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Armenia Cities with Hotels
 Armenia (country), republic in the Transcaucasia region of western Asia, bordered by Georgia on the north, Azerbaijan on the east, and Turkey on the west and south. The Azerbaijani enclave of Naxçivan (Nakhichevan') also forms part of its southern boundary. Formerly a republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Armenia became independent in 1991. It is an extremely mountainous country with a limited amount of arable land. Population is concentrated in river valleys, especially along the Hrazdan River, where Yerevan, the capital and largest city, is located.
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Armenia
Land and Resources
Armenia occupies about 29,800 sq km (about 11,500 sq mi) of the northeastern portion of the Armenian Highland, an extensive upland area that extends as far south as Lake Van in Turkey. Armenia is characterized by high elevations and is extremely mountainous. Its average elevation is about 1800 m (about 5900 ft). Mount Aragats is the highest point in the republic, with an elevation of 4090 m (about 13,420 ft). Mountain ranges in the republic include the P'ambaki, Geghama, Vardenis, and Zangezur branches of the Lesser Caucasus ( Malyy Kavkaz) mountain system.
Rainfall varies greatly by location and elevation, with the greatest precipitation occurring on mountain slopes. The most arid region of the country is found along the Aras River, where average annual precipitation is less than 300 mm (less than 12 in) per year. Armenia is covered by a dense network of small rivers and streams that are part of the Aras-Kura river basin. Due to the mountainous terrain, waterfalls and rapids are frequent. The republic contains numerous mountain lakes, the largest of which is Lake Sevana, which holds more than 90 percent of all standing water in Armenia.
Climate, soil, and vegetation vary greatly throughout Armenia, which contains twice as many soil types as European Russia. Vegetation typical of alpine, semidesert, and steppe regions dominates much of the republic, although the extreme southeastern and northeastern portions contain forests of beech and oak. Animal life in Armenia includes wild boars, jackals, lynxes, and Syrian bears.
Population
The population of Armenia-estimated in 1991 at 3,354,000-is characterized by a high degree of ethnic homogeneity. Armenians constitute more than 90 percent of the republic's population, a proportion that increased considerably in recent years with the departure of Azeris and the influx of Armenian refugees from the Nagorno-Karabakh territory of Azerbaijan, because of the conflict in that region. Kurds and Russians are the next two most populous ethnic groups in the republic, but they each comprise only about 1.5 percent of Armenia's total population. Small numbers of Ukrainians, Georgians, and Greeks also live in the republic.
Armenia is highly urbanized, with more than two-thirds of all residents living in cities or towns. The largest city is Yerevan, which had an estimated population of 1,202,000 in 1990. The next most populous city, Gyumri (formerly Leninakan, also known as Kumari), is about one-tenth the size of Yerevan, with a population of 123,000 in 1990.
The official language of Armenia is Armenian, an Indo-European language with a distinct 38-letter alphabet. Russian is also commonly spoken. The vast majority of the population is Christian. The Armenian Apostolic (Orthodox) Church is the most popular among Armenians. Russian Orthodoxy and Shiite Islam are also practiced.
Economy
In 1994 Armenia's gross domestic product (GDP) was about $4.3 billion. The country is highly industrialized, with about 40 percent of the labor force employed in industry and construction in the early 1990s. Industrial production is dominated by manufacturing and mining, including gold, copper, zinc, and silver mining. Electrical engines, machine tools, and chemical products, such as synthetic rubber, comprise the chief manufactured goods. The industrial sector suffered greatly from the economic blockade imposed by Azerbaijan in 1991, which resulted in severe shortages of natural gas, petroleum, and other energy sources. In 1994 Armenian officials announced their decision to restart the power plant at Metsamor, the only nuclear power station in the Transcaucasia region, in order to compensate for the diminished energy supply. The plant had been shut down after northern Armenia suffered a devastating earthquake in 1988, although the plant was not damaged. The government of Azerbaijan protested the announcement to restart the plant, because of the possibility that it would be used to produce nuclear weapons. The Metsamor plant was reopened in June 1995. In May of that year the Armenian and Iranian governments signed an agreement under which Iran was to supply Armenia with natural gas for a period of 20 years. The deal required the construction of a gas pipeline between the two countries by 1997.
Agriculture is the second largest sector of the Armenian economy, accounting for nearly 20 percent of the labor force in the early 1990s. Principal crops include wheat, potatoes, tobacco, vegetables, grapes, and other fruits. Agriculture is highly dependent on irrigation, especially in areas near the Aras River in the south. Local food production does not satisfy domestic needs, however, so Armenia must import large quantities of food from abroad. During the Soviet period, Armenia imported about 60 percent of its bread and nearly two-thirds of its dairy products from other republics. The economic blockade by Azerbaijan and the civil war in Georgia caused food supplies to greatly diminish, but in contrast to industrial production, agricultural output increased considerably in the early 1990s. The increase in domestic food production was caused in part by the privatization of land holdings, which began in 1991.
After the breakup of the USSR, Armenia continued to use the Russian ruble as its currency. Beginning in mid-1993, however, the Central Bank of Russia refused to accept rubles printed before that year. This action caused a massive inflow of rubles to Armenia and other former Soviet republics where the ruble was still allowed to circulate. Inflation accelerated greatly as a result of the influx of old rubles, which were worthless in Russia. The Central Bank of Russia demanded strict control of the new ruble, prompting Armenian leaders to issue a separate currency, called the dram, in November 1993. The dram was originally issued at a rate of 200 rubles per dram. In 1994 the conversion rate with the U.S. dollar was 406 dram per U.S.$1.
Government
The head of state of Armenia is the president, elected by direct popular vote. The highest governmental authority is the parliament, called the National Assembly, a unicameral (single-chamber) legislative body that replaced Armenia's Supreme Soviet. Its 190 members are elected for five-year terms. Multi-candidate elections for parliament were held for the first time in 1990. The country also has a prime minister, who is appointed by the president with the approval of the parliament. The prime minister presides over the Council of Ministers, whose members are chosen jointly by the president and the prime minister. Armenia's current constitution was approved by a referendum in July 1995, replacing the constitution adopted in 1978 during the Soviet period. Important political parties include the Republican bloc, which consists of the Armenian National Movement and several smaller parties; the women's organization Shamiram; the Communist Party; the National Democratic Union; the Union for Self-Determination; the Democratic Liberal Party; and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (commonly referred to as the Dashnaktsutyun, or Dashnak Revolutionary Federation). The Dashnak party, which is considered a symbol of Armenia's independence, was banned by the Armenian government in December 1994.
Armenia is a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the United Nations (UN), and the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). In October 1994 the country joined the Partnership for Peace program, which provided for limited military cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In the mid-1990s the Armenian armed forces numbered an estimated 32,700.
- Armenia Political Leaders - http://www.politicalresources.net/armenia.htm
History
Armenia is one of the earliest sites of human civilization. It is considered by some specialists to be one of the first areas of iron and bronze smelting, and some cereal grains, such as rye, may also have been first developed here. For most of its history, Armenia was controlled or occupied by external powers, including Assyrians, Persians, Romans, Mongols, Ottomans, and Russians. Independent Armenian states existed for short periods of time in the past, the most extensive of which existed under the Armenian king Tigranes the Great. Under Tigranes, Armenian-controlled territory stretched from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean and parts of modern-day Syria. This period of independence ended in 69 BC with the invasion of the Romans. Armenia later
became the first Christian state in the history of the world in AD 301.
Armenia suffered from extremely harsh treatment by foreign powers several times during its history. The invasion of the Seljuk Turks in the 11th century resulted in the first large-scale emigration of Armenians. Other periods of emigration followed, especially during the late 19th century, when Armenians were persecuted by Russian and Ottoman leaders for agitating for political reforms. Between 1894 and 1896, hundreds of thousands of Armenians were systematically massacred by Turkish forces. The Russian government, although not as repressive as the Ottoman government, closed Armenian schools and ordered the confiscation of church property. Even larger massacres occurred during the 20th century as the Ottoman government of the Young Turk era (1908-1918) sought to move Armenians to Mesopotamia. Between 1915 and 1923 more than 1 million people were estimated to have died from the Turkish action.
In 1918 Armenia declared itself an independent state after the short-lived Transcaucasian Federation with Georgia and Azerbaijan collapsed. In 1922 Armenia was incorporated into the USSR as part of the Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. In 1936 Armenia became a separate Soviet Socialist Republic within the USSR. (For the history of Armenia between 1936 and 1991, see Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: History.)
In the late 1980s popular unrest demonstrated the desire for Armenian independence, despite half a century of Soviet rule. Under Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, Armenians took advantage of the policy of glasnost' (Russian for "openness") to publicly decry the state of the environment and rally for the annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan. A 1988 earthquake in Armenia killed 25,000 and left more than 400,000 homeless. In 1989 the Armenian Supreme Soviet declared the enclave part of Armenia and proclaimed the sovereignty of the republic of Armenia. In September 1991 Armenian residents voted overwhelmingly to secede from the USSR, and the Supreme Soviet declared Armenia a completely independent state in the same month. In October 1991 Levon A. Ter-Petrosyan, formerly chairman of the Armenian Supreme Soviet, became the first popularly elected president of the new republic. Armenia became a member of the United Nations (UN) in 1992.
Political tension in the country increased sharply in the first years after Armenian independence. Difficulties presented by the aftermath of the 1988 earthquake, the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the economic blockade of Armenia by Azerbaijan resulted in an increase in political opposition to the government. The ruling party, the Armenian National Movement, which promotes a moderate program of economic reform and territorial delimitation, was challenged by a wide array of political parties. The foremost was the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), which has been in existence for more than a hundred years and was the ruling party during Armenia's brief period of independence from 1918 to 1922. The ARF, which exerts a great degree of control over Armenian military forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, rejects economic market reforms and advocates closer ties with Russia. Due to political pressure from the ARF and other opposition groups, Armenian prime minister Kosrov Arutyunyan was forced to resign in 1993, and an interim prime minister, Hrant Bagratyan, was appointed. In 1993 Armenian forces defeated the Azerbaijani army in several confrontations, which led to Armenian control of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent areas. In 1994 Azerbaijan began a new push against Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, but these new offensives generated very few results other than a high number of casualties and refugees. Several cease-fire agreements, some negotiated by Russia, were set and later violated as both sides attempted to gain an advantage. Meanwhile, Armenia continued to suffer from the Azerbaijani embargo. Shortages of electricity, food, and fuel continued. In November President Ter-Petrosyan announced new reforms to stabilize the economy. In response to these austerity measures the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved Armenia's withdrawal of $25 million in December. Also in December, Ter-Petrosyan suspended the ARF from the parliament, accusing the organization of terrorism, drug trafficking, and political killings.
At the beginning of 1995, Armenia controlled about 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory. Increasing pressure to end the conflict came from Western oil
companies that were eager to build a pipeline across Armenia to transport Caspian Sea oil to Turkey. The project could not begin without resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In mid-1996 the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was involved in mediating the dispute over the enclave, with the support of the United States.
In early 1995 the Armenian parliament began working on the ratification of the country's new constitution. In July of that year Armenia held its first legislative elections as an independent country, along with a constitutional referendum. Voters cast two ballots, one to elect a deputy in one of 150 single-member constituencies, and the other from party lists, from which an additional 40 members are elected; parliamentary seats were to be granted on a proportional basis to parties receiving a minimum of 5 percent of the vote. The Republican bloc, of which the ruling Armenian National Movement is the dominant member, won a decisive victory to claim the majority of seats. The elections were monitored for fairness by the OSCE but were criticized by members of a number of opposition parties which had been barred from participating. Following the elections, President Ter-Petrosyan reappointed Hrant Bogratyan as prime minister.
Armenia's new constitution was approved by more than two-thirds of participating voters. While critics said the new document gave too much power to the president, Armenian government officials claimed that it limited the powers of the president and strengthened the independent judiciary.
Contributed by: Kurt E. Engelmann
"Armenia (country)," Microsoft® Encarta® 97 Encyclopedia.
© 1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
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