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Armenia |
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Last reviewed: 24 April 2008 |
Country information
HISTORY
Origins
According to traditional Armenian Christian legend, the Armenians are descended from Hayk, himself a descendant of Noah whose Ark grounded on nearby Mt Ararat. The Armenian name for Armenia, “Hayastan” (the “land of Hayk”) reflects this legend.
The Armenians first emerged with the Hayk tribes around 800 BC, becoming part of the Kingdom of Urartu or Van, which flourished in the Caucasus and eastern Asia Minor until 600 BC. After the destruction of the Seleucid Empire, the first Armenian state was founded in 190 BC. At its zenith, from 95 to 65 BC, the Armenian kingdom extended its rule over the entire Caucasus and the area that is now the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon. The kingdom became part of the Roman Empire in 64 BC.
In 301 AD, Armenia became the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion, establishing the Armenian Apostolic Church. The Church, independent of other Christian churches, remains an important symbol of Armenian identity. After the fall of the Armenian kingdom in 428 AD, most of Armenia was incorporated within the Sassanid Empire. After the Sassanid period (428-636), Armenia emerged as an autonomous principality within the Arabic Empire. The principality lasted till 884, when it regained its independence from the weakened Arabic Empire. The Bagratid dynasty’s kingdom (later a grouping of kingdoms) lasted till 1045. In 1045, the Byzantine Empire conquered Bagratid Armenia, followed in 1071 by Seljuk Turks. From around 1100 to 1350 the offshoot Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, which had ties to European Crusader states, existed in south-east Asia Minor until its decline. In the early 1100s, Armenian princes established semi-independent Zakarid Armenia in Northern and Eastern Armenia. Then during the 1230s, the Mongol invasion conquered Armenia. The Mongols were followed by other Central Asian tribes, which continued from the 1200s until the 1400s. During the 1500s, the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Persia divided Armenia among themselves. The Russian Empire later forcibly incorporated Eastern Armenia in 1813 and 1828.
Modern Day Armenia
At the outbreak of the First World War the Ottoman and Russian Empires militarily engaged in the Persian and Caucasus Campaigns. In 1915-18 up to 1.5m Armenians (one third of the Armenian population) died of starvation or were systematically killed during the final years of the Ottoman Empire. As a consequence of these events, a large Armenian diaspora lives outside Armenia, mostly in the USA, in the Middle East and in France where their communities are particularly influential. There are 10-12,000 British Armenians.
An independent Armenian state existed from 1918-1920. In late 1920, the Bolsheviks came to power following a Red Army invasion of Armenia, and in 1922, Armenia was subsumed into the USSR.
During the Soviet period Armenia rebuilt, creating the new capital Yerevan, though suffering in common with other peoples of the USSR under Stalin’s repression. In the late Soviet period Armenia was a centre of technological and light industry. In 1988 an earthquake hit northern Armenia, killing over 30,000 and causing widespread devastation. Under Soviet leader Gorbachev’s “glasnost” reforms new leaders emerged, coalescing around the disputed issue of Nagorno-Karabagh (NK – see below).
A national referendum to secede from the USSR took place in September 1991 when the disintegration of the Soviet Union was gathering pace. More than 99% of voters supported independence, reflecting national aspirations, as well as massive popular opposition both to the coup attempt in Moscow and to the perceived Soviet bias towards the Azerbaijani position in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.
Independence
In October 1991 Levon Ter-Petrosian, a respected academic, was elected Armenia's first President (he had previously been Chairman of the Supreme Soviet) with 83% of the vote. He faced intense opposition pressure, due to the situation in NK and economic hardships, and there were public demonstrations against him in 1992, and particularly in 1994. However, the successes of the Armenian forces in and around NK during 1993 and the improvements in the supplies of energy relieved the pressure. A landslide victory for the pro-government Respublika Bloc in the 1995 parliamentary elections made it easier for Ter-Petrossian to press ahead with economic reform.
Presidential elections were held again in 1996. Ter-Petrossian quickly claimed a first round victory but the opposition alleged widespread fraud and organised a series of demonstrations. These were at first peaceful but on 25 September the Parliament building was stormed. Parliamentary immunity was withdrawn from opposition MPs and several were beaten and arrested. Police and armed troops were put on the streets. To restore Armenia's international reputation, promote national reconciliation and speed up economic reform, Ter-Petrossian appointed as Prime Minister the respected Armenian Ambassador to the UK, Dr Armen Sarkissian. Dr Sarkissian unfortunately had to resign for health reasons in early March 1997, and Robert Kocharian, leader of the NK Armenians, was appointed in his place. Ter-Petrossian resigned in February 1998 after internal disagreements over policy towards the resolution of the NK conflict. Elections were held in March 1998 and Robert Kocharian won by a margin of nearly 20% over his nearest rival.
Parliamentary elections were held on 30 May 1999. The newly formed Unity Alliance (an alliance between the Republican Party of Defence Minister Vazgen Sarkissian and the People's Party led by former Communist leader Karen Demirchian) won 41.69% of the vote and gained the largest number of parliamentary seats (29), although short of an overall majority. The preliminary assessment of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission was that the elections 'demonstrated an improvement over prior elections' and were 'a relevant step towards compliance with OSCE commitments'. Following the elections, Vazgen Sarkissian was appointed Prime Minister and Karen Demirchian elected as Chairman of Parliament.
On 27 October 1999 5 gunmen broke into the National Assembly building and killed Vazgen Sarkissian and Karen Demirchian plus 6 other MPs. The gunmen were led by an extreme nationalist. The authorities condemned the murders as an attack by a group of disaffected loners. Although there are many conspiracy theories, there has been no evidence to contradict the official view.
After the attack, President Kocharian appointed Aram Sarkissian, brother of the murdered PM, as Prime Minister, despite his lack of political experience. Following this, Kocharian had an uneasy relationship with the National Assembly and faced down calls for his impeachment. In May 2000 Kocharian appointed a new Prime Minister and Cabinet having removed all his critics from office.