Province in Armenia's borders, the rebellion ended and the Red Army took control of the region on 13 July.

    Armenian SSR
     
     
    The coat of arms of Soviet Armenia depicting Mount Ararat in the centre

    Armenia was annexed by the Red Army and along with Georgia and Azerbaijan, was incorporated into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as part of the Transcaucasian SFSR (TSFSR) on 4 March 1922.[54][55] With this annexation, the Treaty of Alexandropol was superseded by the Turkish-Soviet Treaty of Kars. In the agreement, Turkey allowed the Soviet Union to assume control over Adjara with the port city of Batumi in return for sovereignty over the cities of Kars, Ardahan, and Iğdır, all of which were part of Russian Armenia.[54][55]

    The TSFSR existed from 1922 to 1936, when it was divided up into three separate entities (Armenian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, and Georgian SSR). Armenians enjoyed a period of relative stability within USSR in contrast to the turbulent final years of the Ottoman Empire. The situation was difficult for the church, which struggled with secular policies of USSR. After the death of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, the general secretary of the Communist Party, gradually established himself as the dictator of the USSR. Stalin's reign was characterized by mass repressions, that cost millions of lives all over the USSR.

    Armenia was not the scene of any battles in World War II. An estimated 500,000 Armenians (nearly a third of the population) served in the Red Army during the war, and 175,000 died.[56]

    It is claimed that the freedom index in the region had seen an improvement after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953 and the emergence of Nikita Khrushchev as the new general secretary of the CPSU. Soon, life in Armenia's SSR began to see rapid improvement. The church, which was limited during the secretaryship of Stalin, was revived when Catholicos Vazgen I assumed the duties of his office in 1955. In 1967, a memorial to the victims of the Armenian genocide was built at the Tsitsernakaberd hill above the Hrazdan gorge in Yerevan. This occurred after mass demonstrations took place on the tragic event's fiftieth anniversary in 1965.

     
     
    Armenians gather at Theater Square in central Yerevan to claim unification of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast with the Armenian SSR.

    During the Gorbachev era of the 1980s, with the reforms of Glasnost and Perestroika, Armenians began to demand better environmental care for their country, opposing the pollution that Soviet-built factories brought. Tensions also developed between Soviet Azerbaijan and its autonomous district of Nagorno-Karabakh, a majority-Armenian region. About 484,000 Armenians lived in Azerbaijan in 1970.[57] The Armenians of Karabakh demanded unification with Soviet Armenia. Peaceful protests in Armenia supporting the Karabakh Armenians were met with anti-Armenian pogroms in Azerbaijan, such as the one in Sumgait, which was followed by anti-Azerbaijani violence in Armenia.[58] Compounding Armenia's problems was a devastating earthquake in 1988 with a moment magnitude of 7.2.[59]

    Gorbachev's inability to alleviate any of Armenia's problems created disillusionment among the Armenians and fed a growing hunger for independence. In May 1990, the New Armenian Army (NAA) was established, serving as a defence force separate from the Soviet Red Army. Clashes soon broke out between the NAA and Soviet Internal Security Forces (MVD) troops based in Yerevan when Armenians decided to commemorate the establishment of the 1918 First Republic of Armenia. The violence resulted in the deaths of five Armenians killed in a shootout with the MVD at the railway station. Witnesses there claimed that the MVD used excessive force and that they had instigated the fighting.

    Further firefights between Armenian militiamen and Soviet troops occurred in Sovetashen, near the capital and resulted in the deaths of over 26 people, mostly Armenians. The pogrom of Armenians in Baku in January 1990 forced almost all of the 200,000 Armenians in the Azerbaijani capital Baku to flee to Armenia.[60] On 23 August 1990, Armenia declared its sovereignty on its territory. On 17 March 1991, Armenia, along with the Baltic states, Georgia and Moldova, boycotted a nationwide referendum in which 78% of all voters voted for the retention of the Soviet Union in a reformed form.[61]

    Restoration of independence
     
     
    Armenian soldiers in 2008, during the ongoing and unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

    On 21 September 1991, Armenia officially declared its statehood after the failed August coup in Moscow, RSFSR. Levon Ter-Petrosyan was popularly elected the first President of the newly independent Republic of Armenia on 16 October 1991. He had risen to prominence by leading the Karabakh movement for the unification of the Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh.[62] On 26 December 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist and Armenia's independence was recognised.

    Ter-Petrosyan led Armenia alongside Defense Minister Vazgen Sargsyan through the First Nagorno-Karabakh War with neighbouring Azerbaijan. The initial post-Soviet years were marred by economic difficulties, which had their roots early in the Karabakh conflict when the Azerbaijani Popular Front managed to pressure the Azerbaijan SSR to instigate a railway and air blockade against Armenia. This move effectively debilitated Armenia's economy as 85% of its cargo and goods arrived through rail traffic.[62] In 1993, Turkey joined the blockade against Armenia in support of Azerbaijan.[63]

     
     
    21 September 2011 parade in Yerevan, marking the 20th anniversary of Armenia's re-independence

    The Karabakh war ended after a Russian-brokered ceasefire was put in place in 1994. The war was a success for the Karabakh Armenian forces who managed to capture 16% of Azerbaijan's internationally recognised territory including almost all of the Nagorno-Karabakh itself.[64] The Armenian backed forces remained in control of practically all of that territory until 2020. The economies of both Armenia and Azerbaijan have been hurt in the absence of a complete resolution and Armenia's borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan remain closed. By the time both Azerbaijan and Armenia had finally agreed to a ceasefire in 1994, an estimated 30,000 people had been killed and over a million had been displaced.[65] Several thousand were killed in the later 2020 Karabakh war.

    Modernity

    In the 21st century, Armenia faces many hardships. It has made a full switch to a market economy. One study ranks it the 41st most "economically free" nation in the world, as of 2014[update].[66] Its relations with Europe, the Arab League, and the Commonwealth of Independent States have allowed Armenia to increase trade.[67][68] Gas, oil, and other supplies come through two vital routes: Iran and Georgia. As of 2016[update], Armenia maintained cordial relations with both countries.[69][needs update]

    The 2018 Armenian Revolution was a series of anti-government protests in Armenia from April to May 2018 staged by various political and civil groups led by a member of the Armenian parliament — Nikol Pashinyan (head of the Civil Contract party). Protests and marches took place initially in response to Serzh Sargsyan's third consecutive term as President of Armenia and later against the Republican Party controlled government in general. Pashinyan declared the movement, which led to Sargsyan's resignation, a "velvet revolution."[70]

    In March 2018, Armenian parliament elected Armen Sarkissian as the new President of Armenia. The controversial constitutional reform to reduce presidential power was implemented, while the authority of the prime minister was strengthened.[71] In May 2018, parliament elected opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan as the new prime minister. His predecessor Serzh Sargsyan resigned two weeks earlier following widespread anti-government demonstrations.[72]

    On 27 September 2020, a full-scale war erupted due to the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.[73] Both the armed forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan reported military and civilian casualties.[74] The Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement to end the six-week war between Armenia and Azerbaijan was seen by many as Armenia's defeat and capitulation.[75] The year-long March of Dignity protests forced early elections.

    On 20 June 2021, Pashinyan's Civil Contract party won an early parliamentary election. Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was officially appointed to the post of prime minister by Armenia's President Armen Sarkissian.[76] In January 2022, Armenian President Armen Sarkissian resigned from office, stating that the constitution no longer gives the president sufficient powers or influence.[77] On 3 March 2022, Vahagn Khachaturyan was elected as the fifth president of Armenia in the second round of parliamentary vote.[78] The next month yet more protests broke out.[79]

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Evans, Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C. Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)[1] (2008) pp. 92 ^ Kossian, Aram V. (1997), The Mushki Problem Reconsidered, archived from the original on 29 August 2019, retrieved 31 August 2019 pp. 254 ^ Peter I. Bogucki and Pam J. Crabtree Ancient Europe, 8000 B.C. to A.D. 1000: An Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World. Archived 9 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004 ISBN 978-0684806686 ^ Paul Thieme, The 'Aryan' Gods of the Mitanni Treaties. JAOS 80, 1960, 301-17 ^ Petrosyan, Armen (2007). "Towards the Origins of the Armenian People: The Problem of Identification of the Proto-Armenians: A Critical Review (in English)". Journal for the Society of Armenian Studies. 16: 49–54. Archived from the original on 4 October 2020. Retrieved 30 August 2019. ^ Kurkjian, Vahan (1958). History of Armenia (1964 ed.). Michigan: Armenian General Benevolent Union. 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Smith, eds. (2012). The Archaeology of Power and Politics in Eurasia: Regimes and Revolutions. Cambridge University Press. p. 65. ISBN 978-1-107-01652-1. ...the unique temple-tomb at Garni, just east of Yerevan – the only Greco-Roman colonnaded building anywhere in the Soviet Union. ^ "The World Factbook: Armenia". CIA. Retrieved 15 November 2007. ^ Brunner, Borgna (2006). Time Almanac with Information Please 2007. New York: Time Home Entertainment. p. 685. ISBN 978-1-933405-49-0. ^ a b Mary Boyce. Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices Archived 19 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine Psychology Press, 2001 ISBN 0-415-23902-8 p. 84 ^ Ohannes Geukjian (13 May 2016). Ethnicity, Nationalism and Conflict in the South Caucasus: Nagorno-Karabakh and the Legacy of Soviet Nationalities Policy. Routledge. pp. 30–. ISBN 978-1-317-14074-0. ^ Razmik Panossian (27 May 2006). The Armenians: From Kings and Priests to Merchants and Commissars. Columbia University Press. pp. 48–. 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Hovannisian (11 February 2004). The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times: Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiquity to the Fourteenth Century. Palgrave Macmillan US. pp. 23–31. ISBN 978-1-4039-6422-9. OCLC 805125065. ^ Rayfield, Donald (2013). Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia. Reaktion Books. p. 165. ISBN 978-1-78023-070-2. Archived from the original on 5 February 2017. Retrieved 28 November 2016. ^ Ward, Steven R. (2014). Immortal, Updated Edition: A Military History of Iran and Its Armed Forces. Georgetown University Press. p. 43. ISBN 978-1-62616-032-3. Archived from the original on 5 February 2017. Retrieved 28 November 2016. ^ Herzig, Edmund; Kurkchiyan, Marina (2004). The Armenians: Past and Present in the Making of National Identity. Routledge. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-135-79837-6. Archived from the original on 11 January 2017. Retrieved 28 November 2016. ^ H. Nahavandi, Y. Bomati, Shah Abbas, empereur de Perse (1587–1629) (Perrin, Paris, 1998) ^ Mikaberidze, Alexander (2011). Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 33, 351. ISBN 978-1-59884-337-8. Archived from the original on 5 February 2017. Retrieved 28 November 2016. ^ Dowling, Timothy C. (2014). Russia at War: From the Mongol Conquest to Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Beyond [2 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. pp. 728–. ISBN 978-1-59884-948-6. Archived from the original on 8 February 2017. Retrieved 28 November 2016. ^ Minahan, James (2010). The complete guide to national symbols and emblems. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood Press. p. 310. ISBN 978-0-313-34497-8. Archived from the original on 25 October 2015. Retrieved 27 August 2015. ^ Kirakosian, J. S. (1972). Hayastane michazkayin divanakitut'yan ew sovetakan artakin kaghakakanut'yan pastateghterum, 1828–1923 [Armenia in the documents of international diplomacy and Soviet foreign policy, 1828–1923] (in Armenian). Yerevan. pp. 149–358. ^ Kieser, Hans-Lukas; Schaller, Dominik J. (2002), Der Völkermord an den Armeniern und die Shoah [The Armenian genocide and the Shoah] (in German), Chronos, p. 114, ISBN 978-3-0340-0561-6 ^ Walker, Christopher J. (1980), Armenia: The Survival of A Nation, London: Croom Helm, pp. 200–03 ^ "Extensive bibliography by University of Michigan on the Armenian genocide". Umd.umich.edu. Archived from the original on 16 November 2001. Retrieved 30 December 2010. ^ "Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Resolution". Armenian genocide. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 10 February 2016. ^ Ferguson, Niall (2006). The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West. New York: Penguin Press. p. 177. ISBN 978-1-59420-100-4. ^ Robert Melson, Revolution and Genocide: On the Origins of the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust, University of Chicago Press, 15 October 1992, p. 147 ^ Q&A: Armenian genocide dispute Archived 1 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine. BBC News. 10 July 2008. ^ "Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex". Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute. Archived from the original on 20 January 2016. Retrieved 10 February 2016. ^ Vartan Matiossian (23 September 2021). The Politics of Naming the Armenian Genocide: Language, History and 'Medz Yeghern'. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 125–. ISBN 978-0-7556-4109-3. OCLC 1247655673. ^ Hille, Charlotte Mathilde Louise (2010). State Building and Conflict Resolution in the Caucasus. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. p. 151. ISBN 978-90-04-17901-1. ^ Hovannisian, Richard, and Simon Payaslian. Armenian Cilicia. Costa Mesa: Mazda Publishers, Inc., 2008. 483. Print. ^ Richard Pipes (25 April 1997). The Formation of the Soviet Union: Communism and Nationalism, 1917-1923, First Edition. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-41764-9. OCLC 1259423784. ^ a b "The Soviet Period – History – Azerbaijan – Asia". Archived from the original on 29 September 2011. Retrieved 25 July 2011. ^ a b Закавказская федерация. Большая советская энциклопедия, 3-е изд., гл. ред. А. М. Прохоров. Москва: Советская энциклопедия, 1972. Т. 9 (A. M. Prokhorov; et al., eds. (1972). "Transcaucasian Federation". Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Vol. 9. Moscow: Soviet Encyclopedia.) ^ C. Mouradian, L'Armenie sovietique, pp. 278–79 ^ "Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic Archived 3 November 2011 at the Wayback Machine". The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). ^ Naegele, Jolyon (9 April 2008). "Azerbaijan: Armenians and Azerbaijanis Remember Suffering". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Archived from the original on 20 December 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2021. ^ Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia 2004. p. 74 by Imogen Gladman, Taylor & Francis Group ^ Notes from Baku: Black January Archived 27 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Rufat Ahmedov. EurasiaNet Human Rights. ^ "The March Referendum". Archived from the original on 15 October 2006. Retrieved 10 November 2008. ^ a b Croissant, Michael P. (1998). The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict: Causes and Implications. London: Praeger. ISBN 978-0-275-96241-8. ^ "The Ties That Divide". Global Heritage Fund. 17 June 2006. Archived from the original on 20 August 2006. Retrieved 22 July 2009. ^ De Waal, Thomas (2004). Black Garden: Armenia And Azerbaijan Through Peace and War. New York: New York University Press. p. 240. ISBN 978-0-8147-1945-9. ^ A Conflict That Can Be Resolved in Time: Nagorno-Karabakh Archived 1 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine. International Herald Tribune. 29 November 2003. ^ "Heritage Index of Economic Freedom". The Heritage Foundation. 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Stay safe
  •  
    Stay safe
     
     
    Sevanavank in Lake Sevan Region.

    Armenia is a very safe country, so you shouldn't worry about walking around late at night. People leave you to your own devices.

    Overall, Yerevan is also safe, though theft and pickpocketing are not unheard of, particularly targeting foreigners. Use common sense and usual precautions when walking on the street at night, especially after drinking.

    Female travellers should be aware that unaccompanied women are an unusual sight after dark. In the outskirts of the city, a single woman walking alone at night may attract attention—though this attention may not be as malign as other parts of the world.

    The biggest danger in Armenia are taxi drivers, especially in Yerevan. See the Yerevan article and included warning to read all about it. As stated above, always agree a price in advance, and if they are reluctant to agree, do not take the ride. Another taxi will not be long coming.

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