History History

In the South Caucasus, small kingdoms, including the Hayasa (from which Armenia may derive its name "Hayastan") form the Nairi Tribal Federation. These indigenous peoples, neither Semitic nor Indo-European, then form the kingdoms of Hourri and Mitanni.

Leaving Thrace, in the wake of the Indo-European peoples flooding into the Middle East, the Armenians left their Phrygian brothers in Asia Minor to settle in the South Caucasus.

Under the impulse of Hourri, the kingdom of Ourartou (to be brought closer to Ararat) became a regional power, which prospered around the capital Tushpa, near Van, despite incessant wars with Assyria. The fortress of Erébouni (Yerevan), founded by Arguishti I in 782 BC, bears witness to a flourishing society, closely linked to the great civilizations of the time. Destabilized by the waves of Indo-European invaders, Scythians, Cimmerians and finally Medes, who dominated the region, Ourartou disappeared in a confusion that would have benefited the Armenians, while the Persians took over their Medes cousins.

The first mention of the Armenians appears engraved in cuneiform characters on the "Rock of Behistûn" (Iran) by the Persian king Darius I, who ranked "Armîniya" among the vassal nations of the Achaemenid Persian Empire.

The first Ervantian kings rank as mere satraps in Achaemenid Persia. Iranisation was slowed down by the victory of Alexander the Great (331-323) over the Achaemenids, which was decisive for Armenia. His heirs, the Seleucids, left the kings of Armenia an autonomy synonymous with Hellenization. In the 4th century, the country was divided between Minor Armenia, west of the Euphrates, which was very Hellenized, and Greater Armenia, to the east, developing a more marked Armenian identity.

This identity was affirmed in the 2nd century, in an Armenia unified by the Artaxiad dynasty, which wrote the most glorious pages of Armenia with Tigranius II (95-55) the Great, who gave it its greatest extension, from Minor Armenia to Cappadocia and Phoenicia. Moved south, the prosperous capital, Tigranakert (Diyarbakir), attracted thousands of settlers from all over the world. Initially allied with the Romans, Armenia becomes all the more troublesome as their sworn enemy, the king of the Mithridates Bridge, communicates his ambitions to his son-in-law Tigran. Defeated by Pompey, Tigrane renounced his conquests and accepted the Roman protectorate over Great Armenia.

The Rhandeia Agreement (63 AD), between Rome and Persia, once again a power with the arsacid dynasty of the Iranian Parthians, placed an arsacid Parthian on the Armenian throne, subservient to Rome. The first Armenian arsacid king Trdat I was invested by Nero in 66. The Armenian Arsacids chose Rome when the Parthians of Persia were overthrown by the Sassanians (224-651), eager to impose Nazism ... and the West when Trdat III (298-330) converted to Christianity, in 301! The resistance of the paganism supported by the Sassanides caused unrest, which the Romans and Persians took advantage of to divide Armenia (387): in the West, the Romano-Byzantine tutelage, now Christian, resulted in a policy of assimilation; in the East, the Persians hostile to Christianity caused the fall of the Armenian Arsacids in 428.

Endowed with an alphabet since 406, the divided nation asserts its identity at the battle of Avaraïr, pitting the Persian army against the troops of Vartan Mamikonian. The Armenians are defeated, but Persia renounces the imposition of Nazism. Absent from the Council of Chalcedon (451), where the theologians gathered by Byzantium defined the true nature of Christ, the Armenian clergy will challenge the conclusions in 552, thus affirming its specificity in the Christian world.

The independence of the Armenian Church, behind a Catholicos, based in Echmiadzin, preserved the Armenians from the assimilation efforts of the Church of Byzantium, but isolated them when the Muslim Arabs conquered the region in the 7th century. In comparison with the Byzantines, who undermined the feudal system of the nakharars in the provinces they controlled, the yoke of the Persian-Mazdean and their Arab successors was almost less heavy. And Arab domination cements the great feudal families, putting an end to the political fragmentation that plagued Armenia.

Two families dominate Armenia, the Bagratouni in the north and the Ardzrouni in the south. The monarchy was reborn in the north with Achot the Great (884-890), recognized as king by the Caliph of Baghdad and then by the Emperor of Byzantium. The Bagratides, invested "king of kings", attracted the Catholicos to Ani (Turkey, left bank of the Akhurian), their capital since 961. Surrounded by powerful walls, the city "with a thousand and one churches", an obligatory stopover on the Silk Road, testifies to the power of a monarchy that overcame feudal divisions. The Ardzrouni princes of Vaspourakan, between the lakes of Van and Ourmiah, recognized the primacy of the Bagratides, while sparing Baghdad and Byzantium.

Coming from Central Asia, the Turks are upsetting the regional balance. However, the Byzantines seized Ani (1048), weakening the Armenians. Its military elite moved into Greek territory, Armenia, now Byzantine, was overwhelmed by Turkish horsemen, who took Ani (1064). By breaking the Armenian royalty, Byzantium made a mistake - a betrayal, according to the Armenians - for which it will pay dearly: in 1071, the Byzantine disaster at Manazkert submits Armenia to the Turks and opens up to them Asia Minor and Constantinople, conquered in 1453.

Taking advantage of the void left by Byzantium in Cilicia, on the Mediterranean, Armenians fleeing the Turks created a new state there, which would become a regional and maritime power in the wake of the Crusades. Alliances with the Norman princes of Antioch enabled him to resist the reconquest efforts of Byzantium and the Turks. Levon I (1187-1219) contributes to the fame of Cilicia in the West, and is crowned king in 1198 by the legates of the pope and the Germanic emperor, restoring royalty after 150 years. A rival dynasty inaugurated by Hetum I (1226-1269) renews the alliances with the Franks, and even composes with the Mongols. But the defeat of the kingdom of Acre against the Mamelukes of Egypt (1291) signals the loss of Cilicia, the Mongols of Persia having chosen Islam. Cilicia is dying, under the authority of the princes of the Poitevin house of Lusignan, who reigned in Cyprus, whose last king, Leo V Lusignan (1373-1375) capitulated before the Mamluks. He died in 1393 in Paris and is buried in the basilica of Saint-Denis.

In Greater Armenia, protected by Georgia and its legendary Queen Thamar, brothers Ivane and Zakare liberated Ayrarat, Siunia (now Armenia) and Artsakh (Karabagh). Brilliant strategists, the Zakarians took over from the Turks Kars and Ani, who regained their splendour. But the Mongol invasion brought the kings of Georgia and their Armenian vassals under the tutelage of the khans of Persia in the 14th century. The Armenians continued their exodus to the Crimea and Poland.

Devastated by the hordes of Tamerlanes in the 15th century, then by the wars between Ottoman Turks and Sephardic Persians, who fought over the country in the 16th and 17th centuries, Armenia withdrew around Etchmiadzin, the ferment of a patriotic feeling that was awakened in the 17th century, with the Armenians' hold on trade from East to West. Deported from Nakhichevan to Isfahan (1603-1605) by Shah Abbas I, the Armenians of Julfa founded a powerful colony there, the nerve centre of this trade. From Western trading posts to China, this network of merchants circulated new ideas, which were to germinate in Constantinople, where an Armenian elite was in charge of the sultans' finances, while Great Armenia was bowing under the Muslim yoke. Armenian notables were working for a crusade of Louis XIV and the Pope against the Turks. But the time for crusades is over, and hopes are pinned on Russia, whose soldiers enter Baku in 1722, taking advantage of the weakening of Persia against the Ottomans; in Karabagh, the Armenian melikhs resist the Persians until the retreat of the Russians in 1730.

The installation in Venice of the Mkhitarist congregation, founded by Mekhitar of Sebaste, an Armenian priest converted to Catholicism, contributed to the cultural renaissance, with communities from Constantinople to Madras putting the printing press at the service of national emancipation.

Following treaties with Persia, Russia annexed the Persian khanate of Elizabetpol (Azerbaijan) with the Armenians of Karabakh, then the khanates of Yerevan and Nakhichevan (1828), a two-stage integration from which the Karabakh conflict arose. Russia poses as a defender of the Eastern Christians, causing tensions with the Ottomans and the other Powers.

Under pressure from the Powers, the Ottoman Empire initiated reforms to improve the lot of Christians. Despite the Treaty of Berlin in 1878, the situation of the Armenians worsened, prompting them to form parties and to arm themselves. After the Armenian massacres of 1894-1896 of the "Red Sultan" Abdul Hamid, the Young Turkish Revolution of 1908 gave rise to the Adana massacres and strengthened Turkish nationalism, while Tsar Nicholas II took up the Armenian question.

The Ottomans' entry into the war on the side of Germany rejected the Armenians between the opposing camps. On April 24, 1915, the Young Turks launched a policy of extermination which, in three years, emptied Western Armenia of its Armenians, who were deported and massacred.

Alone against the Turks since the Russian Revolution of 1917 and Lenin's armistice with the Sultan, the Armenians defend Russian Armenia, which proclaimed its independence on May 28, 1918 on a devastated territory, which had taken in survivors of the genocide, and at war with the Azeris over Karabagh. In August 1920, the dying Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Sèvres, enshrining the independence of a territory equivalent to that of historic Armenia. Threatened by Kemal, who denounced this text, democratic Armenia accepted, in November 1920, the sovietization, but had to renounce Karabagh and Nakhitchevan, attributed to sovietized Azerbaijan. In 1923, the victors signed with the father of the Turkish Republic, Kemal, the Treaty of Lausanne, which annulled the Treaty of Sèvres and no longer mentioned an Armenian state.

The "smallest of the Soviet Socialist Republics" (SSR) follows the destiny of the USSR. Russification, collectivisation and industrialisation deprive a rural society of its landmarks, where the CP takes the place of the Church and the family. The purges of 1937 by Stalin constituted a peak of this violence. But when the Second World War broke out, Stalin appealed to the national feelings of the Armenians, 200,000 of whom perished on the various fronts. Although national identity was awakened during the gigantic demonstrations for the fiftieth anniversary of the genocide in Yerevan in 1965, the independentists remained marginal and Armenia was regarded as the most loyal of the SSR.

As a result of perestroika and glasnost, Armenians demonstrated massively in Yerevan for the annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh, an autonomous region of Azerbaijan populated by Armenians, from February 1988. The Kremlin called "niet" and in Azerbaijan, in March 1988, pogroms in Sumgait caused the exodus of 500,000 Armenians from the country over a period of two years. While the Armenians were organising resistance in Karabagh, Armenia was challenging the Soviet system, whose negligence was highlighted by the terrible earthquake in Leninakan (Gyumri) on 7 December 1988, which gave rise to a wave of international solidarity. The Karabagh Committee, a group of a dozen opponents, marginalizes the CP, against the backdrop of the disintegration of the USSR.

Armenia proclaimed its independence by referendum on 21 September 1991, and on 16 October elected its first President by universal suffrage, the orientalist Levon Ter-Petrossian, leader of the Karabagh Committee. As a member of the United Nations, Armenia draws closer to Russia. In May 1994, Armenia and Azerbaijan sign a ceasefire under the aegis of Russia: the Armenians control a large part of Nagorno-Karabakh - independent in 1991 - and the surrounding districts, ensuring territorial continuity with Armenia at the cost of a Turkish-Azeri blockade and shortages. Ter-Petrossian was re-elected in September 1996 on the basis of a challenge, but in September 1997, after reaching an agreement with Moscow on the presence of Russian bases in Armenia, he showed defeatism over Karabagh, provoking a crisis with his Prime Minister and former Karabagh president, Robert Kocharian.

Ter-Petrossian resigns in February 1998, and Kotcharian is elected President in March. He exalts solidarity with Karabagh, while continuing negotiations with Baku under the aegis of the OSCE Minsk Group. Destabilised by the attack of 27 October 1999 on the Parliament by a commando that killed eight high-ranking officials, Kocharian took over the reins of the Republican Party, which controls a Parliament where the oligarchs are making a strong entry. Re-elected in 2003, he prepares his succession by appointing his former Karabagh comrade-in-arms, Serge Sarkissian, as his successor.

In February 2008, the election of S. Sarkissian was contested by L. Ter-Petrossian, who claimed victory; the police charge against his supporters led to 10 deaths on¹ March 2008 in Yerevan, against the background of a state of emergency and arrests. S. Sarkissian amnesties the last political prisoners in 2011. Re-elected in 2013, he joined the Eurasian Union of Putin, and in December 2015 he won a referendum to approve the transformation of Armenia into a parliamentary republic, of which he would be^No. 1 at the end of his term in April 2018.

Sarkissian resigned on 23 April, six days after being elected prime minister, under pressure from the Velvet Revolution of journalist and opponent Nikol Pachinian. Pachinian was sworn in as Prime Minister after the December 2018 legislative elections which renewed a parliament from which the Republican Party was excluded. He led a merciless struggle against corruption and former officials, which was supposed to give birth to a more democratic "New Armenia".

Armenia was hit hard in the spring of 2020 by the coronavirus pandemic that shook its health system. The authorities decided in mid-March, like those of so many other countries, to close the borders and confine the inhabitants before a total decontainment from May 4, a measure which was too early and which caused a rebound in July. But while the sanitary measures seemed to have contained the epidemic, the war declared by Azerbaijan in the autumn of 2020 in Karabagh relegated the fight against covid to second place, which started to rise again at the beginning of 2021, threatening a hospital system saturated by the war's wounded. With 4,500 deaths recorded in July 2021, the authorities are slowly launching a vaccination campaign, which is encountering mistrust among the population.

Caught up in the Karabagh question, which he fanned by declaring in August 2019 in Stepanakert "Artsakh is Armenia!", N. Pachinian faces on September 27, 2020, a vast offensive by Azerbaijan, aided by Turkey and Syrian jihadists in its pay, with a view to reconquering Armenian territory. After 45 days of fighting that left at least 6,000 dead, the defeated Armenians accepted Putin's cease-fire on 9 November: they ceded Shushi and Hadrut in Karabagh to the Azeris, as well as the 7 neighbouring districts they had controlled since 1994. A Russian peacekeeping force ensures the security of Artsakh for at least 5 years, and also of the southern borders of Armenia, which the defeat has brought back to the forefront and whose layout dating from the Soviet era is contested by Baku, which holds dozens of Armenian prisoners hostage.

The capitulation has weakened N. Pachinian, whose resignation was demanded by demonstrators, rallied by army leaders in February 2021, but he was reappointed in the early legislative elections of 20 June 2021, which gave a half-hearted majority to his Civilian Contract party, ruling over a Parliament where the Opposition was represented by nationalist alliances led by former Presidents Kocharian and Sarkissian