Armenia ( ,
transliterated:
Hayastan,
), officially the
Republic of Armenia (
Հայաստանի
Հանրապետություն,
Hayastani Hanrapetut’yun, ), is a
landlocked mountainous country in
the
Caucasus region of
Eurasia.
Situated at the juncture of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bordered by Turkey
to the west,
Georgia
to the
north, Azerbaijan
to the east, and Iran
and the
Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan
to the south.
A former
republic of the Soviet
Union
, Armenia is a unitary,
multiparty, democratic nation-state with an ancient and historic
cultural heritage. The
Kingdom of Armenia was the first
state to adopt
Christianity as its
religion in the early years of the
4th
century (the traditional date is 301). The modern Republic of
Armenia recognizes the exclusive historical mission of the
Armenian Apostolic Church as a
national church, although the modern
Republic of Armenia has
separation of church and
state.
Armenia is a member of more than 40
international organisations,
including the
United Nations, the
Council of Europe, the
Asian Development Bank, the
Commonwealth of Independent
States, the
World Trade
Organization, the
Organization
of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, and
La Francophonie.
It is a member of the
CSTO
military alliance, and also
participates in NATO
's Partnership for Peace (PfP)
programme. In 2004 its forces joined KFOR, a NATO-led international force in
Kosovo
. It is also an observer member of the
Eurasian Economic
Community and the
Non-Aligned
Movement. The country is an emerging
democracy. Armenia is classified as a country with
medium
human
development and 10.6% of the population live below the
international poverty line of US$1.25 a day.
Etymology of name
The native
Armenian name for the
country is . The name in the
Middle Ages
was extended to
Hayastan,
by addition of the
Iranian suffix
-stan (land).The name has
traditionally been derived from
Hayk ( ), the
legendary patriarch of the
Armenians and a
great-great-grandson of
Noah, who according to
Moses of Chorene defeated the
Babylonian king Bel in
2492 BC, and established his
nation in the
Ararat region. The further
origin of the name is uncertain.
The
exonym Armenia is first
attested in the Old Persian
Behistun
inscription
(515 BC) as
Armina (ΠμηΡδ). Ancient Greek "Armenians" is attested
from about the same time, perhaps the earliest reference being a
fragment attributed to
Hecataeus of
Miletus (476 BC).
Herodotus (440 BC)
has "the Armenians were equipped like
Phrygians, being Phrygian colonists" (7.73). Some
decades later,
Xenophon, a Greek general
serving in some of the Persian expeditions, describes many aspects
of Armenian village life and hospitality. He relates that the
people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like the language
of the
Persians. According to the
histories of both
Moses of Chorene
and
Michael Chamich,
Armenia derives from the name of
Aram,
a lineal descendent of
Hayk, son of Harma and
father of
Ara the Beautiful, who
ruled around 900 BC and became widely acclaimed by the peoples of
the region for his exploits.
History
Antiquity
Armenia
lies in the highlands surrounding the Biblical mountains of
Ararat
, upon which,
according to the Bible, Noah's Ark came to rest after the flood. (Gen. 8:4). In the
Bronze Age, several states flourished in the area
of Greater Armenia, including the
Hittite Empire (at the height of its
power),
Mitanni (South-Western historical
Armenia), and
Hayasa-Azzi (1500–1200
BC). Then, the
Nairi people (twelfth to ninth
centuries BC) and the
Kingdom of Urartu
(1000–600 BC) successively established their sovereignty over the
Armenian Highland. Each of the aforementioned nations and tribes
participated in the ethnogenesis of the Armenian people.
Yerevan
, the modern
capital of Armenia, was founded in 782 BC by king Argishti I.
Around 600 BC, the
Kingdom of
Armenia was established under the
Orontid Dynasty. The kingdom reached its
height between 95 and 66 BC under
Tigranes the Great, becoming one of the
most powerful kingdoms of its time within the region. Throughout
its history, the kingdom of Armenia enjoyed periods of independence
intermitted with periods of autonomy subject to contemporary
empires. Armenia's strategic location between two continents has
subjected it to invasions by many peoples, including the
Assyrians,
Greeks,
Romans,
Byzantines,
Arabs,
Mongols,
Persians,
Ottoman
Turks and
Russians.
Armenia was historically
Mazdean
Zoroastrian (as opposed to the
Zurvanite Sassanid
dynasty), particularly focused on the worship of Mihr (Avestan
Mithra), and Christianity spread into the
country as early as AD 40. King
Tiridates III (AD 238–314) made
Christianity the
state religion in AD 301, 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
baptized.
After the fall of the
Armenian
kingdom in AD 428, most of Armenia was incorporated as a
marzpanate within the Sassanid
Empire.
Following an Armenian rebellion
in AD 451, Christian Armenians maintained their
religious freedom, while Armenia
gained autonomy.
The Kingdom of Cilician Armenia,
1199–1375
Middle Ages
After the
Marzpanate period
(428–636), Armenia emerged as the
Emirate of Armenia, an autonomous
principality within the Arabic Empire, reuniting Armenian lands
previously taken by the
Byzantine
Empire as well. The principality was ruled by the Prince of
Armenia, recognised by the
Caliph and the
Byzantine Emperor.
It was
part of the administrative division/emirate Arminiyya
created by the Arabs, which also included parts of Georgia and
Caucasian Albania, and had its
center in the Armenian city Dvin
. The
Principality of Armenia
lasted until 884, when it regained its independence from the
weakened Arabic Empire.
The re-emergent 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, while still recognizing the supremacy of
the Bagratid kings.
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 Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantines and
conquered Armenia at the Battle of Manzikert
, establishing the Seljuk Empire.
To escape
death or servitude at the hands of those who had assassinated his
relative, Gagik II, King of Ani
, an Armenian
named Roupen 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.
The Seljuk Empire soon started to collapse. In the early 1100s,
Armenian princes of the
Zakarid noble family established a semi-independent
Armenian principality in Northern and Eastern Armenia, known as
Zakarid Armenia, lasted under
patronages of
Seljuks,
Georgian Kingdom,
Atabegs of Azerbaijan and
Khwarezmid Empire.
The noble
family of Orbelians shared control
with the Zakarids in various parts of the country, especially in
Syunik
and Vayots Dzor
.
Early Modern Era
During the 1230s, the
Mongol Empire
conquered the Zakaryan Principality, as well as the rest of
Armenia. Armenian soldiers formed an important part of the military
of the
Ilkhanate. The Mongolian invasions
were soon followed by those of other
Central Asian tribes (
Kara Koyunlu,
Timurid and
Ak
Koyunlu), which continued from the 1200s until the 1400s. After
incessant invasions, each bringing destruction to the country,
Armenia in time became weakened. During the 1500s, the
Ottoman Empire and
Safavid Persia divided Armenia among themselves.
The
Russian
Empire
later incorporated Eastern Armenia (consisting of the Erivan and Karabakh khanates within
Persia) in 1813 and 1828 .
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 system, Armenians faced pervasive
discrimination. When they began pushing for more rights within the
Ottoman Empire, Sultan
‘Abdu’l-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".
As the Ottoman Empire began to collapse, the
Young Turk Revolution (1908) overthrew
the government of Sultan Hamid. Armenians living in the empire
hoped that the
Committee
of Union and Progress would change their second-class status.
Armenian reform package
(1914) was presented as a solution by appointing an
inspector general over Armenian
issues.
World War I and the Armenian Genocide
When
World War I broke out leading to
confrontation of the Ottoman Empire
and the Russian
Empire in the Caucasus
and Persian Campaigns, the new
government in Constantinople
began to look on the Armenians with distrust and
suspicion. This was due to the fact that the
Russian army
contained a contingent of
Armenian volunteers.
On April 24, 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. 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. Turkish authorities,
however, maintain that the deaths were the result of a
civil war coupled with disease and
famine, with casualties incurred by both sides.
According to the research conducted by
Arnold J. Toynbee an estimated 600,000 Armenians
died during the Armenian Genocide in 1915–16. According to the
International
Association of Genocide Scholars, the death toll was "more than
a million". 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 April 24, the
Armenian Martyr Day, or the Day of
the
Armenian Genocide.
Democratic Republic of Armenia (DRA)
Although the Russian army succeeded in gaining most of Ottoman
Armenia during World War I, their gains were lost with the
Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 .
At the
time, Russian-controlled Eastern
Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan attempted to bond together in the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative
Republic
. This federation, however, only lasted from
February to May 1918, when all three parties decided to dissolve
it.
As a
result, Eastern Armenia became independent as the Democratic
Republic of Armenia
(DRA) on May 28.
Political divisions of Europe in 1919
showing the independent Armenian republic.
The DRA's short-lived independence was fraught with war,
territorial disputes, a mass influx of
refugees from Ottoman Armenia, spreading disease, and starvation.
Still, the
Entente Powers,
appalled by the actions of the Ottoman government, sought to help
the newly found Armenian state through relief funds and other forms
of support.
At the end of the war, the victorious Entente powers sought to
divide up the Ottoman Empire. Signed between the
Allied and Associated Powers and
Ottoman Empire at
Sèvres on August 10, 1920, the
Treaty of Sèvres promised to maintain
the existence of the DRA 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 is also referred to as "
Wilsonian Armenia." There was even
consideration of possibly 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, under
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk,
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
.
In 1920, Turkish nationalist forces invaded the fledgling Armenian
republic from the east and the
Turkish-Armenian War began.
Turkish
forces under the command of Kazım Karabekir captured Armenian
territories that Russia 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 (December 2,
1920). The treaty forced Armenia to disarm most of its
military forces, cede more than 50% of its
pre-war territory, 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 November
29. By December 4, Ordzhonikidze's forces entered Yerevan
and the short-lived Armenian republic collapsed.
Soviet Armenia
Armenia
was annexed by Bolshevist
Russia and along with Georgia and Azerbaijan, it was incorporated into the Soviet Union as part of the Transcaucasian SFSR on March 4,
1922. 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.
The TSFR 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 under Soviet rule.
They received medicine, food, and other provisions from Moscow, and
communist rule proved to be a soothing balm in contrast to the
turbulent final years of the Ottoman Empire. The situation was
difficult for the church, which struggled under Soviet rule.
After the
death of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin took the reins of power and
began an era of renewed fear and terror for Armenians.Ronald G.
Suny, James Nichol, Darrell L. Slider. Armenia, Azerbaijan, and
Georgia. Federal Research Division, Library of
Congress
. 1995. p.17 and following As with various
other
ethnic minorities who lived in
the Soviet Union during Stalin's
Great
Purge, tens of thousands of Armenians were either executed or
deported.
Fears decreased when Stalin died in 1953 and
Nikita Khruschev emerged as the Soviet
Union's new leader. Soon, life in Soviet Armenia began to see rapid
improvement. The church which suffered greatly under 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.
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 separated by Stalin from Armenia in 1923. The Armenians of
Karabakh demanded unification with Soviet Armenia.
Peaceful protests in
Yerevan supporting the Karabakh Armenians were met with anti-Armenian pogroms in the Azerbaijani city
of Sumgait
. Compounding Armenia's problems was a
devastating
earthquake
in 1988 with a moment magnitude of 7.2.
Gorbachev's inability to solve Armenia's problems (especially
Karabakh) created disillusionment among the Armenians and only 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 Democratic 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. 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. On March 17, 1991, Armenia, along with the
Baltic states, Georgia and Moldova
, boycotted a union-wide referendum in which 78% of all voters voted for
the retention of the Soviet Union in a reformed form.
Restoration of independence
In 1991, the Soviet Union broke apart and Armenia re-established
its independence. Declaring independence on August 23, it was the
first non-Baltic republic to secede. However, the initial
post-Soviet years were marred by economic difficulties as well as
the break-out of a full-scale
armed
confrontation between the Karabakh Armenians and Azerbaijan.
The economic problems 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 crippled Armenia's economy
as 85% of its cargo and goods arrived through rail traffic. In
1993, Turkey joined the blockade against Armenia in support of
Azerbaijan.
The Karabakh war ended after a Russian-brokered
cease-fire was put in place in 1994. The war was a
success for the Karabakh Armenian forces who managed to secure 14%
of Azerbaijan's internationally recognised territory including
Nagorno-Karabakh itself. Since then, Armenia and Azerbaijan have
held peace talks, mediated by the
Organisation
for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The status over
Karabakh has yet to be determined. The economies of both countries
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.
As it enters the
twenty-first century,
Armenia faces many hardships. Still, it has managed to make some
improvements. It has made a full switch to a
market economy and as of 2009, is the 31st
most economically free nation in the world. Its relations with
Europe, the Middle East, and the
Commonwealth of Independent
States have allowed Armenia to increase trade. Gas, oil, and
other supplies come through two vital routes: Iran and Georgia.
Armenia maintains cordial relations with both countries.
Government and politics
Politics of Armenia takes place
in a framework of a
presidential
representative democratic
republic. According to the
Constitution of Armenia, the
President is the
head of
government and of a
multi-party
system.
Executive power is
exercised by the government.
Legislative
power is vested in both the
government and parliament.
The unicameral parliament (also called the
Azgayin
Zhoghov
or National Assembly) is controlled by a coalition of four
political parties: the conservative Republican party, the Prosperous Armenia party, the Rule of Law party and the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation. The main opposition party is Raffi Hovannisian's Heritage party, which favors eventual
Armenian membership in the European
Union and NATO.
The Armenian government's stated aim is to build a Western-style
parliamentary democracy as the
basis of its
form of government.
It has
universal suffrage above
the age of eighteen.
International observers of Council of Europe and U.S.
Department of State have questioned the fairness of Armenia's
parliamentary and presidential elections
and constitutional referendum since 1995, citing polling
deficiencies, lack of cooperation by the Electoral Commission, and poor
maintenance of electoral lists and polling places.
Freedom House categorized Armenia in its 2008
report as a "Semi-consolidated Authoritarian Regime" (along with
Moldova, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan
, and Russia) and ranked Armenia 20th among 29
nations in transition, with
a Democracy Score of 5.21 out of 7 (7 represents the lowest
democratic progress). Since 1999, Freedom House's Democracy
Score for Armenia has been steadily on the decline (from 4.79 to
5.21). Furthermore, Freedom House ranked Armenia as "
partly free" in its 2007
report, though it did not categorise Armenia as an "electoral
democracy", indicating an absence of relatively free and
competitive elections. However, significant progress seems to have
been made and the
2008 Armenian presidential
election was hailed as largely democratic by
OSCE
and Western monitors.
Foreign relations
Armenia presently maintains good relations with almost every
country in the world, with two major exceptions being its immediate
neighbours, Turkey and Azerbaijan.
Tensions were running high between
Armenians and Azerbaijanis during the final years of the Soviet Union. The
Nagorno-Karabakh War dominated the
region's politics throughout the 1990s. The border between the two
rival countries remains closed up to this day, and a permanent
solution for the conflict has not been reached despite the
mediation provided by organisations such as the
OSCE.
Turkey also has a long history of poor relations with Armenia over
its refusal to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide of 1915. The
Karabakh conflict became an excuse for Turkey to close its land
border with Armenia in 1993. It has not lifted its blockade despite
pressure from the powerful Turkish business lobby interested in
Armenian markets.
Since 2001, however, the Armenian airline company Armavia
regularly flies between the Zvartnots
International Airport
of Yerevan and Atatürk International Airport
of Istanbul. On October 10, 2009, Armenia and Turkey
finally signed a peace deal, which sets a timetable for restoring
diplomatic ties and reopening their joint border, which has yet to
be approved by their parliaments.
Due to its position between two unfriendly neighbours, Armenia has
close security ties with Russia.
At the request of the Armenian
government, Russia maintains a military
base
in the northwestern Armenian city of Gyumri as a
deterrent against Turkey. Despite this, Armenia has also
been looking toward Euro-Atlantic structures in recent years. It
maintains good relations with the United States especially through
its
Armenian diaspora. According
to the
U.S. Census Bureau, there are 427,822
Armenians living in the country.
Because of the blockades by Azerbaijan and Turkey, Armenia
continues to maintain solid relations with its southern neighbor
Iran especially in the economic sector. Economic projects such a
gas pipeline going from Iran to Armenia are in time being
developed.
Armenia
is also a member of the Council of
Europe, maintaining friendly relations with the European Union, especially with its member
states such as France and Greece
. A
2005 survey reported that 64% of Armenia's population would be in
favor of joining the EU. Several Armenian officials have also
expressed the desire for their country to eventually become an EU
member state, some predicting that it will make an official bid for
membership in a few years.
Eduard Nalbandyan currently serves
as the Armenian
Minister of Foreign
Affairs.
Military
The
Armenian Army,
Air Force,
Air Defence, and
Border Guard comprise the four
branches of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia. The
Armenian military was formed after the
collapse of the Soviet
Union in 1991 and with the establishment of the Ministry of
Defence in 1992. The
Commander-in-Chief of the military is the
President of Armenia,
Serzh Sargsyan.
The Ministry of Defence is
in charge of political leadership, currently headed by
Colonel-General Mikael Harutyunyan, while military
command remains in the hands of the
General Staff, headed by the Chief of
Staff, who is currently
Lieutenant-General Seyran Ohanian.
Active forces now number about 30,000
soldiers, with an additional
reserve of 32,000 troops.
Armenian
border guards are in charge of patrolling the country's borders
with Georgia and Azerbaijan, while Russian troops continue to monitor its
borders with Iran and Turkey. In
the case of an attack, Armenia is able to mobilise every
able-bodied man between the age of 15 and 59,
with
military preparedness.
The
Treaty
on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, which establishes
comprehensive limits on key categories of
military equipment, was
ratified by the Armenian parliament in July 1992. In March 1993,
Armenia signed the multilateral
Chemical Weapons Convention,
which calls for the eventual elimination of
chemical weapons. Armenia acceded to the
Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as a non-
nuclear weapons state in July 1993.
Armenia
is member of Collective Security
Treaty Organisation (CSTO) along with Belarus
, Kazakhstan
, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan
and Uzbekistan
. It participates in NATO's Partnership for Peace (PiP) program
and is in a NATO organisation called Euro-Atlantic Partnership
Council (EAPC). Armenia has engaged in a peacekeeping
mission in Kosovo as part of
non-NATO KFOR troops under Greek
command. Armenia also had 46 members of its military
peacekeeping forces as a part of the
Coalition
Forces in
Iraq War until October
2008.
Administrative divisions
Armenia
is divided into ten provinces
(marzer, singular marz), with the city
(kaghak) of Yerevan ( ) having special administrative status as the
country's capital. The chief executive in each of the ten
provinces is the
marzpet (
marz governor),
appointed by the government of Armenia. In Yerevan, the chief
executive is the mayor, appointed by the president.
Within each province are
communities
(
hamaynkner, singular
hamaynk). Each community is
self-governing and consists of one
or more settlements (
bnakavayrer, singular
bnakavayr). Settlements are classified as either towns
(
kaghakner, singular
kaghak) or villages
(
gyugher, singular
gyugh). As of 2007, Armenia
includes 915 communities, of which 49 are considered urban and 866
are considered rural. The capital, Yerevan, also has the status of
a community. Additionally, Yerevan is divided into twelve
semi-autonomous districts.
| Province |
Capital |
Area |
Population |
Aragatsotn ( ) |
Ashtarak ( ) |
2,753 km² |
126,278 |
Ararat (
) |
Artashat ( ) |
2,096 km² |
252,665 |
Armavir ( ) |
Armavir ( ) |
1,242 km² |
255,861 |
Gegharkunik ( ) |
Gavar (
) |
5,348 km² |
215,371 |
Kotayk (
) |
Hrazdan ( ) |
2,089 km² |
241,337 |
Lori (
) |
Vanadzor ( ) |
3,789 km² |
253,351 |
Shirak (
) |
Gyumri (
) |
2,681 km² |
257,242 |
Syunik (
) |
Kapan (
) |
4,506 km² |
134,061 |
Tavush (
) |
Ijevan (
) |
2,704 km² |
121,963 |
| Vayots Dzor ( ) |
Yeghegnadzor ( ) |
2,308 km² |
53,230 |
| Yerevan ( ) |
– |
227 km² |
1,091,235 |
Geography
Armenia is
landlocked in the
southern Caucasus.
Located between the
Black
and
Caspian
Seas
, the country is bordered on the north and east by
Georgia and Azerbaijan, and on the south and west by Iran and Turkey.
Topography
The
Republic of Armenia, covering an area of , is located in the
north-east of the Armenian Highland
( ), otherwise known as historical Armenia and
considered as the original homeland of Armenians. The terrain is mostly
mountainous, with fast flowing rivers and few
forests. The climate is highland
continental, which means that the
country is subjected to hot summers and cold winters.
The land rises to
above sea-level at Mount Aragats
, and no point is below above sea
level.
Mount Ararat, which was historically part of Armenia, is the
highest mountain in the region. Now located in Turkey, but
clearly visible in Armenia, it is regarded by the Armenians as a
symbol of their land. Because of this, the
mountain is present on the
Armenian national emblem
today.
Environment
Armenia has established a Ministry of Nature Protection and
introduced taxes for air and
water
pollution and
solid waste
disposal, whose revenues are used for
environmental protection activities.
Waste management in
Armenia is underdeveloped as no
waste
sorting or recycling takes place at Armenia's 60
landfills.
Despite
the availability of abundant renewable
energy sources in Armenia (especially hydroelectric and
wind power) the Armenian Government is
working toward building a new Nuclear
Power Plant
at Medzamor near Yerevan.
Climate
The climate in Armenia is markedly continental. Summers are dry and
sunny, lasting from June to mid-September. The temperature
fluctuates between and . However, the low humidity level mitigates
the effect of high temperatures. Evening breezes blowing down the
mountains provide a welcome refreshing and cooling effect. Springs
are short, while falls are long. Autumns are known for their
vibrant and colorful foliage. Winters are quite cold with plenty of
snow, with temperatures ranging between and . .
Winter sports enthusiasts enjoy skiing down the
hills of Tsakhkadzor
, located thirty minutes outside Yerevan.
Lake Sevan
nestled up in the Armenian highlands, is the second
largest lake in the world relative to its altitude, above sea
level.
Economy
The Armenian economy heavily relies on investment and support from
Armenians abroad. Before independence, Armenia's economy was
largely
industry-based –
chemical,
electronics, machinery,
processed food,
synthetic rubber, and
textile – and highly dependent on outside resources.
The republic had developed a modern
industrial sector, supplying
machine tools, textiles, and other
manufactured goods to sister republics in
exchange for raw materials and energy.
Agriculture accounted for less than 20% of both
net material product and
total employment before the
dissolution of
the Soviet Union in 1991. After independence, the importance of
agriculture in the economy increased markedly, its share at the end
of the 1990s rising to more than 30% of
GDP and more than 40% of total
employment. This increase in agriculture's share was attributable
to food security needs of the population in the face of uncertainty
during the first phases of
transition and the collapse of the
non-agricultural sectors of the economy in the
early 1990s. As the economic situation stabilized and
growth resumed, the share of agriculture in GDP dropped to slightly
over 20% (2006 data), although the share of agriculture in
employment remained more than 40%.
Armenian mines produce
copper,
zinc,
gold, and
lead. The vast majority of energy is produced with
fuel imported from Russia, including
gas and
nuclear fuel (for
its one
nuclear power plant); the main
domestic
energy source is
hydroelectric. Small amounts of
coal, gas, and
petroleum have not yet been developed.
Like other
newly independent
states of the former Soviet Union, Armenia's economy suffers
from the legacy of a
centrally planned
economy and the breakdown of former Soviet trading patterns.
Soviet investment in and support of Armenian industry has virtually
disappeared, so that few major enterprises are still able to
function.
In addition, the effects of the 1988
Spitak
Earthquake
, which killed more than 25,000 people and made
500,000 homeless, are still being felt. The conflict with
Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh has not been resolved. The closure
of Azerbaijani and Turkish borders has devastated the economy,
because Armenia depends on outside supplies of energy and most raw
materials. Land routes through Georgia and Iran are inadequate or
unreliable.
GDP fell nearly
60% from 1989 until 1993, and then resumed its robust growth. The
national currency, the dram, suffered hyperinflation for the first
years after its introduction in 1993.
Nevertheless, the government was able to make wide-ranging economic
reforms that paid off in dramatically lower inflation and steady
growth. The 1994 cease-fire in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has
also helped the economy. Armenia has had strong
economic growth since 1995, building on the
turnaround that began the previous year, and inflation has been
negligible for the past several years. New sectors, such as
precious stone processing and
jewellery making,
information and
communication
technology, and even
tourism are
beginning to supplement more traditional sectors in the economy,
such as agriculture.
This steady economic progress has earned Armenia increasing support
from international institutions.
The International Monetary Fund
(IMF), World Bank,
European Bank
for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and other international financial institutions
(IFIs) and foreign countries are extending considerable grants and
loans. Loans to Armenia since 1993 exceed $1.1 billion.
These loans are targeted at reducing the budget deficit,
stabilizing the currency; developing private businesses; energy;
the agriculture, food processing, transportation, and health and
education sectors; and ongoing rehabilitation in the earthquake
zone. The government joined the
World Trade Organization on
February 5, 2003. But one of the main sources of
foreign direct investments remains
the Armenian diaspora, which finances major parts of the
reconstruction of infrastructure and other public projects. Being a
growing democratic state, Armenia also hopes to get more financial
aid from the
Western World.
A liberal foreign investment law was approved in June 1994, and a
Law on Privatisation was adopted in 1997, as well as a program on
state property privatisation. Continued progress will depend on the
ability of the government to strengthen its macroeconomic
management, including increasing revenue collection, improving the
investment climate, and making strides against corruption. However
unemployment still remains a major problem due to the influx of
thousands of refugees from the Karabakh conflict, which currently
stands at around 15%.
Armenia ranked 83rd on the 2007
UNDP Human Development Index, the highest
among the
Transcaucasian republics.
In the 2007
Transparency
International Corruption Perceptions Index
(CPI), Armenia ranked 99 of 179 countries.
In the 2008 Index of Economic Freedom, Armenia
ranked 28th, ahead of countries like Austria
, France, Portugal
and Italy.
Demographics
Armenian children at the UN Cup Chess
Tournament in 2005.
Armenia has a population of 3,215,800 (April 2006 est.) and is the
second most densely populated of the former Soviet republics.
There has
been a problem of population
decline due to elevated levels of emigration after the break-up of the USSR
.
The rates of emigration and population decline, however, have
decreased drastically in the recent years, and a moderate influx of
Armenians returning to Armenia have been the main reasons for the
trend, which is expected to continue. In fact Armenia is expected
to resume its positive population growth by 2010.
Ethnic
Armenians make up 97.9% of the
population.
Yazidis make up 1.3%, and
Russians 0.5%. Other minorities include
Assyrians,
Ukrainians,
Greeks,
Kurds,
Georgians, and
Belarusians. There are also smaller communities
of
Vlachs,
Mordvins,
Ossetians,
Udis,
and
Tats. Minorities of
Poles and
Caucasus
Germans also exist though they are heavily
Russified. During the
Soviet era,
Azerbaijanis were historically the second
largest population in the country (forming about 2.5% in 1989).
However, due to the conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh virtually all of them
emigrated from Armenia to Azerbaijan. Conversely, Armenia received
a large influx of Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan, thus giving
Armenia a more homogeneous character.
Diaspora
Armenia has a relatively large
diaspora (8 million by some estimates,
greatly exceeding the 3 million population of Armenia itself), with
communities existing across the globe.
The largest Armenian
communities outside of Armenia can be found in Russia
, France
, Iran, the
United
States
, Georgia, Syria
, Lebanon
, Argentina
, Australia, Canada
, Greece, Cyprus
, Israel
, Poland
and
Ukraine
. 40,000 to 70,000 Armenians still live in
Turkey (mostly in and around Istanbul). Also, about 1,000 Armenians reside in the
Armenian
Quarter
in the Old City
of Jerusalem
in Israel, a
remnant of a once-larger community. Italy is home to the
San Lazzaro
degli Armeni
, an island located in the Venetian
Lagoon
, which is completely occupied by a monastery run by
the Mechitarists, an Armenian Catholic
congregation. In addition, approximately 139,000 Armenians
live in the
de facto country of
Nagorno-Karabakh where they form a
majority.
Health
Life expectancy at birth was at 70 for males and at 76 for females
in 2006.
Health expenditure was at about 5.6 % of the GDP in 2004. Most of this was outside the private sector.
Government expenditure on health was at US$ 112 per person in
2006.
Religion
Armenia was the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state
religion, an event traditionally dated to AD 301.
The predominant
religion in
Armenia is
Christianity. The roots
of the
Armenian Church go
back to the
first century. According to
tradition, the Armenian Church was founded by two of
Jesus' twelve
apostles
–
Thaddaeus and
Bartholomew – who preached
Christianity in Armenia between AD 40–60. Because of these two
founding
apostles, the official name
of the Armenian Church is
Armenian Apostolic Church.
Over 93% of Armenian Christians belong to the Armenian Apostolic
Church, a form of Oriental (Non-
Chalcedonian) Orthodoxy, which is a very
ritualistic, conservative church, roughly comparable to the
Coptic and
Syriac churches. Armenian
Apostolic Church is in communion only with a group of churches
within
Oriental
Orthodoxy.
Other religious denominations in Armenia are the
Baptists and Presbyterians.
Catholics also exist in Armenia, both
Roman Catholic and
Mekhitarist Catholics. The Mechitarists (also
spelled "Mekhitarists" ), are a congregation of
Benedictine monks of the
Armenian Catholic Church founded in
1712 by
Mechitar of Sebaste. They are best
known for their series of scholarly publications of ancient
Armenian versions of otherwise lost
ancient Greek texts.
The
Armenian Catholic denomination is
headquartered in Bzoummar
, Lebanon.
The Yazidi Kurds, who live in the western part of the country,
practice
Yazidism.
There is a Jewish community in Armenia
diminished to 750 persons since independence with most emigrants
leaving for Israel.
There are
currently two synagogues in Armenia – in the capital, Yerevan, and
in the city of Sevan
located
near Lake
Sevan.
There are also non-Yazidi Kurds who practice
Sunni Islam.
Culture
Armenians have their own distinctive
alphabet and
language. The alphabet was invented in AD
405 by
Saint Mesrob Mashtots and
consists of thirty-eight letters, two of which were added during
the Cilician period. 96% of the people in the country speak
Armenian, while 75.8% of the population additionally speaks Russian
although English is becoming increasingly popular.
Traditional Armenian Dance
The Armenian dance heritage has been one of the oldest, richest and
most varied in the Near East. From the
fifth to the
third millennia B.C., in the higher
regions of Armenia there are rock paintings of scenes of country
dancing. These dances were probably accompanied by certain kinds of
songs or musical instruments. In the fifth century Moses of Khorene
(Movsés Khorenats'i) himself had heard of how the old descendants
of
Aram (that is Armenians) make mention of
these things (epic tales) in the ballads for the lyre and their
songs and dances.
The National Art Gallery in Yerevan has more than 16,000 works that
date back to the
Middle Ages, which
indicate Armenia's rich tales and stories of the times. It houses
paintings by many
European
masters as well. The Modern Art Museum, the Children’s Picture
Gallery, and the
Martiros Saryan
Museum are only a few of the other noteworthy collections of fine
art on display in Yerevan. Moreover, many private galleries are in
operation, with many more opening every year, featuring rotating
exhibitions and sales.
Music
One of the most important parts of Armenian culture is the music,
which has in recent years brought new forms of music, while
maintaining traditional styles too.
This is evidenced by the world-class
Armenian Philharmonic
Orchestra that performs at the beautifully refurbished Yerevan
Opera House, where one can also attend a full season of opera and
ballet performances performed by the staff of Armenian
Opera Theater
. In addition, several chamber ensembles are
highly regarded for their musicianship, including the
National Chamber Orchestra
of Armenia and the
Serenade
Orchestra.
Classical
music can also be heard at one of several smaller venues,
including the Yerevan Komitas State
Conservatory
and the Chamber Orchestra Hall. Jazz is popular, especially in the summer when live
performances are a regular occurrence at one of the city’s many
outdoor
cafés and parks.The traditional
instrument is the
duduk (pronounced
doo-dook).
Art
Yerevan's Vernisage (arts and crafts market), close to Republic
Square, bustles with hundreds of vendors selling a variety of
crafts on weekends and Wednesdays (though the selection is much
reduced mid-week). The market offers woodcarving, antiques, fine
lace, and the hand-knotted wool carpets and kilims that are a
Caucasus specialty.
Obsidian, which is
found locally, is crafted into assortment of jewellery and
ornamental objects. Armenian
gold smithery
enjoys a long tradition, populating one corner of the market with a
selection of gold items. Soviet relics and souvenirs of recent
Russian manufacture—nesting dolls, watches, enamel boxes and so on,
are also available at the Vernisage.
Across from the Opera House, a popular art market fills another
city park on the weekends. Armenia’s long history as a crossroads
of the
ancient world has resulted in
a landscape with innumerable fascinating
archaeological sites to explore.
Medieval,
Iron
Age,
Bronze Age and even
Stone Age sites are all within a few hours drive
from the city. All but the most spectacular remain virtually
undiscovered, allowing visitors to view churches and fortresses in
their original settings.
Armenian artists
Many famous names in the music world are of Armenian descent
including
classical
composer Aram Khachaturian and
French singer
Charles Aznavour. The
members of the
alternative metal
band
System of a Down all have
Armenian backgrounds as well, although only bassist
Shavo Odadjian was born in the country.
Higher education
In its first years of
independence, Armenia made uneven
progress in establishing systems to meet its national requirements
in social services.
Education, held in
particular esteem in
Armenian
culture, changed fastest of the social services, while health
and welfare services attempted to maintain the basic state-planned
structure of the
Soviet era.
A
literacy rate of 100% was reported
as early as 1960.
In the communist era,
Armenian education followed the standard Soviet model of complete
state control (from Moscow
) of curricula and
teaching methods and close integration of education activities with
other aspects of society, such as politics, culture, and the
economy. As in the Soviet period,
primary and
secondary education in Armenia is free,
and completion of secondary school is
compulsory. In the early 1990s, Armenia
made substantial changes to the centralized and regimented Soviet
system. Because at least 98 % of students in
higher education were Armenian, curricula
began to emphasize
Armenian history
and
culture.
Armenian became the dominant language of
instruction, and many schools that had taught in
Russian closed by the end of 1991. Russian
was still widely taught, however, as a second language.
In the 1990-91 school year, the estimated 1,307 primary and
secondary schools were attended by 608,800 students. Another
seventy specialized secondary institutions had 45,900 students, and
68,400 students were enrolled in a total of ten postsecondary
institutions that included
universities. In addition, 35 % of eligible
children attended
preschools. In the
1988-89 school year, 301 students per 10,000 population were in
specialized secondary or higher education, a figure slightly lower
than the Soviet average. In 1989 some 58 % of Armenians over age
fifteen had completed their secondary education, and 14 % had a
higher education.
In 1992 Armenia's largest institution of
higher learning, Yerevan State University
, had eighteen departments, including ones for
social sciences, sciences, and law. Its faculty numbered
about 1,300 teachers and its student population about 10,000
students. The
Yerevan
Architecture and Civil Engineering Institute was founded in
1989.
On the basis of the expansion and development of Yerevan State
University a number of higher educational independent Institutions
were formed including Medical Institute separated in 1930 which was
set up on the basis of medical faculty. In 1980 Yerevan State
Medical University was awarded one of the main rewards of the
former USSR - the Order of Labor red Banner for training qualified
specialists in health care and valuable service in the development
of Medical Science.In 1995 YSMI was renamed to YSMU and since 1989
it has been named after Mkhitar Heratsi, the famous medieval
doctor. Mkhitar Heratsi was the founder of Armenian Medical school
in Cilician Armenia. The great doctor played the same role in
Armenian Medical Science as Hypokratus in Old Greek, Galen in
Roman, Ib Sina in Arabic medicine.Foreign students' department for
Armenian Diaspora established in 1957 later was enlarged and the
enrollment of foreign students began.Nowadays the YSMU is a Medical
Institution corresponding to international requirements, trains
medical staff not only for Armenia and neighbor countries, i.e.
Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Georgia but for many other leading countries
all over the world. A great number of foreign students from India,
Nepal, Sri Lanka, the USA and Russian Federation study together
with Armenian students. Nowadays the university is ranked among
famous higher Medical Institutions and takes its honorable place in
the World Directory of Medical schools published by the WHO.
Other
schools in Armenia include the American
University of Armenia
and the QSI International School of
Yerevan.The American
University of Armenia has graduate
programs in Business and Law, among others. The
institution owes its existence to the combined efforts of the
Government of Armenia, the
Armenian General Benevolent
Union,
U.S.
Agency for
International Development, and the
University of California. The
extension programs and the library at AUA form a new focal point
for English-language intellectual life in the city.
Wedding ceremony
The elaborate Armenian
wedding process
begins when the man and woman get engaged. The man's
immediate family (parents, grandparents, and often
uncles and aunts) go over to the woman's house to ask for
permission from the woman's father for the relationship to continue
and hopefully prosper. Once permission is granted by the father,
the man gives the woman an
engagement
ring to make it official.
To celebrate the mutual family agreement,
the woman's family opens a bottle of Armenian cognac
. After getting engaged, most families elect
to have a semi-large engagement party as well. The girl's family is
the one who plans, organizes and pays for the party. There is very
little involvement by the man's family. At the party, a priest is
summoned to pray for the soon-to-be husband and wife and give his
blessings. Once the words of prayer have concluded, the couple
slide wedding bands on each other's right hands (the ring is moved
to the left hand once a formal marriage ceremony is conducted by
the Armenian church). The customary time to wait for the marriage
is about one year. Unlike other cultures, where bride's family pays
for the wedding, in Armenia the man and his family pay for the
wedding. The planning and organization process is usually done by
the bride and groom to be.
Sport
A wide array of sports are played in Armenia, the most popular
among them being wrestling, weightlifting, judo, football, chess,
and boxing.[1]. Armenia's mountainous terrain provides great
opportunities for the practice of sports like skiing and climbing.
Being a landlocked country, water sports can only be practiced on
lakes, notably Lake Sevan. Competitively, Armenia has been
successful in chess, weightlifting and wrestling at the
international level. Armenia is also an active member of the
international sports community, with full membership in the Union
of European Football Associations (UEFA) and International Ice
Hockey Federation (IIHF). It also hosts the Pan-Armenian
Games.
Prior to 1992, Armenians would participate in the Olympics
representing the USSR. As part of the Soviet Union, Armenia was
very successful, winning plenty of medals and helping the USSR win
the medal standings at the Olympics on numerous occasions. The
first medal won by an Armenian in modern Olympic history was by
Hrant Shahinian (sometimes spelled as Grant Shaginian), who won two
golds and two silvers in gymnastics at the 1952 Summer Olympics in
Helsinki. To highlight the level of success of Armenians in the
Olympics, Shahinian was quoted as saying:
“ Armenian sportsmen had to outdo their opponents by several
notches for the shot at being accepted into any Soviet team. But
those difficulties notwithstanding, 90 percent of Armenians
athletes on Soviet Olympic teams came back with medals."
Armenia first participated at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona
under a unified CIS team, where it was very successful, winning
three golds and one silver in weightlifting, wrestling and sharp
shooting, despite only having 5 athletes. Since the 1994 Winter
Olympics in Lillehammer, Armenia has participated as an independent
nation.
Armenia participates in the Summer Olympic Games in boxing,
wrestling, weightlifting, judo, gymnastics, track and field,
diving, swimming and sharp shooting. It also participates in the
Winter Olympic Games in alpine skiing, cross-country skiing and
figure skating.
Armenia used to play as part of the USSR national football team at
the international level. Their most successful team was Yerevan's
FC Ararat, which had claimed most of the Soviet championships in
the 70s and had also gone to post victories against professional
clubs like FC Bayern Munich in the Euro Cup. Armenia played as part
of the USSR until 1992, when the Armenian national football team
played their first official match representing solely Armenia,
against Moldova. The national team is controlled by the Football
Federation of Armenia. The Armenian Premier League is the top
football competition in Armenia. The league currently consists of
eight teams, and relegates to the Armenian First League. Over the
years, the league has evolved from a small competition consisting
of only eight teams to two separate divisions. Armenia also has
many football venues such as the Hrazdan Stadium and Hanrapetakan
Stadium.
Armenia and the Armenian diaspora have produced many world class
players, notably Youri Djorkaeff, Alain Boghossian, Andranik
Eskandarian, Andranik Teymourian, Edgar Manucharyan, Nikita
Simonyan, among others. Youri Djokaeff played for France (retired),
Andranik Teymourian plays for Iran and Edgar Manucharyan plays for
Ajax Amsterdam.
Wrestling has been a successful sport in
the
Olympics for Armenia.
At the 1996 Summer Olympics in
Atlanta
, Armen Nazaryan won
the gold in the Men's Greco-Roman Flyweight (52 kg)
category and Armen Mkertchian won
the silver in Men's Freestyle
Paperweight (48 kg) category, securing Armenia's first two
medals in its Olympic history.
Traditional Armenian wrestling is called Kokh and practiced in
traditional garb; it was one of the influences included in the
Soviet combat sport of
Sambo,
which is also very popular.
The
government of Armenia
budgets about $2.8 million annually for sports and gives it to the
National
Committee of Physical Education and Sports, the body that
determines which programs should benefit from the funds.
Due to the lack of success lately on the international level, in
recent years, Armenia has rebuilt 16 Soviet-era sports schools and
furnished them with new equipment for a total cost of $1.9 million.
The rebuilding of the regional schools was financed by the Armenian
government.
$9.3 million has been invested in the resort
town of Tsaghkadzor
to improve the winter
sports infrastructure because of dismal performances at recent
winter sports events.
In 2005,
a cycling center was opened in Yerevan with the aim of helping produce world class
Armenian cyclists. The government has also promised a cash
reward of $700,000 to Armenians who win a gold medal at the
Olympics.
See also
References
- Armenia may be considered to be in Asia and/or Europe. The UN classification of world regions places Armenia in
Western Asia;
the CIA World Factbook
[1], National Geographic, and Encyclopædia Britannica also place Armenia in
Asia. Conversely, some sources place Armenia in Europe such as
Oxford Reference Online [2], and www.worldatlas.com.
- "The conversion of Armenia to Christianity was probably the
most crucial step in its history. It turned Armenia sharply away
from its Iranian past and stamped it for centuries with an
intrinsic character as clear to the native population as to those
outside its borders, who identified Armenia almost at once as the
first state to adopt Christianity". ( ).
- . Estimated dates vary from 284 to 314. Garsoïan
(op.cit. p.82), following the research of Ananian, favours
the latter.
- The Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, Article
8.1
- Human Development Indices, Table 3:
Human and income poverty, p. 34. Retrieved on 1 June 2009
- Razmik Panossian, The Armenians: From Kings And Priests to
Merchants And Commissars, Columbia University Press
(2006), ISBN 978-0231139267, p. 106.
- " (The Armenians border on the Chalybes to the south)".
- Moses of Chorene, The History of Armenia, Book 1, Ch. 12
- History of Armenia by Father Michael Chamich from B.C.
2247 to the Year of Christ 1780, or 1229 of the Armenian era,
Bishop's College Press, Calcutta, 1827, page 19: "[Aram] was the
first to raise the Armenian name to any degree of renown; so that
contemporary nations ... called them the Aramians, or followers of
Aram, a name which has been
corrupted into Armenians; and the country they inhabited, by
universal consent, took the name of Armenia."
- Extensive bibliography by University of Michigan on
the Armenian Genocide
- Encyclopædia Britannica: Armenian massacres
(Turkish-Armenian history)
- Q&A: Armenian genocide dispute. BBC News. July 10,
2008.
- Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia 2004 – Page 74 by
Imogen Gladman, Taylor & Francis Group
- Notes from Baku: Black January. Rufat Ahmedov.
EurasiaNet Human Rights.
- A Conflict That Can Be Resolved in Time:
Nagorno-Karabakh. International Herald Tribune. November 29,
2003.
-
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091010/ts_nm/us_turkey_armenia_9
- The 2001 Canadian Census determined that there
are 40,505 persons of Armenian ancestry currently living in Canada.
However, these are liable to be low numbers, since people of mixed
ancestry, very common in North America tend to be under-counted:
the 1990 census U.S. indicates 149,694 people who speak Armenian at
home. The Armenian Embassy in Canada estimates 1
million ethnic Armenians in the U.S. and 100,000 in Canada. The
Armenian Church of America makes a similar estimate. By all accounts, over half
of the Armenians in the United States live in California.
- "Sarkisian Appoints Key Ministers in Emerging
Cabinet", Armenialiberty.org, April 15, 2008.
- Address by President Serzh Sargsyan to the People
of Armenia and the National Assembly on 2 October 2008
- Z. Lerman and A. Mirzakhanian, Private Agriculture in
Armenia, Lexington Books, Lanham, MD, 2001.
- Statistical Yearbook 2007, Armenia National
Statistical Service, Yerevan
- , part of the OSCE
- The All-Union Population Census of 1989.
Demoscope.ru
- San Lazzaro degli Armeni - Venice for
Visitors
-
http://www.euro.who.int/document/MPS/ARM_MPSEURO_countryprofile.pdf
-
http://www.euro.who.int/document/MPS/ARM_MPSEURO_countryprofile.pdf
-
http://www.euro.who.int/document/MPS/ARM_MPSEURO_countryprofile.pdf
-
http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/data_sheets/cty_ds_ARM.html
-
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/neareast/f/1stchristian.htm
- http://www.visitarmenia.org/
-
http://www.welcomearmenia.com/main.php?page=armeniainformation&sid=104&lang=eng
-
http://www.didyouknow.it/religion/first-country-to-adopt-christianity/
- http://armbaplife.am/
http://bwanet.org/default.aspx?pid=437
- http://goodnewsadvertising.com/biblical_recorder.pdf
- http://adherents.com/adhloc/Wh_18.html
- http://highbeam.com/doc/1P1-79125406.html
-
http://pcusa.org/peacemaking/intl/09peacemakers/armenia-nazeli.htm
- http://books.google.com/books?id=aGGdyAlobAEC&pg=PA120
- Curtis, Glenn E. and Ronald G. Suny. "Education". Armenia:
A Country Study. Library of Congress Federal Research Division (March
1994). This article incorporates text from this source, which
is in the public domain.
-
http://armenianow.com/?action=viewArticle&AID=1910&CID=1973&IID=&lng=eng
- Armenia Now
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