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
- 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
- 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
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.
Armenia was later conquered by the Ottoman Turks. When the Ottoman
Empire declined it grew corrupt (and lost territory to many of its
neighbors■including 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
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 world■especially the
United States■sent in aid following the earthquake, the Soviet
government did relatively little.
April 3, 1996
- 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