Armenia

Armenia (Hayastan), and ColombiaUrartu The Republic of Armenia (Hayastani Hanrapetut′yun) since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Previously the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (1936–91), and part of the Transcaucasus Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (March 1922) which joined the USSR nine months later; the Soviet Republic of Armenia (1920–2); and the independent Republic of Armenia (1918–20). The present republic represents a fraction of historical Greater Armenia which included extensive territory in modern eastern Turkey, and parts of modern Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Iran. The Armenian name means the ‘Land of Hayk’, Noah's great‐great‐grandson from whom the Armenians claim descent. The Armenians call themselves the Hayk. The ancient Greeks used the term ‘Armenian’ which, according to legend, was derived from the Armen tribe who took their name from Armenios; he was, in Greek legend, one of the Argonauts who accompanied Jason in his search for the Golden Fleece. Armenia, however, may be a modification of Aramaean, a tribe which lived in northern Syria. The biblical name for Armenia was Ararat. Armenia (Armina in old Persian), whose name was already in use by 500 bc, succeeded the Kingdom of Urartu, (Western) Ararat in the Assyrian language, in the 6th century bc. Since, it has been constantly overrun by foreign invaders, particularly Persians, Turks, and Russians, although enjoying short periods of independence. By the end of the 14th century the Kingdom of Armenia had finally expired. During the 15th–17th centuries Turkey and Persia fought over Armenia, partitioning it into western and eastern halves. In 1828 eastern Armenia was ceded to Russia, while some two and a half million Armenians lived within the Ottoman Empire. In 1915, fearful that the Armenians might help an expansionist Russia against a weak Ottoman Empire, the Turks emptied Turkish (West) Armenia of Armenians: perhaps as many as one and a half million people were deported to northern Syria and elsewhere, many of them being slaughtered or dying from disease and starvation in what was later called by the Armenians ‘The Genocide’ (the Turks consistently claim that this was simply a case of relocation and that there was no intention to cause loss of life). Having captured Turkish Armenia in 1916, the Russians were compelled to surrender it and part of Russian Armenia to Turkey in 1918 in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution. A substantial Kurdish population now inhabits the area. The First World War over, Armenia enjoyed a period of independence from May 1918 to December 1920. In June 1918, however, Armenia was forced to acknowledge the pre‐1878 Russo‐Turkish border as its own Armenian–Turkish border. Under pressure from a rejuvenated Turkey under Kemal Atatürk^†, the Armenians abandoned all pre‐1914 territory in Turkey at the Treaty of Alexandropol (now Kumayri, Armenia) on 2 December 1920. That same day Armenia was declared a Soviet republic. It had become even smaller with the loss of Nakhichevanʼ, Nagornyy‐Karabakh, and, more particularly, Mount Ararat, a sacred symbol of the Armenian homeland.