Armenia History: Difference between revisions

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The history of Armenia is one of invasion and foreign rule.  Historic Armenia traces its lineage back to the 9th century B.C. when a union of local tribes known as Uratu (Ararat) came into being.  It was founded by Aram, a legendary national hero, and its people were therefore referred to as Armens or Armenians.  The Medes conquered the area in 612 B.C.  Cyrus, founder of the Persian Empire, seized the area in 549 B.C.  Alexander the Great conquered Persia in 331 B.C., and Armenia gained independence until conquered by Syria in 212 B.C.  In 95 B.C. Tigran the Great, established an Armenian kingdom whose borders extended from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean.  It was conquered by the Romans in 66 B.C.

In 286 Tiridates III liberated Armenia.  Tiridates was converted to Christianity by Saint Gregory and in 301 (recent scholarship says 314) Armenia became the world’s first Christian state.  Christianity provided Armenians with a national identity and consciousness that has persisted through the centuries of conquest and division that have followed.  It was the bulwark of the Armenian language and culture, a rallying point for the scattered elements of the population, and the center of resistance against  assimilation.  In 387 Armenia was divided between Byzantium and Persia.  In 450 the Persian king commanded all Christians to convert and enforced his will with the invasion of a large Persian army that was victorious.  The Armenians continued to resist and in 484, a new Persian ruler granted full toleration of Christianity.

Armenia has not prospered in the recent decades.  In December 1988, a massive earthquake killed 55,000 and left hundreds of thousands homeless.  It damaged the country’s nuclear reactors and they had to be shut down, substantially reducing the national energy supply.  Much of Armenia was denuded of trees as they were cut down for firewood during the extremely cold winter of 1992-1993.  Fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan erupted in 1992 over the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, entirely encompassed by Azerbaijan.  Though a cease fire went into effect in 1994, the issue has not been resolved.

Beginning in the eleventh century, a long series of invasions, migrations, deportations, and massacres have decimated or disbursed the Armenian population.  In the 1990s, 12-13% of the population (about 500,000) emigrated. Today, about sixty percent of the world’s Armenians live outside Armenia, one million each in Russia and the United States. Armenia has officially defined the Armenian nation to include those in the diaspora.<ref name="profile">The Family History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “Family History Record Profile: Armenia,” Word document, private files of the FamilySearch Content Strategy Team, 1990-1999.</ref>

*[http://www.armenian-genocide.org/genocide.html Armenian Genocide]

*[http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Armenia.aspx Encyclopedia]

*[http://www.armeniapedia.org/wiki/Armenian_History Armeniapedia] Armenian History

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