Armenian
civilization had its beginnings in the sixth century B.C. In
the centuries following, the Armenians withstood invasions
and nomadic migrations, creating a unique culture that
blended Iranian social and political structures with
Hellenic-- and later Christian--literary traditions. For two
millennia, independent Armenian states existed sporadically
in the region between the northeastern corner of the
Mediterranean Sea and the Caucasus Mountains, until the last
medieval state was destroyed in the fourteenth century. A
landlocked country in modern times, Armenia was the smallest
Soviet republic from 1920 until the dissolution of the
Soviet Union in 1991. The future of an independent Armenia
is clouded by limited natural resources and the prospect
that the military struggle to unite the Armenians of
Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region with the
Republic of Armenia will be a long one. The Armenians are
an ancient people who speak an Indo-European language and
have traditionally inhabited the border regions common to
modern Armenia, Iran, and Turkey. They call themselves
hai (from the name of Hayk, a legendary hero) and
their country Haiastan. Their neighbors to the north, the
Georgians, call them somekhi, but most of the rest
of the world follows the usage of the ancient Greeks and
refers to them as Armenians, a term derived according to
legend from the Armen tribe. Thus the Russian word is
armianin, and the Turkish is
ermeni.
Library of Congress Country Study
Library of Congress Country Study
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