FACT
SHEET:
ARMENIA KNIGHTS OF VARTAN
ARMENIAN RESEARCH CENTER
The University of Michigan-Dearborn,
Dearborn, MI 48128
http://www.umd.umich.edu/dept/armenian
/facts/armenia.html
* 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.
Historical Overview:
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 neighborsțincluding 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.
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.
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.
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.
April 3, 1996
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