History UsefulNotes / Armenia

** President: Armen Sarkissian

** President of Parliament: Ararat Mirzoyan

* '''Area:''' 29,743 km
(11,484 sq mi) (138th)

* Ara Parseghian, beloved Hall of Fame UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball coach (and later broadcaster), most famously guiding Notre Dame from 1964-74, despite his not being Catholic. Born in Ohio to a father who came to America during the Genocide, he was named after ancient Armenian folk hero Ara the Beautiful.

Tucked away in the Caucasus mountains, in that little clutch of former UsefulNotes/{{Soviet|RussiaUkraineAndSoOn}} republics where UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} meets UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}}, is the Eastern European/Western Asian country of Armenia (Armenian: Հայաստան ''Hayastan''), officially known as the '''Republic of Armenia''' (Armenian: Հայաստանի Հանրապետություն ''Hayastani Hanrapetutyun''). Though the current republic formed after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, it's not a new country by any means - the first Kingdom of Armenia goes back to 331 BC, and was the first country to officially adopt Christianity, in 301 AD. It also used to be ''much'' bigger than it is now, most of its former historical lands now being part of Turkey (this includes Mt. Ararat, which, while considered a national symbol of Armenia and actually visible from the capital Yerevan, is rather awkwardly located over the border in Turkey).

* Dan Janjigian: Armenian-American restaurateur, politician, actor, and former bobsledder. Represented Armenia in the 2002 Winter Olympics. Also played Chris-R in the infamous cult film ''Film/TheRoom''.

Tucked away in the Caucasus mountains, in that little clutch of former UsefulNotes/{{Soviet|RussiaUkraineAndSoOn}} republics where UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} meets UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}}, is the Eastern European/Western Asian country of Armenia ('''Armenian:''' Հայաստան Hayastan), officially known as the '''Republic of Armenia''' ('''Armenian:''' Հայաստանի Հանրապետություն Hayastani Hanrapetutyun). Though the current republic formed after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, it's not a new country by any means - the first Kingdom of Armenia goes back to 331 BC, and was the first country to officially adopt Christianity, in 301 AD. It also used to be ''much'' bigger than it is now, most of its former historical lands now being part of Turkey (this includes Mt. Ararat, which, while considered a national symbol of Armenia and actually visible from the capital Yerevan, is rather awkwardly located over the border in Turkey).

* Andrea Martin, Canadian-American comedienne from ''Second City Television'', of Armenian descent. Her grandparents were immigrants during the Armenian Genocide.

Before the Kingdom of Armenia arose the area of eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus was dominated by the Kingdom of Urartu (roughly 858 to 585 BC), where many historians believe the Armenian nationality had its genesis. Folk history denotes that the Armenians are descended from a legendary hero known as Hayk, who led the Armenian people out of Mesopotamia, defeating a tyrannic titan named Bel to ensure his people's freedom over 4,500 years ago. It is also said he was a grandson of Noah, though this aspect of the legend is likely a case of ancient Armenian mythology being HijackedByJesus [[note]] Moses Khorenatsi, the first Armenian historian, was a Christian; thus his viewpoints were painted by his religious beliefs. He would often take the oral history of remaining pagan Armenians (still around when he was writing in the 400's AD) and put a Christian spin on them. [[/note]]. Earliest references to the area as "Armenia" come from the annals of King Darius in the 500's B.C., where it is actually used interchangeably with Urartu, so it is likely that Urartians are the direct predecessors to Armenians. It's also been theorized that the Armenian ethnic group had been perhaps one of the several under Urartian rule, but scholars can't agree on whether or not Armenians were indigenous to the area or had migrated from the west. In any case, people have been living in the area for quite some time, as [[http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/06/100609-worlds-oldest-leather-shoe-armenia-science/ the world's oldest shoe]], found in a cave in Armenia, can attest to.\\\

Armenia first became an independent Kingdom after Rome defeated the Selucid Empire, leading a former Selucid general from Armenia, Artashes I, to declare himself king. Though technically ruled over by a king, throughout ancient and medieval times Armenia would be more or less controlled by powerful noble families called ''nakharars'' that governed their own provinces and had their own armies, with a social system somewhat similar to feudalism, and also akin to the clans of Scotland. The king could be simply the head of the most powerful of these families. Armenia's influence grew to its zenith under the reign of Tigran the Great from 95-55 BC, when the Armenian Empire stretched from the Caspian Sea to Israel. This wasn't to last long however, due to Roman and Parthian-Persian invasions gradually chipping the empire down. Armenia became a buffer kingdom between Rome and Persia for centuries [[note]] in fact, for many years Persia would choose the candidate for the King of Armenia, and the king would travel to Rome to gain approval and be crowned, until eventually the title became hereditary; this system was agreed to by the nakharars [[/note]]. During this time Armenia's King Trdat III converted to Christianity (the traditional date given is 301 AD, though it may have been as late as 314), and made Christianity the official religion, becoming the first country to do so. The move would strengthen ties with Rome but alienate it from Persia, which had been taken over by the rival Sassanid dynasty. After Armenia was partitioned between Rome and Persia, in the year 451 a war was fought against the ruling Persians who were trying to convert Armenia to UsefulNotes/{{Zoroastrianism}}, and though Armenia was on the losing side initially, their guerrilla tactics paid off eventually and they were allowed to keep their new religion. Also in the 400's AD, the Armenian alphabet was created by Mesrob Mashtots [[note]] or adapted from a pre-existing pagan alphabet, as some have theorized; that the Armenian pantheon had Tir, the God of Writing, is telling, but again only Christian Armenian historical resources have survived [[/note]], initially for the purpose of translating Literature/TheBible into Armenian. One could argue this move ended up preserving Armenian identity over the centuries more than anything else.\\\

Ottoman rule was a relief to the Armenians at first; the region had been completely devastated by several invasions within decades of one another. Christians in the empire were second class citizens and more heavily taxed, but the Armenians made due by mostly becoming merchants. Eastern Armenia changed hands a few times over the centuries between Persia, Russia, and the Ottomans, until Armenia was partitioned again between Russia and Turkey under the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay after the Russo-Turkish War, ultimately causing the Eastern-Western split in the Armenian language still present today. The Ottoman Armenians then fell under suspicion during the latter half of the 19th century, as the Ottoman Empire lost territory in Greece and the Balkans, and the remaining Christians in the empire became a scapegoat of sorts, resulting in sporadic government-condoned massacres of the Armenians, particularly in the 1890's. This finally came to a head during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI under the Young Turks, and the matter of the Armenian Genocide that was to follow is still a very contentious one - few western observers doubt that there was a major humanitarian disaster in the area in 1915, precipitated by Turkish troops against the Ottoman Empire's Christian population, most of whom were put on death marches into the Syrian desert, when not massacred on the spot, killing over a million Armenians. And the common opinion of genocide scholars, in the face of overwhelming proof through contemporary photographic and eyewitness accounts, is that it falls under the definition of a genocide. The Young Turk government had delusions of creating a "racially pure" Pan-Turkish state stretching from Istanbul to Turkmenistan, something that the Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians stood in the way of, as well as of course Russia, who ended up defeating the Ottomans badly in the war and preventing the completion of the genocide.\\\

After the initial celebrations when the country became independent, Armenia was essentially in shambles, faced with war, economic collapse, an energy shortage, and it still needed to clean up after the 1988 earthquake. Locals will recall the early 1990's as being a bleak and grim time where citizens of Yerevan were only allotted one hour of electricity per day, and in winter had to burn furniture, books and tree branches to stay warm. People began emigrating from the country in large numbers. Amazingly, Armenia eventually picked itself up and persevered; currently this is the longest Armenia has ever been independent since the Bagratuni Kingdom fell in 1045. Modern Armenia still has poor relations with Turkey, and also with its neighbor, Azerbaijan, over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, nominally an autonomous Arminopohone part of the Azerbaijani SSR [[note]]ItsALongStory, but the gist of it is: Stalin's DivideAndConquer tactics (minus the usual infighting component--dramatic ethnic violence didn't rise until decades after Stalin's death) basically carved up the Caucasus and placed lots of ethnic groups that didn't like each other in the same administrative area, on basis of ancient communities that delved deeply into each other territories, in order to justify Soviet presence in the region. Nagorno-Karabakh, being a traditionally Armenian area, was made an autonomous oblast within Soviet Azerbaijan, a move that kept conflict at a minimum for decades while the Soviets kept forces there, and has also been suggested as meant to placate Turkey. What happened when the USSR collapsed and there was suddenly no force to stop open conflict should be easy to guess.[[/note]], but which the region's native Armenians, [[UsefulNotes/ArmosWithArmor with help from the country itself]], freed after a war between 1992-1994. It's now declared itself an independent country known as the Republic of Artsakh, which no one recognizes - no, not even Armenia, because the situation's basically been frozen ever since the 1994 ceasefire and [[StatusQuoIsGod understandably, the Armenian government is not eager to restart armed conflict]]. Azerbaijan, on the other hand, hasn't been quite as passive, and violates the ceasefire almost daily. At least until 2020, the country was only stopped from unleashing a full-on war by international pressure, and the fact that it fared poorly last time.\\\

Turkey, showing solidarity with its ally Azerbaijan, shut its borders with Armenia during the war, and the borders remain closed to this day. Which only adds insult to injury when you consider Armenia's former historic lands that Turkey annexed in the 1920's, including Mt. Ararat, sits just on the other side of the border. Armenia has since depended on friendly ties with Georgia and Iran to get anything imported and exported, so despite the strain the blockades have caused, the country has managed. On the other side, Russia, despite having pretty amicable relations with both Turkey and Azerbaijan, has generally sided with Armenia in the Karabakh matter, and it's an open secret that the war was basically won with the Russian equipment and aid. Of course, exactly because of its good relations with all involved countries Russia has the ''least'' incentive to restart the conflict, or as some political analysts suggest, solving it [[note]] an Armenian victory would mean there'd be two independent Armenian countries that would no longer require Russia's military aid; an Azeri victory would mean Russia would lose much of it's influence in the region as well[[/note]]. UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}, being closely allied with both Turkey and Azerbaijan, refuses to even recognize Armenia as a sovereign state, and firmly sides with Azerbaijan on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue; in retaliation Armenia recognized the disputed territory of Kashmir as part of India, and enjoys healthy relations with India. Armenia also blocked Pakistan from becoming an observer state in the CSTO.\\\

The country was plagued with government corruption for many years; a side effect in many post-Soviet countries. However, the Armenian people have begun to stand up to it. In the 2010's alone there were protests nearly every year starting with a peaceful protest against rising bus fares in 2014, followed by the "Electric Yerevan" protests against rising electricity prices in 2015. In 2016 protests broke out after a nationalist group known as Sasna Dzerer (Daredevils of Sassoun) took over a police station and held officers hostage while demanding President Sargsyan resign; these ended with the arrests of the group. The most unprecedented protest occurred in 2018; President Serge Sargsyan oversaw constitutional amendments which transferred most of the President's powers to the Prime Minister, and shortly after his final term as President became the Prime Minister. The people, tired of government corruption which had caused a large class gap and rampant emigration from the country, revolted; but peacefully. From April to May 2018 protesters blocked streets for ten full days, holding dances and barbecues, filling the streets of Yerevan and Armenia's smaller cities. It was called a VelvetRevolution in the media. This gave the government two choices: violently put an end to the protests and incite an even worse reaction from their own people and look much worse internationally than they already did, or give in to their demands. Sargsyan resigned as Prime Minister, and protest leader Nikol Pashinyan took his place a couple weeks later, after parliament very reluctantly elected him. Commentators marked this as Armenia finally declaring independence from the Soviet Union, 27 years after its fall.\\\

* Mike Connors, star of the classic 1970's crime drama, ''Mannix'', of Armenian descent. Real name Krekor Ohanian. Has narrated documentaries on the Armenian Genocide.

* Kirk Kerkorian, 1980's MGM owner and designer of MGM Hotel in Las Vegas, of Armenian descent.

Armenia is best described as an oddity - in an area mainly Muslim or Orthodox, it has its own form of Christianity, a language that seems to be in its own little branch of the Indo-European family (as far as anyone can guess, it descended from Phrygian and may be sorta-kinda related to Greek, but no one is 100% sure), its own alphabet [[note]]which draws a little inspiration from the Greek alphabet but also uses it's own original symbols; St. Mesrob Mashtots actually customized it for the Armenian language in order to translate the Bible into Armenian [[/note]] and friendly relations towards Russia and Iran in a region increasingly hostile to them (having the Turks on one side, the Azeris on the other, both closing their borders and placing it in an economic stranglehold tends to make them grateful for all the help they can get.) Armenia and Iran have had a friendship going back centuries, despite religious differences, and in modern times its one of Iran's only trading partners with the economic sanctions placed on it. Armenia also has a bit of a love/hate relationship with its northern neighbor Georgia, through which it imports and exports to Russia and uses its ports on the Black Sea. [[note]] Though also Christian and sharing many cultural similarities with the Armenians, Georgia chooses to remain neutral regarding Armenia's difficulties with its other neighbors, plus they're a little bitter over Armenia's good relations with Russia.[[/note]]\\\

* '''Capital and largest city:''' Yerevan ('''Երևան''')

* '''Capital and largest city:''' Yerevan (Երևան)

* '''Capital and largest city:''' Yerevan ('''Armenian:''' ''Երևան'')

* '''Capital and largest city:''' Yerevan (Երևան)

* '''Capital and largest city:''' Yerevan

Russia has treaty agreements to protect Armenia in case of an attack, but Artsakh, being unrecognized, was not covered under the treaty. Commentators speculated that Russia waited to intervene as punishment to Armenia’s new pro-West Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and the loss of the war did indeed do a lot to shake the public’s confidence in his administration. He refused to resign, however, despite calls for him to do so, and so far managed to successfully cling to power, even after snap parliamentary elections in June 2021, by associating the protests with the previous regime, as many Armenians consider Pashinyan ALighterShadeOfGrey.

* Édouard Balladur, Prime Minister of France from 1993 to 1995. Was born in İzmir from Armenian parents.