When was armenia established

More than rivers and streams traverse Armenia, with steep falls, rapids and swift currents. Armenia has 5 scenic canyons. In addition, there are over therapeutic mineral springs, differing in composition and temperature.

The indigenous people of the land of Ararat, Armenians forged their national identity with the rise of powerful Armenian kingdoms, the adoption of Christianity as Armenia's state religion, and the creation of the Armenian alphabet, which spurred the development of literature, philosophy, and science.

From ancient times, Armenians have cherished their artistic traditions, which reflect a unique culture and landscape. Aspects of everyday life are expressed in the most artistic fashion, in needlework, embellishments, carvings and design. Architecture is one of the most interesting art forms in Armenia, as, for example, churches bear artistic illustrations in frescoes and reliefs.

Sculpting is everywhere - in nearly every city, town, and village in Armenia. Armenians love music, and they have been creating exquisite compositions for centuries. Sharakans are traditional Armenian liturgical songs, which are experiencing a revival today. Distinctive musical instruments are used to play Armenian folk songs. Contemporary music comes in the forms of jazz and pop. Literature has always played a vital role in Armenia's cultural and national identity.

Christian culture and the invention of the Armenian alphabet by Mesrop Mashtots gave new stimuli to the development of unique cultural traditions. There is no better place to view this literary and artistic history than Yerevan's unique Matenadaran Institute of Ancient Manuscripts , which houses an extraordinary collection of 14, complete manuscripts, fragments and miniatures.

The Caucasus region and Armenia in particular have been cited by scholars as the place where rug and carpet weaving originated.

Armenians continue this tradition, and one can find many shops specializing in fine new and old rugs and carpets. At the weekend flea market, rug sellers lay out their eye-catching merchandise filled with appealing colors and designs.

At the same market, you will come across loads of charming handicrafts that will be hard to resist purchase. Visitors to Armenia find handmade crafts, Armenian gold, precious and semi-precious stones which inspire jewelers in many regions. Obsidian stone is used for jewelry, desk accessories, and decorative items. Carpet making is not only a fine art, but Kilim weaving, for example, is applied to clothing items, bags, and home furnishings.

Wood carvings replicate the ancient stone crosses khachkars found throughout the country, and no two are exactly alike. Armenian crafts couple elegant utility and delightful whimsy in textiles, ceramics, metal and woodworking.

In February , Serzh Sarkisyan was re-elected to a second five-year term as president. Preliminary returns showed that Sarkisyan received 59 percent of the vote, enough of a majority to avoid a runoff.

Raffi Hovanessian, a former foreign minister, came in second, far behind at 37 percent. Seen as a stable leader who had made economic improvements during his first term, Sarkisyan had been favored to win for months.

The election wasn't without conflict. Paruir A. Airikyan, another candidate for president and former Soviet dissident, was shot in late January , as the election approached. Authorities ruled it as an assassination attempt. Airikyan threatened to delay the election by using a provision in Armenia's constitution due to his injury, but decided against it.

In April , Pope Francis called the murder of between , and 1. He made the comment at a mass commemorating the th anniversary of the massacre. Turkey responded by withdrawing its ambassador to the Vatican. See also Encyclopedia: Armenia. State Dept. Country Notes: Armenia Ministry of Statistics www. Government Republic. History One of the world's oldest civilizations, Armenia once included Mount Ararat, which biblical tradition identifies as the mountain that Noah's ark rested on after the flood.

Rapprochement With Turkey Only Temporary After nearly years of hostility between Turkey and Armenia over the murder of between , and 1. Modern Flag of Armenia. Recognition U. Recognition of the Armenian Republic, Recognition of Armenia, The name Western Armenia was put into circulation as early as in the th centuries when the kingdom of Greater Armenia was divided between Persia and the Roman Empire.

From an ethnic perspective, the Ottoman Empire was a composite of over 60 nationalities and tribes with different cultural and religious affiliations as well as with different levels of social, economic, political, and cultural development.

The strengthening of the economic situation of the Christian nations, the awakening of national consciousness and the increased pressure of the European Powers made the policy of universal islamization by Sultan's authorities almost impossible. It became the integral part of so-called Eastern Question and played an important role in the international relations, in the Middle East policy of the major powers.

Actually, the Armenian issue was addressed upon in the Russo-Turkish Treaty. According to the 16th article of San Stefano Agreement and the 61st article of Berlin treaty, the Ottoman Empire undertook to implement reforms in Western Armenia and ensure the security of Armenian population.

However, those solutions were remained a dead letter that led to the new rebellions in Sasoun, Vaspourakan and other places. The Armenian Questions became the subject of discussions of European diplomacy. For the first time in modern history Armenia and Armenians were mentioned in an important international pact. However, neither Russian, nor European diplomacy intended to fight for the autonomy of Western Armenia, as it happened in the case of the Balkan peoples.

Russia merely undertook the role of the protector of the Western Armenians and the role of the supervisor of the implementation of the reforms in the conquered territories with large Armenian indigenous population. Realizing the importance of Armenian Question for the foreign policies of major powers, the government of Abdul Hamid II decided to eliminate the issue and increased the persecution of the Armenian population of the Empire, via inciting Muslim fundamentalism, spreading anti-Armenian propaganda, permanent robberies and murders, lawless and willful acts of local authorities, forced islamization of Armenians and stricter censorship, as well as via irregular Kurdish tribes cavalry.

As a result of such a policy, in the late 80th - early 90th of the 19th century Armenian national liberation movement entered into a new phase.

Armenian political parties emerged the liberation struggle, i. In the Ottoman government organized the mass destruction of Armenians in Western Armenia, as a result more than thousand Armenians were perished and tens of thousands were forcibly islamized. The Armenian issue attracted the attention of European diplomacy also at the end of the 19th century and in According to the Russian-Turkish agreement of January two provinces Northern and Southern parts were to be formed on the territory of Western Armenia which would have to be governed by two foreign European Governors.

Taking advantage of the situation created as a result of the First World War, the Turkish ruling circles of that time tried to implement their long-standing idea of creating a "Great Turan" by unification of Muslim nations in the Middle East, Caucasus, Russia, and Central Asia.

Armenian people, living in Eastern and Western parts of their historic homeland, were hindrance on the way of achieving this goal. On April 24 and subsequent days in Kostandnupolis Istanbul some representatives of the Armenian intellectuals such as writers, doctors, scholars, journalists and clerics, including Armenian members of the Turkish Parliament, were arrested and deported far in Anatolia.

Some of them died on the way, the rest were executed immediately upon arrival at the place of exile. This Statement can be considered to be the first international document condemning the Armenian Genocide. It qualified the atrocities against Armenians as a new type of crime against "humanity and civilization," the personal responsibility for which lies with all members of Turkish Sublime Porte, as well as with local authorities.

Armenians, being deported from their permanent and historical places of residence, were grouped in caravans and sent to Mesopotamia and Syrian Desert, where special camps were set up for them. The Armenians were being killed both in their places of residence, and on the way to exile — in deserts. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians died as a result of starvation, diseases and epidemics. About one and half a million Armenians were slaughtered as a result of that monstrous program.

Western Armenia was deprived of its native population. During that period of time steps were undertaken for the Armenian refugees to return back to Western Armenia. By the end of the number of refugees was about thousand.

In its turn the Soviet Government announced a Decree on Turkish Armenia, recognizing the right of Armenians from Western Armenia to the Self Determination, including even the creation of an independent state. However, Turkish troops restarted military actions, disrupting the Reconciliation Regime. Despite heroic resistance, the Armenian irregular troops and volunteer detachments began retreating to the borders of Eastern Armenia.

As a result of that retrograde not only Western Armenia, but the regions of Kars, Ardahan and Batumi became parts of Ottoman Empire as well. As a consequence of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk the peace negotiations that had been conducting with Ottoman Empire in Trapizon since March by the authorities of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic former Commissariat and then Sejm were deadlocked and suspended. On their way Turks were demolishing Armenian towns and villages, slaughtering population.

The situation was fatal: Eastern Armenia was under the threat of genocide then. Day by day growing danger united Armenians and Armenian troops along with militias and led by General Moses Silikyan, Colonels Daniel Bek-Pirumov, Drastamat Kanayan and others made a decisive counterattack to the Turkish conquerors near Sardarapat that were moving forward Yerevan, then after - near Gharakilisa and Bash-Aparan.

During those days of Heroic Battles of May , the discrepancies within the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic composed of three main nationalities of the South Caucasus, were deepening. On March 26, the Transcaucasian Sejm Parliament was dissolved leading to the dissolution of Transcaucasian Republic. In those conditions, on May 28, the Armenian National Council declared itself as the only and supreme authority of Armenian provinces. The Republic of Armenia was established.

The power of the First Republic was applied to the following areas: major part of former Kars Region, the Province of Erevan, western parts of Province of Elizavetpol and southern parts of the Province of Tbilisi.

Kharabakh was neither included in the territory of the Republic nor subjected to Musavat Azerbaijan, it was governed by the Congresses of the National Council of local Armenians. In April, during a regular Congress the people of Nagorno-Karabakh made a decision on unification with the Republic of Armenia.

On August 10, the victorious states of the World War I, including Armenia, signed a peace agreement with defeated Turkey in the city of Sevres France. It was Avetis Aharonyan, the head of the Armenian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, who signed the agreement on behalf of the Republic of Armenia.

By this treaty Sultan Turkish Government recognized Armenia as a free and independent state. Armenia and Turkey agreed to provide America with an opportunity to decide the demarcation line between the two states in Erzrum, Van and Bitlis provinces as well as to accept the offers concerning the access of Armenia to the Black Sea and the disarmament of all Ottoman territories, adjacent to above-mentioned boundary. The nationalist government of Turkey, headed by Mustafa Kemal, who assumed the authority, did not accept the Treaty of Sevres.

In the Soviet Government, seeking to direct the Kemalist movement in Turkey against the Entente, provided Turkey with palpable military and financial aid which was used against Greece in the West and against Armenia in the East.

At the end of September, Turkish army started attacking. Conquering more and more lands, the Government of Ankara was aimed at depriving Armenians of an opportunity to recreate its own state. Turkish troops occupied the Region of Kars, Surmalu and Alexandrapol. The Soviet government pursued a deliberate policy of Sovietization of the Transcaucasian republics, with an aim to restore the borders of the Russian Empire. Further in August an agreement was signed between the representatives of Armenia and Russia.

Via this agreement Soviet Russia forced Armenia to recognize those territories as disputed, provided that their further fate would be determined as a result of an expression of population will, i. According to November 20 decision of the Revolutionary Committee of Azerbaijan headed by Narimanov, Nagorno-Karabakh, Nakhichevan and Zangezur were no longer considered to be disputed territories but integral parts of the Soviet Armenia.

On December 2 Armenian government agreed upon the Sovietization of Armenia and relinquished its power in favor of the Bolshevik Revolutionary Committee. On the same day in Alexandrapol, quite inexplicably, the representatives of the relinquished Armenian government signed a peace agreement with Turkey and considered the war ended, thus conceding almost half of their territory.

Later the Soviet authorities never recognized the conditions of Alexandrapol treaty. According to its first article, the Soviet Russian government agreed not to recognize any international treaty related to Turkey, which was not ratified by the Great National Assembly. This provision was directed primarily against the Peace Treaty of Sevres, which Turkey at any cost tried to declare null and void. Finally, the new border was recognized according to the Treaty of Kars October 3, that was signed between Turkey and the Transcaucasian states and is in force up to date.

As for the international conference of Lausanne held in , it ended up with the signing of several documents, the most important of which is probably the Lausanne Peace Treaty, according to which the current Turkish borders were established, replacing the Treaty of Sevres. According to the same Moscow Treaty, Nakhichevan became an autonomous territory under the patronage of Azerbaijan, and under the decision of the Caucasian Bureau of the RCWP from July 5, Nagorno-Karabakh was declared an autonomous region within the territory of Azerbaijan.

Soviet Armenia was not a sovereign state, but it played a very important role in the preservation of the Armenian statehood and development of the national identity. Despite the wide-spread repressions, particularly those of and , Armenia made great progress in its economic, industrial, scientific and cultural life.

Soviet Armenia became a leading industrial-agrarian country; it was a land of universal literacy, highly developed education and science, culture, literature and art. The system of higher education was successfully developing in Yerevan State University, founded as early as in , and in other specialized universities.

In the Academy of Sciences was established. The Armenian people took an active participation in the Second World War.

About , Armenian soldiers and officers fought in the ranks of Soviet Army. The Armenian National 89th Division took part in the battle for Berlin. During the s and 80's the national issues such as the Armenian Genocide, Diaspora, unification of Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia, Nakhichevan, etc. The first multi-thousand demonstrations in the Soviet reality were taking place in Yerevan.

In March of , changes occurred within the Soviet political leadership.