ARMENIA

in full Republic of Armenia, Armenian Hayastan, or Hayastani Hanrapetut'yun, country of Transcaucasia, lying just south of the great mountain range of the Caucasus and fronting the northwestern extremity of Asia. It covers an area of 11,500 square miles (29,800 square kilometres). To the north and east Armenia is bounded by Georgia and Azerbaijan, while its neighbours to the southeast and west are, respectively, Iran and Turkey. Naxivan, an exclave of Azerbaijan, borders Armenia to the southwest. The capital is Yerevan (Erevan). Modern Armenia comprises only a small portion of ancient Armenia, one of the world's oldest centres of civilization. At its height, Armenia extended from the south-central Black Sea coast to the Caspian Sea and from the Mediterranean Sea to Lake Urmia in present-day Iran. Ancient Armenia was subjected to constant foreign incursions, finally losing its autonomy in the 14th century AD. The centuries-long rule of Ottoman and Persian conquerors imperiled the very existence of the Armenian people. Eastern Armenia was annexed by Russia during the 19th century; western Armenia remained under Turkish rule, and in 189496 and 1915 Turkey perpetrated systematic massacres and forced deportations of Armenians. The portion of Armenia lying within the former Russian Empire declared independence on May 28, 1918, but in 1920 it was invaded by forces from Turkey and Soviet Russia. The Soviet Republic of Armenia was established on Nov. 29, 1920; in 1922 Armenia became part of the Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic; and in 1936 this republic was dissolved and Armenia became a constituent (union) republic of the Soviet Union. Armenia declared sovereignty on Aug. 23, 1990, and independence on Sept. 23, 1991. The status of Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave of 1,700 square miles in southwestern Azerbaijan populated primarily by Armenians, was from 1988 the source of bitter conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. By the mid-1990s Karabakh Armenian forces occupied much of southwestern Azerbaijan, but the conflict had caused an economic crisis in Armenia. officially Republic of Armenia, Armenian Hayastan, or Hayastani Hanrapetut'yun, country of Transcaucasia, formerly a union republic of the Soviet Union, successor to a historical region in southwestern Asia. Historical Armenia's boundaries have varied considerably, but old Armenia extended over what is now the northeastern part of Turkey and the Republic of Armenia. The latter is the smallest of the three Transcaucasian states (Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia). Turkish Armenia, unlike the Armenian republic, has no political designation, and it has only a small proportion of the region's Armenian population, most of whom live in the Republic of Armenia. To the north and east the Republic of Armenia is bounded by Georgia and Azerbaijan, to the southeast by Iran, and to the west by Turkey. Naxivan, an exclave of Azerbaijan, borders Armenia to the southwest. The capital of Armenia is Yerevan. Area 11,500 square miles (29,800 square km). Pop. (1996 est.) 3,765,000. city, capital of Quindo departamento, west-central Colombia. It lies on the western slopes of the Cordillera Central at an elevation of 4,865 feet (1,483 m), between the Espejo and Quindo rivers. The city lies along a spur of the railway from Puerto Berro to Popayn and is the transfer point for road traffic to Bogot via Ibagu (30 miles southeast). Armenia (named for the ancient kingdom) was founded in 1889 by Jess Mara Ocampo and Antonio Herrera. Coffee, corn (maize), beans, sugarcane, silk, and plantains are marketed, and there is some light manufacturing. Coal deposits are nearby. Armenia is the seat of the University of Quindo (1960). Pop. (1995 est.) 220,303. Additional reading The geography, economy, culture, and history of the region are explored in Glenn E. Curtis (ed.), Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia: Country Studies (1995). The best general introduction remains H.F.B. Lynch, Armenia, Travels and Studies, 2 vol. (1901, reprinted 1990), a classic traveler's account, rich in geographic and ethnographic material. Richard G. Hovanissian (ed.), The Armenian Image in History and Literature (1981), collects essays on the ways the people have been perceived and represented by themselves and others. Armenian cultural history is surveyed by an art historian in Sirarpie Der Nersessian, The Armenians (1969). Jean-Michel Thierry, Patrick Donabdian, and Nicole Thierry, Armenian Art (1989; originally published in French, 1987), offers a richly illustrated survey of arts, crafts, and architecture, including the art of the Armenian diaspora. G. Melvyn HoweGeorge A. Bournoutian, A History of the Armenian People, 2 vol. (1994), offers an overview from prehistory to the present. The early history of the Armenian people is chronicled in Paul E. Zimansky, Ecology and EmpireThe Structure of the Urartian State (1985). M. Chahin, The Kingdom of Armenia (1987, reissued 1991), offers a historical survey from the Bronze Age to the 15th century. The single most important work on Armenian social structure of the early medieval period is Nicholas Adontz, Armenia in the Period of Justinian: The Political Conditions Based on the Naxarar System, trans. by Nina G. Garsoan (1970; originally published in Russian, 1908), written by an Armenian scholar at the beginning of the 20th century. George A. Bournoutian, Eastern Armenia in the Last Decades of Persian Rule, 18071828: A Political and Socioeconomic Study of the Khanate of Erevan on the Eve of the Russian Conquest (1982), treats the transition from Persian to Russian rule. Louise Nalbandian, The Armenian Revolutionary Movement: The Development of Armenian Political Parties Through the Nineteenth Century (1963), explores the beginnings of the revolutionary nationalist movement. Christopher J. Walker, Armenia: The Survival of a Nation, rev. 2nd ed. (1990), is a pioneering modern study tracing the hopes and disappointments that preceded 1915, when the government of imperial Turkey began the systematic deportation and killing of the Armenian population. Gerard J. Libaridian (ed.), A Crime of Silence: The Armenian Genocide (1985; originally published in French, 1984), prepared by the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal, is an excellent source of information on the topic. David Marshall Lang, The Armenians: A People in Exile (1981), offers the history of the Armenian dispersion with a graphic account of the persecution by the Turks from 1895 to 1922 and a survey of the Armenian contribution to the countries of the Armenian diaspora. Akaby Nassibian, Britain and the Armenian Question, 19151923 (1984), studies diplomacy in relation to Armenian genocide. Detailed reconstructions of the politics and diplomacy of the first independent Armenian republic are presented in Richard G. Hovanissian, Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918 (1967), which discusses the separation of Transcaucasia from Russia and its subsequent division into the three republics, and The Republic of Armenia, 2 vol. (19711982). Mary Kilbourne Matossian, The Impact of Soviet Policies in Armenia (1962, reprinted 1981), studies the social and political transformations of the Soviet period. Ronald Grigor Suny, Armenia in the Twentieth Century (1983), offers a short analysis of the formation of the Soviet Armenian state and is updated by his Looking Toward Ararat: Armenia in Modern History (1993). Essays on the Armenian national democratic movement of the 1990s are included in Gerard J. Libaridian (ed.), Armenia at the Crossroads: Democracy and Nationhood in the Post-Soviet Era (1991). Ronald Grigor Suny Administration and social conditions Government In 1995 Armenia adopted a new constitution, replacing the Soviet-era constitution that had been in force from 1978. The 1995 document establishes legislative, executive, and judicial branches of goverment and provides for a strong executive. A number of basic rights and freedoms of citizens are enumerated. Legislative authority is vested in a 131-member legislature, the National Assembly. Members are elected to four-year terms. The legislature has the authority to approve the budget, ratify treaties, and declare war. The president is the head of state and is elected directly to a maximum of two consecutive five-year terms. The president appoints the cabinet and members of the high courts (subject to approval by the legislature), serves as commander in chief of the armed forces, and has broad authority to issue decrees. The judiciary consists of trial courts, appellate courts, a Court of Cassation (the highest appellate court), and a nine-member Constitutional Court, which determines the constitutionality of legislation and executive decrees. Armenia is divided into numerous oblasti (provinces). Local authority at the community level is held by mayors or village elders. During the Soviet period political life was directed by the Communist Party of Armenia, which was controlled by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Major political parties now include the Armenian National Movement, a moderate nationalist party that has governed Armenia since independence; the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), which ruled Armenia during the brief period of independence before the Soviet takeover; and the Democratic Party of Armenia, the successor to the Communist Party. Armenia was a founding member of the Commonwealth of Independent States. In 1992 Armenia joined the United Nations. Armed forces and security The Armenian military, formed partly out of forces that had belonged to the Soviet Union, includes an army and an air force. Military service is compulsory, though draft evasion is common. Armenia supplies weapons, matriel, and troops to the Karabakh Self-Defense Army in Nagorno-Karabakh. The Ministry of Internal Affairs controls the regular Armenian police force. Organized crime increased sharply during the 1990s. Cultural life Armenian written literature began in the 5th century AD, and monasteries became the principal centres of intellectual life. The earliest works were historical, such as Moses of Khoren's History of Armenia. The masterpiece of classical Armenian is Eznik Koghbatsi's Eghts aghandots (Refutation of the Sects). The first great Armenian poet (10th century) was St. Gregory Narekatzi, renowned for his mystical poems and hymns. During the 16th to 18th century, popular bards, or troubadours, called ashugh, arose; outstanding among them were Nahapet Kuchak and, especially, Aruthin Sayadian, called Sayat-Nova (d. 1795), whose love songs are still popular. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Hakob Paronian and Ervand Otian were notable satirical novelists, and Grigor Zohrab wrote realist short stories. Paronian was also a comic playwright, whose plays still entertain Armenian audiences. The most celebrated novelist was Hakob Meliq-Hakobian, called Raffi, and perhaps the best dramatist of recent times was Gabriel Sundukian (d. 1912). The country boasts a State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet, several drama theatres, theatres for children, orchestras, a national dance company, and the Yerevan film studios, which produce feature, documentary, and science films. The traditional folk arts, especially singing, dancing, and artistic crafts, are popular. The 20th-century Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian achieved worldwide renown. The public libraries include the A.F. Myasnikyan State Public Library and the Matenadaran archives in Yerevan, which contain 10,000 Armenian manuscripts, the largest collection in the world. There are also a number of museums, including the State Historical Museum of Armenia. Armenian science, like its culture, has its roots in antiquity, but research institutions are a 20th-century development. The Armenian Academy of Sciences is composed of a number of institutes engaged in research problems in natural and social sciences. The radio broadcasting system has been operating since 1926, and the Yerevan television centre since 1956. Broadcasts and telecasts are conducted in Armenian, Russian, Azerbaijani, and Kurdish. Many newspapers and periodicals are published in Armenia, most of them in the Armenian language. Aleksey Aleksandrovich Mints G. Melvyn Howe