with
the distinction
of being the “cradle
of civilization,”
Armenia is bursting
with historical
magnificence.
It
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One
of
the
world’s
oldest
civilizations,
Armenians
are
the
contemporaries
of
the
Babylonians |
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is
on Mt. Ararat, located in the
Armenian Highland, where Noah’s
Ark came safe to land. This
spot is considered to be the
point of rebirth
of life on earth when Noah
descendedfrom
upon the Holy Mt. Ararat and
down into the Araratian Valley
of Armenia. The “Landing-Place”
is “the eternal symbol of the
continuum of the undying tenacity
and vigor” of the Armenian
Nation. Calling themselves
“Hais,” the
Armenians claim they are descendents
of Haik —the great grandson
of Japeth, the son of Noah,
and the legendary father of
the Armenians who settled on
what was later to be known
as the home of the Armenians
(circa 1200 B.C.).
One
of the world’s oldest
civilizations, Armenians
are the contemporaries
of the Babylonians, the
Hittite, and a host of
other ancient races,
all of which have become
extinct except for the
Armenians. The name
“Armenia” first appears
in recorded history in
Assyrian inscriptions of
the 9th Century B.C.
and ancient Armenian
tribes are believed to
have first appeared on
the territory of the
Armenian Plateau 3,000
to 4,000 years before
Christ. At the beginning
of the second century
BC, a united Armenian
kingdom was established.
Its first king was Artashes
I (189-160 B.C.). Tigran
II the Great (95-55 B.C.)
and the other sovereigns
who succeeded to the
throne after him were
quite successful for
some time in resisting
Rome's eastward aggression
and, under these various
kings and princes, the
Armenians developed
a sophisticated culture,
an original architecture
and their own national
alphabet.
Just
a little larger than
the size of the state
of Maryland, Armenia
was the first country
in the world to officially
convert to Christianity,
in 301 A.D. It was the
work of the apostles
Thaddeus and Bartholomew
in Armenia, after Jesus'
crucifixion, which set
the stage for the official
conversion. Saint Gregory
the Illuminator’s prayers
then healed the pagan
king of Armenia resulting
in the king and the country
to become officially
Christian. A century
later, the Armenian alphabet
was created in year 405
by Mesrop Mashdots in
order to translate the
Bible. As a result of
the wars waged with its
neighbors Armenia lost
its independence in 387
and in 428 was divided
between the Byzantine
Empire and Iran into
two (Eastern and Western)
parts.
marked
by invasions, occupations,
and massacres and battered
by war for more than 3,000
years. Located in the Southern
Caucasus, a land bridge from Europe
to Asia, Armenia is
few
peoples
have
endured
so
many
trials
and
rebounded
with
such
dignity
and
strength
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landlocked
by Turkey on the west, Georgia
on the north, Azerbaijan on
the east, and Iran on the south.
It is precisely
this location, a Christian
nation surrounded by disparate
religions, which has been the
cause of much of Armenia’s
violent story. Being on the
crossroads of Europe and Asia
has caused Armenia to become
a battlefield of invaders and
conquerors, continuously decimated
and tortured. They have struggled
tenaciously for their survival and
for the preservation of their
Christian faith and culture.
Few nations have had the strength
to keep their faith so alive
for centuries amid such terrible
persecutions, and few peoples
have endured so many trials
and rebounded with such dignity
and strength.
These
invasions by a succession
of empires kept Armenia
under the constant threat
of domination by foreign
forces. Throughout the
centuries, Armenia has
been conquered and
controlled by many civilizations
and countries —Greeks,
Romans, Persians, Byzantines,
Mongols, Arabs, Ottoman
Turks and more. From
the 16th Century through
World War I,
areas of Armenia have
been controlled by their
most brutal invader,
the Ottoman Turks. Under
Turkish rule the Armenians
experienced discrimination,
religious persecution, heavy
taxation, and armed attacks.
The Turks massacred thousands
of Armenians in 1894
and 1896 and again in
the early 1900s, but
the most horrific
massacre took place in
1915, when 1.5 million
Armenians were murdered
by the Turks. (See Section
on Genocide) Incredibly,
even today, the Turks deny
this massacre ever took
place and claim a much
smaller number of Armenians
died in a civil war.
From
1507 until 1829, historical
Armenia was divided between
the Ottoman and Persian
Empires. In 1828, after
the Russian-Persian wars,
the greater part of Eastern
Armenia was annexed to
Russia. The Armenian
public at large welcomed
the inclusion of Eastern
Armenia into the Russian
Empire, fairly thinking
that it was a way for
part of the Armenian
nation to escape physical
destruction.
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More
than
1,500,000
Armenians
were
murdered
and
over
800,000
became
refugees
as
a
result
of
the
Turkish
genocidal
campaign
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historical
Armenia was divided
among three empires
- Ottoman, Persian,
and Russian. The
Armenians within
the three empires
clamored for economic
and social reform,
as well
as political and
cultural autonomy.
The literary, artistic,
religious and educational
renaissance of
the Armenians during
the 19th century
within both the
Ottoman and
the Russian Empires
led to the formation
of Armenian political
parties and their
energetic intervention
for reform, equality
and cultural autonomy.
Armenia’s
independence was squashed once
again as the Ottoman and the
Russian Empires fought each
other during World War I.
The 1905 Russian revolution
and the Young Turk revolution
in 1908 raised the hopes of
the Armenians for an opportunity
for reform and to build a homeland
in historical Armenia.
After the collapse of the Russian
Empire in 1917, Armenia
declared its independence.
Its newfound freedom, however,
was soon over when in the autumn
of 1920, the Red Army took
control of some regions of
Armenia, declaring them a Soviet
Republic. Turkey then reached
an agreement with Lenin, attacked Armenia
and seized the towns of Kars,
Ardahan and Sarighamish. That
territory became a part of
the former USSR and Armenia
found itself conquered once again.
During
World War I, Turkish
authorities executed
a program of deportation
and destruction of the
Armenian population,
the active phase of which
started on April 24,
1915. Some 1,750,000
Armenians were deported
into Syria and Mesopotamia
by the Ottoman authorities.
More than 1,500,000 Armenians
were murdered and over
800,000 became refugees
as a result of
the Turkish genocidal
campaign. This “ethnic
cleansing” of the Armenians
from their historical
homeland led Raphael
Lemkin, the father of
the Genocide Treaty,
to coin the new term
of “genocide” in the
1930’s in order to describe
this historical plight
of the Assyrians and
the Armenians as subjects
of the first genocide
of the 20th century.
(See section on Genocide)
In
the aftermath of
World War I, the
Armenians formed
a small independent
republic. It lasted
two years. Notwithstanding
U.S. President
Woodrow Wilson’s
recommendations
through the Treaty
of Sèvres (1920)
to recreate an
Armenia within
the realm of its
historical lands,
it was vanquished
by Turkey and was
forcibly incorporated
within the Soviet
domain in 1920.
It became one of the
16 Soviet republics
constituting the
Soviet Union. During
the 70-year period
of Soviet rule
the Armenian culture
and economy flourished.
enormous
losses during World War II
and were subjected to periodic
deportations ordered by Stalin’s
regime. Then, during the last
few years of the Armenian SSR,
Armenia experienced a series
of devastating events including
the most destructive earthquake
it had ever known
On
Sept. 23,
1991
Armenia
declared
its independence
from the
collapsing
Soviet Union
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which
struck northwestern Armenia
in December 1988, killing around
25,000 people and leaving half
a million more without shelter.
It also destroyed about ten
percent of the nation's industrial
capacity and housing.
In
the same year,
the policies of
Glasnost and Perestroika
were first tested
on a revolutionary
scale by one million
peaceful Armenian
protests demanding
the union of Karabakh
with Armenia in
February 1988.
These protests
shocked the world
and led to outbursts
of nationalism
throughout the
East Bloc countries
and eventually
splintered the
Soviet Union in
December 1991.
On
August 23, 1990, the
newly elected Parliament
of Armenia adopted the
Declaration of Independence
and elected an Armenian
nationalist president,
Levon Ter Petrosian, who
managed to restore control
in Armenia. On Sept.
23, 1991, Armenia declared
its independence from
the collapsing Soviet
Union being the first
from the
many Soviet republics.
After the breakup, Armenia
reemerged as an independent
republic, ethnically
homogenous, though landlocked,
and without energy.
a
brutal war in Karabagh began
and a suffocating blockade
of Armenia by Azerbijan and
Turkey was implemented. Nagorno-Karabagh,
the Armenian Christian enclave
in Muslim Azerbaijan, voted
for unification with Armenia
protesting that the Armenians
there had been victims of repression.
The region holds billions of
dollars worth of untapped oil
reserves and the Soviets had
placed it into Azerbaijan’s
hands. Battles broke out between
Armenian and Azerbaijani militias,
and hundreds of thousands of
Azerbaijanis and Armenians
fled. More Armenians were
massacred in Baku, the Azerbaijani
capital, as the Soviet Union
stumbled. The Soviet army
finally fought its way
into Baku and restored some
order.
In
the years that followed, Armenia
was subject to economic blockades
by Turkey and Azerbaijan because
of the Ngorno-Karabagh conflict.
The six-year war came to a
precarious end as Armenia successfully
fought Azerbaijan for control
of Nagorno-Karabagh. A cease-fire
agreement was reached between
the two countries in 1994,
but the fate of Nagorno-Karabagh
remains unresolved and a peace
treaty has
not been signed to this day.
During these years, in addition
to privatizing the economy,
forming a new government, and
dealing with the collapse of
the heavily interdependent
Soviet factory system, landlocked
Armenia had to spend
More
Armenians
were massacred
in Baku,
the Azerbaijani
capital,
as the Soviet Union
stumbled
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much
of its budget on the military,
and develop entirely new supply
systems over the long windy
mountain roads linking to Iran,
and the uncontrolled streets
of Georgia.
Real
progress finally began in April
2001, when Azerbaijani President
Heidar Aliev and Armenian President
Robert Kocharian met with American,
French, and Russian negotiators, and
began to hammer out the details
regarding the future of the
enclave. Armenia's economy
is growing again with tourism,
information technologies, and
other fields
of business rapidly expanding.
Today there are six million
Armenians all over the world
- three million in Armenia
and the rest in Diaspora. There
are an estimated one million
Armenians in the U.S.A., and
another one million in Russia
was
confirmed on August
23rd 1990 by the
Armenian Supreme
Counsel. It is
identical to the
first Stateflag
of the Republic
of Armenia (1918-1920). The
flagconsists of
three equal horizontal
stripes of red,
blue and orange.
Eachcolor has its
own meaningand
significance:
Red
Stands
for the blood
our braveancestors
shed on thebattlefields,
fighting
theenemy
and sacrificing
their lives to
save the
Armenian
nation from
annihilation,
ensure their
freedom to
practice
the Christian
faith, and
uphold the
sovereignty
and independence
of Motherland
Armenia.
Blue
Stands
for the color
of the
sky and its
reflection onto the
waters of the
rivers
and lakes that
give life to this magnificent
country of ours – Armenia.
Orange
Stands
for the natural resources
and wealth of this nation. |
