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Հայաստանի Հանրապետություն
Hayastani Hanrapetut’yun
Republic of Armenia
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|
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Anthem: Մեր Հայրենիք (Armenian)
Mer Hayrenik (transcription)
"Our Fatherland"
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Capital
(and largest city) |
Yerevan1
 40°16′N, 44°34′E |
| Official languages |
Armenian2 |
| Demonym |
Armenian |
| Government |
Unitary Republic |
| - |
President |
Serzh Sargsyan |
| - |
Prime Minister |
Tigran Sargsyan |
| - |
Speaker |
Tigran Torosyan |
| Formation and independence |
| - |
Traditional[1] |
August 11 2492 BC |
| - |
Urartu under Aramu |
840s BC |
| - |
Tigranes Orontid |
560 BC |
| - |
Kingdom of Armenia
formed |
190 BC |
| - |
Armenian Apostolic Church |
301 AD |
| - |
Democratic Republic of Armenia established |
May 28, 1918 |
| - |
Independence
from the Soviet Union
Declared
Recognised
Finalised
|
August 23, 1990
September 21, 1991
December 25, 1991 |
| Area |
| - |
Total |
29,800 km² (141st)
11,506 sq mi |
| - |
Water (%) |
4.71 |
| Population |
| - |
July 2007 estimate |
3,229,900[2] 3 (135th4) |
| - |
2001 census |
3,002,594 |
| - |
Density |
101/km² (77th)
262/sq mi |
| GDP (PPP) |
2007 estimate |
| - |
Total |
$16.83 billion |
| - |
Per capita |
$5,700 |
| Gini (2003) |
33.8 (medium) |
| HDI (2007) |
▲ 0.775 (medium) (83rd) |
| Currency |
Dram (AMD) |
| Time zone |
UTC (UTC+4) |
| - |
Summer (DST) |
DST (UTC+5) |
| Internet TLD |
.am |
| Calling code |
+374 |
| Patron saint |
St. Bartholomew the Apostle, St. Gregory the Illuminator, St. Jude the Apostle, Virgin Mary |
| 1 |
Alternatively spelled "Erevan", "Jerevan", or "Erivan". |
| 2 |
The Eastern Armenian dialect is spoken in the Republic of Armenia |
| 3 |
(July 2008 estimate) |
| 4 |
Rank based on 2005 UN estimate of de facto population. |
Armenia [ɑr'miniə] (help·info) (Armenian: Հայաստան Hayastan), officially in English the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked mountainous country in Eurasia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the Southern Caucasus. It borders Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north, Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Nakhchivan exclave of Azerbaijan to the south. A transcontinental country at the juncture of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, Armenia has had and continues to have extensive socio-political and cultural connections with Europe.[3]
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[4] in the early years of the 4th century (the traditional date is 301).[5]
The modern Republic of Armenia is constitutionally a secular state,
although the Christian faith plays a major role in the history and
identification of the Armenian people.
Armenia is currently 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 Organisation and the Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. 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, La Francophonie, and the Non-Aligned Movement.
Armenia is also active in the international sports community with full membership in the Union of European Football Associations and International Ice Hockey Federation. The country is an emerging democracy and, because of its strategic location, lies among both the Russian and Western spheres of influence.
Etymology of name
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Main articles: Armenia (name) and Hayk
The native Armenian name for the country is Hayk‘. 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 (Հայկ), 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.[6] The further origin of the name is uncertain.
The exonym Armenia is first attested in the Old Persian Behistun inscription (515 BC) as Armina. Greek Ἀρμένιοι "Armenians" is attested from about the same time, perhaps the earliest reference being a fragment attributed to Hecataeus of Miletus (476 BC).[7] Herodotus (440 BC) has Ἀρμένιοι δὲ κατά περ Φρύγες ἐσεσάχατο, ἐόντες Φρυγῶν ἄποικοι. "the Armenians were equipped like Phrygians, being Phrygian colonists" (7.73). Some decades later, Xenophon,
a Greek general waging war against the Persians, 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.[8]
History
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Antiquity
-
Armenia lies in the highlands surrounding the Biblical mountains of Ararat, upon which, as Judeo-Christian theology states, 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.[9][10][11][12] Yerevan, the modern capital of Armenia, was founded in 782 BC by the Urartian king Argishti I.
Around 600 BC, the Kingdom of Armenia was established under the Orontid Dynasty. The kingdom reached its height between 95 - 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.
In 301, Armenia became the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as its official state religion,[13][14] while a number of Christian communities have been established in Armenia since 40 AD. There had been various pagan communities before Christianity, but they were converted by an influx of Christian missionaries. Tiridates III
(238-314 AD) was the first ruler to officially Christianise his people,
his conversion occurring ten years before the Roman Empire granted
Christianity an official toleration under Galerius, and 36 years before Constantine the Great was baptised.
After the fall of the Armenian kingdom in 428 AD, most of Armenia was incorporated as a marzpanate within the Sassanid Empire. Following an Armenian rebellion in 451 AD, Christian Armenians maintained their religious freedom, while Armenia gained autonomy.
The Kingdom of Cilician Armenia, 1199-1375.
Middle Ages
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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 till 884, when it regained its independence from the weakened Arabic Empire.
The re-emergent Armenian kingdom was ruled by the Bagratuni dynasty,
and lasted till 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. The noble family of Orbelians shared control with the Zakarids in various parts of the country, especially in Syunik and Vayots Dzor.
Classical
from 
