FACT SHEET: ARMENIA

KNIGHTS OF VARTAN ARMENIAN RESEARCH CENTER

The University of Michigan-Dearborn

Dearborn, MI 48128

• The Republic of Armenia is one of three internationally recognized states (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia) in Transcaucasia, the southernmost area of the former USSR. It is 11,620 square miles in area, slightly larger than the state of Maryland. It has a population of about 3.3 million (with an additional 400,000 Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan and Karabagh), of whom over 93% are Armenian. Armenia, accordingly, is the most ethnically homogenous state of all the former republics of the Soviet Union. There are some seven million Armenians throughout the world, including one million in the United States. There are also some 30,000 to 50,000 in the Detroit metropolitan area.

• On Sept 21, 1991, Armenia held a referendum on independence and 94.05% of all eligible voters voted for it. Two days later, the Armenian Parliament declared the independence of Armenia from the USSR.

• President Bush recognized Armenia on December 25, 1991. Former Secretary of State James Baker visited Armenia on February 11, 1992, and the US State Department established an embassy in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.

• The United States has sent a substantial amount of aid to Armenia, and is currently actively engaged in encouraging and developing manufacturing and trade there.

• On January 4, 1992, Armenia began radical free-market economic reforms. President Bush and now President Clinton fully support and encourage Armenia on its road to a free economy and the practice of democracy.

• Over 120 countries have recognized Armenia as an independent state, and over 70 countries have established direct diplomatic relations with Armenia. Armenia is also a member of the United Nations and the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OCSE, formerly the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe).

• The first free presidential election was held in Armenia on October 16, 1991. Levon Ter Petrosian was elected president with over 80% of the vote, demonstrating his wide acceptance.

• President Clinton continues the policy of giving humanitarian aid to Armenia and is actively seeking, through the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe to bring peace between Azerbaijan and Armenian-inhabited Mountainous Karabagh.

• Armenia is the only former Soviet republic that is governed by a democratically elected leader who had no ties to the Communist Party in the past.

• Armenia was the first former Soviet republic to privatize agriculture and continues to privatize small businesses and state- run enterprises, providing opportunities for local and foreign investors.

The history of Armenia goes back 2,500 years, and includes a short lived empire under Tigran II the Great (95-55 BC), which was ended by a Roman invasion.

Armenia was the first country to accept Christianity as the state religion, in 301 A.D. It has remained Christian from that time in spite of numerous conquests and persecutions.

Armenia was divided between the Romans and the Iranians in 387 AD, but was revived as an independent state in 885 under the Bagratid dynasty. Armenia was conquered anew, this time by the Byzantine Empire ca. 1064.

As a part of the Byzantine conquest of the Armenian states, Armenian nobles lost their estates in Armenia and were resettled in Cilicia, in southern Asia Minor. Many Armenians, fleeing the Turkish Seljuk invasion of Anatolia after 1073, also fled to Cilicia. Thus a new Armenian state was established in Cilicia by the Rubenid dynasty which survived until 1375. The Armenians of Cilicia were close allies of the Crusaders who came to the Middle East to free the Holy Land.

Modern History:

Armenia was later conquered by the Ottoman Turks. When the Ottoman Empire declined it grew corrupt (and lost territory to many of its neighborsþincluding Russia, which conquered part of Armenia). In 1908, the Sultan was forced to yield authority (but not his throne) to a loose grouping of Turks called the "Young Turks." From 1908 to 1913, the Young Turks changed in personnel from liberals wanting a reformed multi-ethnic state to an clique wanting a state for Turks alone. The Young Turk Ottoman government carried out a great genocide against the Armenians (the largest minority in the Anatolia except for the Kurds, whom the Young Turks thought could be assimilated) in 1915/1916, which lasted up to 1923. (See FACT SHEET ON THE GENOCIDE)

The Russian part of Armenia was revived as an independent state on May 28, 1918. This state did not last long but became caught between a resurgent Nationalist Turkey and a Bolshevik Russia. Thus Armenia, pressed between Turkish and Bolshevik armies, had to sign away much of its land, and even its independence, and was taken over by the Bolsheviks.

In many ways, Soviet rule was like a deep-freeze. All intellectual and political currents that ran counter to Communism were persecuted and repressed; however, Soviet rule did save Armenia from the Nationalist Turkish armies moving east in 1920, looking to complete what their Ottoman predecessors had done in Ottoman Armenia in 1915-6.

This deep-freeze burst open several years ago after Gorbachev's accession to the leadership of the Soviet Communist Party. Armenians demonstrated over the issues of Soviet misrule in Armenia and of Azeri repression of the civil rights of Armenians of Nagorno-Karabagh. (See FACT SHEET on NAGORNO-KARABAGH)

Finally, the devastating earthquake of December 7, 1988, which killed over 25,000 and left 500,000 homeless, became the focus in the Armenian national revival. While the worldþespecially the United Statesþsent in aid following the earthquake, the Soviet government did relatively little.

Current Issues:

• The United States should continue its political and economic aid to Armenia, for which the Armenians are most grateful.

• American aid encourages democracy and free enterprise in Armenia, and it brings the Armenians closer to America.

• Armenia has been blockaded by Azerbaijan, and to some extent by Turkey, since 1988. This blockade prevents Armenia from getting vital food and supplies from the outside world. Armenian industry is working at 30%, unemployment is near 80%, and food and heat are in short supply. The blockade must be ended so that Armenia can grow as an independent, democratic, free-market, pro-U.S. nation.

• The United States should make it clear to Azerbaijan that until the blockade of Armenia is ended and the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabagh are given their full civil and human rights, that the United States will not have full diplomatic and trade relations with Azerbaijan.