{{country
|map=Txu-oclc-310605662-afghanistan rel 2008.jpg
|map2=Afghanistan location.png
|flag=Flag of Afghanistan.jpg
|capital=Kabul
|government=Islamic republic
|language=Dari, Pashto
|monarch=
|president=Ashraf Ghani
|chancellor=
|pm=
|area=652,230 sq. mi.
|pop=29,835,392
|pop-basis=2011
|gdp-year=$27.36 billion
|gdp-pc=
|currency=afghani
|idd=+93
|tld=.af
}}
'''Afghanistan''' ([[Pashto]]/[[Dari]]: افغانستان), officially the '''Islamic Republic of Afghanistan''',<ref>http://www.president.gov.af/</ref> is a landlocked country in [[South Asia]] which borders [[Pakistan]] to the south and east and [[Iran]] to the west. Afghanistan was the scene of the defeat of the [[Soviet Union]] in the [[Soviet-Afghan war]] of 1979-1988. In the 1990s an extremist Islamic [[Taliban]] movement took control and allowed Osama bin-Laden and his Al-Qaeda to operate there and plan the [[September 11, 2001 attacks]] on the U.S. An international invasion led by the U.S. overthrew the Taliban in 2001, but they have rebuilt strongholds in the south, along the Pakistan border, and have escalated the insurgency.

Elections for a new government held in summer 2009 were clouded by serious charges of irregularity. In September 2009 the issue was whether to expand the American military presence to engage in more nation building.

In Aug. 2009, General [[Stanley A. McChrystal]], the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, said the Afghan government was riddled with corruption and NATO was being undermined by tactics that alienate civilians. He called the Taliban insurgency "a muscular and sophisticated enemy" that uses modern propaganda and systematically reaches into Afghanistan's prisons to recruit members and even plan operations. He said official corruption is as much of a threat as the insurgency to the mission of the '''International Security Assistance Force''', or ISAF, as the U.S.-led NATO coalition is widely known. The weakness of state institutions, malign actions of power-brokers, widespread corruption and abuse of power by various officials, and ISAF's own errors, have given Afghans little reason to support their government," McChrystal reported.

McChrystal told Washington that he urgently needs more forces within the next year; without them, he warned, the eight-year conflict "will likely result in failure." By November no decision had been made on the urgent request.<ref>Bob Woodward, "McChrystal: More Forces or 'Mission Failure'' [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/20/AR2009092002920.html ''Washington Post,'' Sept 21, 2009]</ref>

For recent American and NATO involvement see [[Afghanistan War]]

The 2009 presidential election was badly tainted by fraud. Former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, the main opponent of President [[Hamid Karzai]], pulled out of the runoff in November, and Karzai was declared reelected for another five-year term. His legitimacy and support was seriously weakened by the election frauds, but the U.S., [[NATO]], and the [[United Nations|UN]] have agreed to keep him in power. Since 2014 Afghanistan is ruled by [[Ashraf Ghani]].

==Weaknesses==
The pro-Karzai Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazara Shiites and Uzbeks that form the ruling coalition are not united, and the government they dominate is extremely weak and poverty-stricken. The Afghan government controls only 30% of the country. The country is resource-poor—there is no oil—and the only rich resource is opium poppies. There is no educated base for a competent bureaucracy, and the army is little more than an amateur collection of tribal militias. 90% of the soldiers are illiterate, making them very hard to train to modern standards.
[[File:Destroyed village Afghanistan.jpg|right|280px]]
The rebels in the southern provinces come from the Pashtuns tribes, which form 44% of the population. Only a minority of Pashtuns support the rebels. The Taliban have a significant presence in many Pashtun villages, as well as a sanctuary in neighboring Pakistan. The number of armed insurgents has grown from 3,000 in 2006 to 15,000- 20,000 in 2009. They are locals who know the hiding places in the extremely difficult terrain, and receive protection support from some Pashtun tribes.

The Afghans have a 2500-year tradition of strongly distrusting—and fighting—armed outsiders.

Since 1978, Afghanistan has experienced an unprecedented demographic catastrophe, with millions killed, wounded, or displaced. The Soviet invasion and occupation slaughtered 1,750,000 Afghans (from a range of 1.5-2 million killed).<ref>“Communism in Afghanistan,” in Stephane Courtois, ed., The Black Book of Communism,
(Harvard University Press, 1999), p725</ref><ref>http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat2.htm#Afghanistan</ref> This is surely conservative when one considers all those killed by the Afghan Communists from 1978-92. The subsequent civil wars (89-92 and 92-96) resulted in the deaths of another 400,000 Afghans (according to the Christian Science Monitor), with at least 50,000 killed in Kabul alone.<ref>http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat2.htm#Afghanistan</ref> The Taliban seized power in 1996, and subsequently slaughtered hundreds of thousands. According to UNICEF figures, in 5 years of Taliban rule, over 600,000 Afghans died just from Taliban restrictions on access to healthcare for women (120,000 per year).<ref>New York Times, February 1, 2002</ref> The Taliban also executed tens of thousands throughout the country, and caused potentially scores of thousands of deaths through refusal to allow foreign aid and through miscellaneous "excess deaths." In all, the Taliban was likely responsible for over 750,000 deaths (150,000 per year) on top of nearly half a million in the civil war. The turmoil in Afghanistan from 1978-2001 killed nearly 3,000,000 Afghans, with 5,000,000 displaced.

== Geography ==

The country is known for its mountainous terrain. The huge Hindu Kush mountains form a barrier between the Northern provinces and the rest of the country. This mountain range has also divided Afghanistan int three very different geographic regions known as; The Central Highlands, The Northern Plains, and the Southwestern Plateau. The altitude, climate, and soil conditions in Afghanistan varies greatly on where in the country you are. [http://www.afghan-web.com/geography/lr.html]

==People==
[[File:Afghan girls.jpg|right|240px]]
Afghanistan's ethnically and linguistically mixed population reflects its location astride historic trade and invasion routes leading from Central Asia into South and Southwest Asia. While population data is somewhat unreliable for Afghanistan, Pashtuns make up the largest ethnic group at 38-44% of the population, followed by Tajiks (25%), Hazaras (10%), Uzbek (6-8%), Aimaq, Turkmen, Baluch, and other small groups. Dari (Afghan Farsi) and Pashto are official languages. Dari is spoken by more than one-third of the population as a first language and serves as a lingua franca for most Afghans, though Pashto is spoken throughout the Pashtun areas of eastern and southern Afghanistan. Tajik and Turkic languages are spoken widely in the north. Smaller groups throughout the country also speak more than 70 other languages and numerous dialects.

Afghanistan is an Islamic country. An estimated 80% of the population is Sunni, following the Hanafi school of jurisprudence; the remainder of the population—and primarily the Hazara ethnic group—predominantly Shi'a. Despite attempts during the years of communist rule to secularize Afghan society, Islamic practices pervade all aspects of life. In fact, Islam served as a principal basis for expressing opposition to communism and the Soviet invasion. Islamic religious tradition and codes, together with traditional tribal and ethnic practices, have an important role in personal conduct and dispute settlement. Afghan society is largely based on kinship groups, which follow traditional customs and religious practices, though somewhat less so in urban areas.

==Government and Political Conditions==
[[File:Inauguration of President Hamid Karzai Afghanistan.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Inauguration of former President Hamid Karzai, Dec. 7, 2004.]]
On October 9, 2004, Afghanistan held its first national democratic presidential election. More than 8 million Afghans voted, 41% of whom were women. Hamid Karzai was the winner and was inaugurated on December 7 for a five-year term as Afghanistan's first democratically elected president.

An election was held on September 18, 2005 for the “Wolesi Jirga” (lower house) of Afghanistan's new bicameral National Assembly and for the country's 34 provincial councils. Turnout for the election was about 53% of the 12.5 million registered voters. The first democratically elected National Assembly since 1969 was inaugurated on December 19, 2005.

The government's authority is weak; its ability to deliver necessary social services remains largely dependent on funds from the international donor community. Between 2001-2006, the United States committed over $12 billion to the reconstruction of Afghanistan. At an international donors' conference in Berlin in April 2004, donors pledged a total of $8.2 billion for Afghan reconstruction over the three-year period 2004-2007. At the end of January 2006, the international community gathered in London and renewed its political and reconstruction support for Afghanistan in the form of the Afghanistan Compact.

With international community support, including more than 40 countries participating in Operation Enduring Freedom and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the government's capacity to secure Afghanistan's borders to maintain internal order is increasing. Responsibility for security for all of Afghanistan was transferred to ISAF in October 2006. As of November 2006, some 40,000 Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers had been trained along with some 60,000 police, including border and highway police. American observers give them low marks for competence and loyalty to the national government.

A program called "Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration" (DDR) has also helped to further establish the authority of the Afghan central government by disarming 63,000 tribal militia by June 2006. A follow-on program targeting illegal militias, the Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG), was begun in 2005, under the joint auspices of Japan and the United Nations. The DIAG program is still ongoing.

In 2014 [[Ashraf Ghani]] was elected as new president of Afghanistan.

===Principal Government Officials===
*President--[[Ashraf Ghani]]
*First Vice President—Abdul Rashid Dostum
*Second Vice President--Sarwar Danesh
*Chief Executive Officer—Abdullah Abdullah
*Speaker of the House of Elders—Fazel Hadi Muslimyar
*First Deputy Speaker—Mohammad Alam Izdyar
*Second Deputy Speaker—Mohammad Asif Sediqi
*Speaker of the House of the People—Mir Rahman Rahmani
*First Deputy Speakers—Amir Khan Yar and Ahmad Shah Ramazan
*Secretary—Mirdad Khan Nejrabi
*Deputy Secretary—Irfanullah Irfan

===Foreign Relations===
[[File:Afghan RCD.gif|right]]
Before the Soviet invasion, Afghanistan pursued a policy of neutrality and nonalignment in its foreign relations. After the December 1979 invasion, Afghanistan's foreign policy mirrored that of the Soviet Union. Most Western countries, including the United States, maintained small diplomatic missions in Kabul during the Soviet occupation. Repeated Taliban efforts to occupy Afghanistan's seat at the UN and Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) were unsuccessful.

The fall of the Taliban in October 2001 opened a new chapter in Afghanistan's foreign relations. Afghanistan is now an active member of the international community, and has diplomatic relations with countries from around the world. In December 2002, the six nations that border Afghanistan signed a ‘Good Neighbor' Declaration, in which they pledged to respect Afghanistan's independence and territorial integrity. In 2005 Afghanistan and its South Asia neighbors held the first annual Regional Economic Cooperation Conference (RECC) promoting intra-regional relations and economic cooperation.

====Pakistan====
The 1978 Marxist coup strained relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistan took the lead diplomatically in the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference in opposing the Soviet occupation. During the war against the Soviet occupation, Pakistan served as the primary logistical conduit for the Afghan resistance. Pakistan initially developed close ties to the Taliban regime, and extended recognition in 1997. Pakistan dramatically altered its policy after September 11, 2001 by closing its border and downgrading its ties. Afghanistan and Pakistan are engaged in dialogue to resolve these bilateral issues.

====Iran====
Afghanistan's relations with Iran have fluctuated over the years, with periodic disputes over the water rights of the Helmand River as the main issue of contention. Following the Soviet invasion, which Iran opposed, relations deteriorated. Iran supported the cause of the Afghan resistance and provided financial and military assistance to rebel leaders who pledged loyalty to the Iranian vision of Islamic revolution. Iran still provides refuge to Afghan ex-patriots. Following the emergence of the Taliban and their harsh treatment of Afghanistan's Shi'a minority, Iran stepped up assistance to the Northern Alliance. Relations with the Taliban deteriorated further in 1998 after Taliban forces seized the Iranian consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif and executed Iranian diplomats. Since the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan's relations with Iran have improved. Iran has been active in Afghan reconstruction efforts, particularly in the western portion of the country.

====Russia====
During the reign of the Taliban, Russia became increasingly disenchanted over Taliban support for Chechen rebels and for providing a sanctuary for terrorist groups active in Central Asia and in Russia itself, and therefore provided military assistance to the Northern Alliance. Since the fall of the Taliban, the Karzai government has improved relations with Russia, but Afghanistan's outstanding foreign debt to Russia still continues to be a source of contention.

====Tajikistan====
Afghanistan's relations with Tajikistan have been complicated by political upheaval and civil war in Tajikistan, which spurred some 100,000 Tajiks to seek refuge in Afghanistan in late 1992 and early 1993. Also disenchanted by the Taliban's harsh treatment of Afghanistan's Tajik minority, Tajikistan facilitated assistance to the Northern Alliance. The Karzai government has sought to establish closer ties with its northern neighbor in order to capitalize on the potential economic benefits of increased trade.

====UN Efforts====
The United Nations was instrumental in obtaining a negotiated Soviet withdrawal under the terms of the 1988 Geneva Accords. In the aftermath of the Accords, the United Nations assisted in the repatriation of refugees and provided humanitarian aid such as food, health care, educational programs, and support for mine-clearing operations. From 1990-2001, the UN worked to promote a peaceful settlement between the Afghan factions as well as provide humanitarian aid. Since October 2001, the UN has played a key role in Afghanistan through the UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA), including spearheading efforts to organize the Afghan presidential elections held in October 2004 and National Assembly elections held in 2005.

===Relations with the United States===
The first extensive American contact with Afghanistan was made by Josiah Harlan, an adventurer from Pennsylvania who was an adviser in Afghan politics in the 1830s and reputedly inspired Rudyard Kipling's story "The Man Who Would be King." After the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1934, the U.S. policy of helping developing nations raise their standard of living was an important factor in maintaining and improving U.S.-Afghan ties. From 1950 to 1979, U.S. foreign assistance provided Afghanistan with more than $500 million in loans, grants, and surplus agricultural commodities to develop transportation facilities, increase agricultural production, expand the educational system, stimulate industry, and improve government administration.

In the 1950s, the U.S. declined Afghanistan's request for defense cooperation but extended an economic assistance program focused on the development of Afghanistan's physical infrastructure—roads, dams, and power plants. Later, U.S. aid shifted from infrastructure projects to technical assistance programs to help develop the skills needed to build a modern economy. The Peace Corps was active in Afghanistan between 1962 and 1979.
[[File:MI-35 helicopters Afghan Army Air Corps.jpg|thumb|270px|MI-35 helicopters Afghan Army Air Corps.]]
After the April 1978 coup, relations deteriorated. In February 1979, U.S. Ambassador Adolph "Spike" Dubs was murdered in Kabul after Afghan security forces burst in on his kidnapers. The U.S. then reduced bilateral assistance and terminated a small military training program. All remaining assistance agreements were ended after the December 1979 Soviet invasion.

Following the Soviet invasion, the United States supported diplomatic efforts to achieve a Soviet withdrawal. U.S. contributions to the refugee program in Pakistan played a major part in efforts to assist Afghans in need. This cross-border humanitarian assistance program aimed to increase Afghan self-sufficiency and help Afghans resist Soviet attempts to drive civilians out of the rebel-dominated countryside. During the period of Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the U.S. provided about $3 billion in military and economic assistance to Afghans and the resistance movement.

The U.S. supports the emergence of a broad-based government, representative of all Afghans and actively encourages a UN role in the national reconciliation process in Afghanistan. Today, the U.S. is assisting the Afghan people as they rebuild their country and establish a representative government that contributes to regional stability, is market friendly, and respects human rights. In May 2005, President Bush and President Karzai concluded a strategic partnership agreement committing both nations to a long-term relationship.

==Economy==
In the 1930s, Afghanistan embarked on a modest economic development program. The government founded banks; introduced paper money; established a university; expanded primary, secondary, and technical schools; and sent students abroad for education.

Historically, there has been a dearth of information and reliable statistics about Afghanistan's economy. The 1979 Soviet invasion and ensuing civil war destroyed much of the country's limited infrastructure and disrupted normal patterns of economic activity. Gross domestic product had fallen substantially because of loss of labor and capital and disruption of trade and transport. Continuing internal strife hampered both domestic efforts at reconstruction as well as international aid efforts. However, Afghanistan's economy has grown at a fast pace since the 2001 fall of the Taliban, albeit from a low base. In 2004, Afghanistan's GDP grew 17%, and in 2005 Afghanistan's GDP grew approximately 10%.

In June 2006, Afghanistan and the International Monetary Fund agreed on a Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility program for 2006-2009 that focuses on maintaining macroeconomic stability, boosting growth, and reducing poverty. Afghanistan is also rebuilding its banking infrastructure, through the Da Afghanistan National Bank. Several government-owned banks are also in the process of being privatized.

===Agriculture===
The main source of income in the country is agriculture, and during its good years, Afghanistan produces enough food and food products to provide for the people, as well as to create a surplus for export. The major food crops produced are: corn, rice, barley, wheat, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. In Afghanistan, industry is also based on agriculture, and pastoral raw materials. The major industrial crops are: cotton, tobacco, madder, castor beans, and sugar beets. The Afghan economy continues to be overwhelmingly agricultural, despite the fact that only 12% of its total land area is arable and less than 6% currently is cultivated. Agricultural production is constrained by an almost total dependence on erratic winter snows and spring rains for water; irrigation is primitive. Relatively little use is made of machines, chemical fertilizer, or pesticides.

Overall agricultural production dramatically declined following severe drought as well as sustained fighting, instability in rural areas, and deteriorated infrastructure. The easing of the drought and the end of civil war produced the largest wheat harvest in 25 years during 2003. Wheat production was an estimated 58% higher than in 2002. However, the country still needed to import an estimated one million tons of wheat to meet its requirements for the 2003 year. Millions of Afghans, particularly in rural areas, remained dependent on food aid.
[[File:Afghanistan opium.jpg|thumb|left|270px|Opium cultivation in Afghanistan.]]
Opium has become a source of cash for many Afghans, especially following the breakdown in central authority after the Soviet withdrawal, and opium-derived revenues probably constituted a major source of income for the two main factions during the civil war in the 1990s. Opium is easy to cultivate and transport and offers a quick source of income for impoverished Afghans. Afghanistan produced a record opium poppy crop in 2006, supplying 91% of the world's opium. Much of Afghanistan's opium production is refined into heroin and is either consumed by a growing regional addict population or exported, primarily to Western Europe.<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5308180.stm</ref>

Afghanistan has begun counter-narcotics programs, including the promotion of alternative livelihoods, public information campaigns, targeted eradication policies, interdiction of drug shipments, as well as law enforcement and justice reform programs. These programs were first implemented in late 2005. In June 2006, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that the Afghan Government eradicated over 15,000 hectares of opium poppy.
{{Clear}}

===Trade and Industry===
Afghanistan is endowed with natural resources, including extensive deposits of [[natural gas]], [[petroleum]], [[coal]], [[copper]], [[chromite]], [[talc]], [[barite]]s, [[sulfur]], [[lead]], [[zinc]], [[iron ore]], [[salt]], and precious and semiprecious stones. Unfortunately, ongoing instability in certain areas of the country, remote and rugged terrain, and inadequate infrastructure and transportation network have made mining these resources difficult, and there have been few serious attempts to further explore or exploit them. Coal deposits have been widely exploited.

The most important resource has been natural gas, first tapped in 1967. At their peak during the 1980s, natural gas sales accounted for $300 million a year in export revenues (56% of the total). Ninety percent of these exports went to the Soviet Union to pay for imports and debts. However, during the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989, Afghanistan's natural gas fields were capped to prevent sabotage by the mujahidin. Restoration of gas production has been hampered by internal strife and the disruption of traditional trading relationships following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Trade in smuggled goods into Pakistan once constituted a major source of revenue for Afghan regimes, including the Taliban, and still figures as an important element in the Afghan economy, although efforts are underway to formalize this trade.

===Transportation===
In the 1960s, the United States helped build a highway connecting Afghanistan's two largest cities. It began in Kabul and wound its way through five of the country's core provinces—skirting scores of isolated and otherwise inaccessible villages; passing through the ancient market city of Ghazni; descending through Qalat; and eventually reaching Kandahar, founded by Alexander the Great. More than 35% of the country's population lives within 50 kilometers of this highway, called, appropriately, modern Afghanistan's lifeline. In 1978, the Soviet Union invaded. By the time its forces withdrew more than a decade later, more than 1 million Afghans had been killed and 5 million had fled. Civil war followed. The Taliban emerged, controlling all but the remote, northern regions. Afghanistan was terrorized by this group, which was dogmatically opposed to progress and democracy. More than two decades of war had left the Kabul-Kandahar highway devastated, like much of the country's infrastructure. Little could move along the lifeline that had provided so many Afghans with their means of livelihood and their access to healthcare, education, markets, and places of worship.

'''Reviving the Road''': Restoration of the highway has been an overriding priority of President Hamid Karzai. It is crucial to extending the influence of the new government. Without the highway link, Afghanistan's civil society and economy would remain moribund and prey to divisive forces. The economic development that the highway makes possible will help guarantee the unity and long-term security of the Afghan people. The restored highway is a visually impressive achievement whose symbolic importance should not be underestimated. It marks a palpable transition from the recent past and represents an important building block for the future. Recently, an official in Herat likened the ring road to veins and arteries that nourish and bring life to the "heart" of Kabul and the body of the country. The highway will not end in Kandahar: there are plans to complete the circuit, extending it to Herat and then arcing it back through Mazar-e Sharif to Kabul. The route is sometimes referred to as the Ring Road. As of December 2006, three-quarters of the Ring Road had been funded, with plans to be completed in 2007.

Landlocked Afghanistan has no functioning railways, but the Amu Darya (Oxus) River, which forms part of Afghanistan's border with Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, has barge traffic. During their occupation of the country, the Soviets completed a bridge across the Amu Darya. The United States, in partnership with Norway, has agreed to reconstruct this bridge, which will stretch more than 650 meters over the Amu Darya/Pyandzh River between Afghanistan and Tajikistan, near Pyanji Poyon (Tajikistan) and Shir Khan Bandar (Afghanistan). The bridge is set for completion in 2007.

Afghanistan's national airline, Ariana, operates domestic and international routes, including flights to New Delhi, Islamabad, Dubai, Moscow, Istanbul, Tehran, and Frankfurt. A private carrier, Kam Air, commenced domestic operations in November 2003. Many sections of Afghanistan's highway and regional road system are undergoing significant reconstruction. The U.S. (with assistance from Japan) completed building a highway linking Kabul to the southern regional capital, Kandahar. Construction is soon to begin on the next phase of highway reconstruction between Kandahar and the western city of Herat. The Asian Development Bank is also active in road development projects, mainly in the border areas with Pakistan.

==Humanitarian Relief==
Many nations have assisted in a great variety of humanitarian and development projects all across Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. The United Nations, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and other international agencies have also given aid. Schools, clinics, water systems, agriculture, sanitation, government buildings and roads are being repaired or built.

===De-mining===
Afghanistan is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world; mine-related injuries number up to 100 per month, and an estimated 200,000 Afghans have been disabled by landmine/unexploded ordinances (UXO) accidents. As of March 2005 the United Nations Mine Action Program for Afghanistan had approximately 8,000 Afghan personnel, 700 demobilized soldiers, 22 international staff, and several NGOs deployed in Afghanistan. The goal of the program is to remove the impact of mines from all high-impact areas by 2007 and to make Afghanistan mine-free by 2012. Between January 2003 and March 2005 a total of 2,354,244 mines and pieces of UXOs were destroyed. Training programs are also being used to educate the public about the threat and dangers of land mines. The number of mine victims was reduced from approximately 150 a month in 2002 to less than 100 a month in 2004.

===Refugees and Internally Displaced People===
Afghanistan has had the largest refugee repatriation in the world in the last 30 years. The return of refugees is guided by the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation (MORR) and supported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), International Organization of Migration (IOM), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Program (WFP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and a number of other national and international NGOs. As of December 2006, approximately 3 million Afghans remained in neighboring countries. The U.S. provided more than $350 million to support Afghan refugees, returnees, and other conflict victims between September 2001 and March 2006. Since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, the country's non-opium economy has grown significantly and has allowed approximately 3 million people to return home.<ref>http://www.control-risks.com/default.aspx?page=605</ref>

===Health===
In response to a strategy outlined by the Ministry of Health, the international community is supporting the government in rebuilding the primary health-care system. Tuberculosis remains a serious public health problem in Afghanistan. Since this strategy was outlined, the Afghan Government with support from the World Health Organization (WHO) has established 162 health facilities in 141 districts across the country. The treatment success rate in 2002 was 86%. WHO is also assisting the Ministry of Health and local health authorities to combat malaria where the disease is widespread. Through this project, 600,000 individuals are receiving full treatment for malaria every year. In addition 750,000 individuals are protected from malaria by sleeping under special nets provided under the project.

===Education===
There were 45,000 children enrolled in school in 1993, 19% were girls. The latest official statistics show there are now 64,000 children in school, one third are girls. In addition 29% of the teachers in the province are women, compared with 15% in 1993. Effort is being made to ensure that teachers receive salaries on time and increasing the attendance of girls in school. The total enrollment rate for Afghan children between 7 and 13 years of age has increased to 54% (67% for boys and 37% for girls). A number of factors such as distance to schools, poor facilities and lack of separate schooling for boys and girls continue to be challenges to higher enrollment.

==History==
[[File:Friday - Mosque Afghanistan.jpg|thumb|260px|Friday-Mosque.]]
Afghanistan, often called the crossroads of Central Asia, has had a turbulent history. In 328 BC, Alexander the Great entered the territory of present-day Afghanistan, then part of the Persian Empire, to capture Bactria (present-day Balkh). Invasions by the Scythians, White Huns, and Turks followed in succeeding centuries. In AD 642, Arabs invaded the entire region and introduced Islam.

Arab rule gave way to the Persians, who controlled the area until conquered by the Turkic Ghaznavids in 998. Mahmud of Ghazni (998-1030) consolidated the conquests of his predecessors and turned Ghazni into a great cultural center as well as a base for frequent forays into India. Following Mahmud's short-lived dynasty, various princes attempted to rule sections of the country until the destructive Mongol invasion of 1219 led by Genghis Khan.

Following Genghis Khan's death in 1227, a succession of petty chiefs and princes struggled for supremacy until late in the 14th century, when one of his descendants, Tamerlane, incorporated Afghanistan into his own vast Asian empire. Babur, a descendant of Tamerlane and the founder of India's Moghul dynasty at the beginning of the 16th century, made Kabul the capital of an Afghan principality.

In 1747, Ahmad Shah Durrani, the founder of what is known today as Afghanistan, established his rule. A Pashtun, Durrani was elected king by a tribal council after the assassination of the Persian ruler Nadir Shah at Khabushan in the same year. Throughout his reign, Durrani consolidated chieftainships, petty principalities, and fragmented provinces into one country. His rule extended from Mashad in the west to Kashmir and Delhi in the east, and from the Amu Darya (Oxus) River in the north to the Arabian Sea in the south.

===European Influence===
During the 19th century, collision between the expanding British Empire in the subcontinent and czarist Russia significantly influenced Afghanistan in what was termed "The Great Game." British concern over Russian advances in Central Asia and growing influence in Persia culminated in two Anglo-Afghan wars. The first (1839–42) resulted not only in the destruction of a British army, but is remembered today as an example of the ferocity of Afghan resistance to foreign rule. The second Anglo-Afghan war (1878–80) was sparked by Amir Sher Ali's refusal to accept a British mission in Kabul. This conflict brought Amir Abdur Rahman to the Afghan throne. During his reign (1880-1901), the British and Russians officially established the boundaries of what would become modern Afghanistan through the demarcation of the Durand Line. The British retained effective control over Kabul's foreign affairs.

Afghanistan remained neutral during World War I, despite German encouragement of anti-British feelings and Afghan rebellion along the borders of British India. The Afghan king's policy of neutrality was not universally popular within the country, however.

Habibullah, Abdur Rahman's son and successor, was assassinated in 1919, possibly by family members opposed to British influence. His third son, Amanullah, regained control of Afghanistan's foreign policy after launching the third Anglo-Afghan war with an attack on India in the same year. During the ensuing conflict, the war-weary British relinquished their control over Afghan foreign affairs by signing the Treaty of Rawalpindi in August 1919. In commemoration of this event, Afghans celebrate August 19 as their Independence Day.

===Reform and Reaction===
King Amanullah (1919–29) moved to end his country's traditional isolation in the years following the third Anglo-Afghan war. He established diplomatic relations with most major countries and, following a 1927 tour of Europe and Turkey—during which he noted the modernization and secularization advanced by Atatürk—introduced several reforms intended to modernize Afghanistan. Some of these, such as the abolition of the traditional Muslim veil for women and the opening of a number of co-educational schools, quickly alienated many tribal and religious leaders. Faced with overwhelming armed opposition, Amanullah was forced to abdicate in January 1929 after Kabul fell to forces led by Bacha-i-Saqao, a Tajik brigand. Prince Nadir Khan, a cousin of Amanullah's, in turn defeated Bacha-i-Saqao in October of the same year and, with considerable Pashtun tribal support, was declared King Nadir Shah. Four years later, however, he was assassinated in a revenge killing by a Kabul student.

Mohammad Zahir Shah, Nadir Khan's 19-year-old son, succeeded to the throne and reigned from 1933 to 1973. In 1964, King Zahir Shah promulgated a liberal constitution providing for a two-chamber legislature to which the king appointed one-third of the deputies. The people elected another third, and the remainder were selected indirectly by provincial assemblies. Although Zahir's "experiment in democracy" produced few lasting reforms, it permitted the growth of unofficial extremist parties on both the left and the right. These included the communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), which had close ideological ties to the Soviet Union. In 1967, the PDPA split into two major rival factions: the Khalq (Masses) faction headed by Nur Muhammad Taraki and Hafizullah Amin and supported by elements within the military, and the Parcham (Banner) faction led by Babrak Karmal. The split reflected ethnic, class, and ideological divisions within Afghan society.

Zahir's cousin, Sardar Mohammad Daoud, served as his Prime Minister from 1953 to 1963. During his tenure as Prime Minister, Daoud solicited military and economic assistance from both Washington and Moscow and introduced controversial social policies of a reformist nature. Daoud's alleged support for the creation of a Pashtun state in the Pakistan-Afghan border area heightened tensions with Pakistan and eventually resulted in Daoud's dismissal in March 1963.

===Daoud's Republic (1973-78) and the April 1978 Coup===
Amid charges of corruption and malfeasance against the royal family and poor economic conditions created by the severe 1971-72 drought, former Prime Minister Daoud seized power in a military coup on July 17, 1973. Zahir Shah fled the country, eventually finding refuge in Italy. Daoud abolished the monarchy, abrogated the 1964 constitution, and declared Afghanistan a republic with himself as its first President and Prime Minister. His attempts to carry out badly needed economic and social reforms met with little success, and the new constitution promulgated in February 1977 failed to quell chronic political instability.

Seeking to exploit more effectively mounting popular disaffection, the PDPA reunified with Moscow's support. On April 27, 1978, the PDPA initiated a bloody coup, which resulted in the overthrow and murder of Daoud and most of his family. Nur Muhammad Taraki, Secretary General of the PDPA, became President of the Revolutionary Council and Prime Minister of the newly established Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
===Afghanistan War===
see also [[Afghanistan War]]

Opposition to the Marxist government emerged almost immediately. During its first 18 months of rule, the PDPA brutally imposed a Marxist-style "reform" program, which ran counter to deeply rooted Afghan traditions. Decrees forcing changes in marriage customs and pushing through an ill-conceived land reform were particularly misunderstood by virtually all Afghans. In addition, thousands of members of the traditional elite, the religious establishment, and the intelligentsia were imprisoned, tortured, or murdered. Conflicts within the PDPA also surfaced early and resulted in exiles, purges, imprisonments, and executions.

By the summer of 1978, a revolt began in the Nuristan region of eastern Afghanistan and quickly spread into a countrywide insurgency. In September 1979, Hafizullah Amin, who had earlier been Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, seized power from Taraki after a palace shootout. Over the next 2 months, instability plagued Amin's regime as he moved against perceived enemies in the PDPA. By December, party morale was crumbling, and the insurgency was growing.

===The Soviet Invasion===
The Soviet Union moved quickly to take advantage of the April 1978 coup. In December 1978, Moscow signed a new bilateral treaty of friendship and cooperation with Afghanistan, and the Soviet military assistance program increased significantly. The regime's survival increasingly was dependent upon Soviet military equipment and advisers as the insurgency spread and the Afghan army began to collapse.

By October 1979, however, relations between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union were tense as Hafizullah Amin refused to take Soviet advice on how to stabilize and consolidate his government. Faced with a deteriorating security situation, on December 24, 1979, large numbers of Soviet airborne forces, joining thousands of Soviet troops already on the ground, began to land in Kabul under the pretext of a field exercise. On December 26, these invasion forces killed Hafizullah Amin and installed Babrak Karmal, exiled leader of the Parcham faction, bringing him back from Czechoslovakia and making him Prime Minister. Massive Soviet ground forces invaded from the north on December 27.

Following the invasion, the Karmal regime, although backed by an expeditionary force that grew as large as 120,000 Soviet troops, was unable to establish authority outside Kabul. As much as 80% of the countryside, including parts of Herat and Kandahar, eluded effective government control. An overwhelming majority of Afghans opposed the communist regime, either actively or passively. Afghan freedom fighters (mujahidin) made it almost impossible for the regime to maintain a system of local government outside major urban centers. Poorly armed at first, in 1984 the mujahidin began receiving substantial assistance in the form of weapons and training from the U.S. and other outside powers.

In May 1985, the seven principal Peshawar-based guerrilla organizations formed an alliance to coordinate their political and military operations against the Soviet occupation. Late in 1985, the mujahidin were active in and around Kabul, launching rocket attacks and conducting operations against the communist government. The failure of the Soviet Union to win over a significant number of Afghan collaborators or to rebuild a viable Afghan army forced it to bear an increasing responsibility for fighting the resistance and for civilian administration.

<blockquote>
In the mid-nineteen-eighties, when [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] came to power in the Soviet Union, he inherited a deteriorating war in Afghanistan. He wanted out but he was boxed in by hardliners in his Politburo and military. Gradually, however, he constructed an exit strategy from Afghanistan. [http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/stevecoll/2009/09/gorbachev-was-right.html]
</blockquote>

Soviet and popular displeasure with the Karmal regime led to its demise in May 1986. Karmal was replaced by Muhammad Najibullah, former chief of the Afghan secret police (KHAD). Najibullah had established a reputation for brutal efficiency during his tenure as KHAD chief. As Prime Minister, Najibullah was ineffective and highly dependent on Soviet support. Undercut by deep-seated divisions within the PDPA, regime efforts to broaden its base of support proved futile.

===The Geneva Accords and Their Aftermath===
By the mid-1980s, the tenacious Afghan resistance movement—aided by the United States, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and others—was exacting a high price from the Soviets, both militarily within Afghanistan and by souring the U.S.S.R.'s relations with much of the Western and Islamic world. Informal negotiations for a Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan had been underway since 1982. In 1988, the Governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan, with the United States and Soviet Union serving as guarantors, signed an agreement settling the major differences between them. The agreement, known as the Geneva accords, included five major documents, which, among other things, called for U.S. and Soviet noninterference in the internal affairs of Pakistan and Afghanistan, the right of refugees to return to Afghanistan without fear of persecution or harassment, and, most importantly, a timetable that ensured full Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan by February 15, 1989. About 14,500 Soviet and an estimated one million Afghan lives were lost between 1979 and the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.

Significantly, the mujahidin were party neither to the negotiations nor to the 1988 agreement and, consequently, refused to accept the terms of the accords. As a result, the civil war continued after the Soviet withdrawal, which was completed in February 1989. Najibullah's regime, though failing to win popular support, territory, or international recognition, was able to remain in power until 1992 but collapsed after the defection of Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostam and his Uzbek militia in March. However, when the victorious mujahidin entered Kabul to assume control over the city and the central government, a new round of internecine fighting began between the various militias, which had coexisted only uneasily during the Soviet occupation. With the demise of their common enemy, the militias' ethnic, clan, religious, and personality differences surfaced, and the civil war continued.

Seeking to resolve these differences, the leaders of the Peshawar-based mujahidin groups established an interim Islamic Jihad Council in mid-April 1992 to assume power in Kabul. Moderate leader Prof. Sibghatullah Mojaddedi was to chair the council for 2 months, after which a 10-member leadership council composed of mujahidin leaders and presided over by the head of the Jamiat-i-Islami, Prof. Burhanuddin Rabbani, was to be set up for 4 months. During this 6-month period, a Loya Jirga, or grand council of Afghan elders and notables, would convene and designate an interim administration which would hold power up to a year, pending elections.

But in May 1992, Rabbani prematurely formed the leadership council, undermining Mojaddedi's fragile authority. In June, Mojaddedi surrendered power to the Leadership Council, which then elected Rabbani as President. Nonetheless, heavy fighting broke out in August 1992 in Kabul between forces loyal to President Rabbani and rival factions, particularly those who supported Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-i-Islami. After Rabbani extended his tenure in December 1992, fighting in the capital flared up in January and February 1993. The Islamabad Accord, signed in March 1993, which appointed Hekmatyar as Prime Minister, failed to have a lasting effect. A follow-up agreement, the Jalalabad Accord, called for the militias to be disarmed but was never fully implemented. Through 1993, Hekmatyar's Hezb-i-Islami forces, allied with the Shi'a Hezb-i-Wahdat militia, clashed intermittently with Rabbani and Masood's Jamiat forces. Cooperating with Jamiat were militants of Sayyaf's Ittehad-i-Islami and, periodically, troops loyal to ethnic Uzbek strongman Abdul Rashid Dostam. On January 1, 1994, Dostam switched sides, precipitating large-scale fighting in Kabul and in northern provinces, which caused thousands of civilian casualties in Kabul and elsewhere and created a new wave of displaced persons and refugees. The country sank even further into anarchy, forces loyal to Rabbani and Masood, both ethnic Tajiks, controlled Kabul and much of the northeast, while local warlords exerted power over the rest of the country.

===The Taliban===
The Taliban had risen to power in the mid 90's in reaction to the anarchy and warlordism that arose after the withdrawal of Soviet forces. Many Taliban had been educated in madrassas in Pakistan and were largely from rural southern Pashtun backgrounds. In 1994, the Taliban developed enough strength to capture the city of Kandahar from a local warlord and proceeded to expand its control throughout Afghanistan, occupying Kabul in September 1996. By the end of 1998, the Taliban occupied about 90% of the country, limiting the opposition largely to a small mostly Tajik corner in the northeast and the Panjshir valley.

The Taliban sought to impose an extreme interpretation of Islam—based upon the rural Pashtun tribal code—on the entire country and committed massive human rights violations, particularly directed against women and girls. The Taliban also committed serious atrocities against minority populations, particularly the Shi'a Hazara ethnic group, and killed noncombatants in several well-documented instances. In 2001, as part of a drive against relics of Afghanistan's pre-Islamic past, the Taliban destroyed two Buddha statues carved into cliff faces outside of the city of Bamiyan.

From the mid-1990s the Taliban provided sanctuary to Osama bin Laden, a Saudi national who had fought with the mujahideen resistance against the Soviets, and provide a base for his and other terrorist organizations. Bin Laden provided both financial and political support to the Taliban. Bin Laden and his Al-Qaida group were charged with the bombing of the U.S. Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998, and in August 1998 the United States launched a cruise missile attack against bin Laden's terrorist camp in southeastern Afghanistan. Bin Laden and Al-Qaida have acknowledged their responsibility for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States.
[[Image:Afghanistan violence.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Journalist Jenny Hoff, 2007.]]
Following the Taliban's repeated refusal to expel bin Laden and his group and end its support for international terrorism, the U.S. and its partners in the anti-terrorist coalition began a military campaign on October 7, 2001, targeting terrorist facilities and various Taliban military and political assets within Afghanistan. Under pressure from U.S. military and anti-Taliban forces, the Taliban disintegrated rapidly, and Kabul fell on November 13, 2001.

Afghan factions opposed to the Taliban met at a United Nations-sponsored conference in Bonn, Germany in December 2001 and agreed to restore stability and governance to Afghanistan—creating an interim government and establishing a process to move toward a permanent government. Under the "Bonn Agreement," an Afghan Interim Authority was formed and took office in Kabul on December 22, 2001 with Hamid Karzai as Chairman. The Interim Authority held power for approximately 6 months while preparing for a nationwide "Loya Jirga" (Grand Council) in mid-June 2002 that decided on the structure of a Transitional Authority. The Transitional Authority, headed by President Hamid Karzai, renamed the government as the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan (TISA). One of the TISA's primary achievements was the drafting of a constitution that was ratified by a Constitutional Loya Jirga on January 4, 2004.

==See also==
* [[Soviet-Afghan War]]
* [[Afghanistan War]]
* [[Big government]] [[Welfare state]] leads to [[socialist]] [[Nanny state]], leads to [[communist]] [[Police state]] - Don't think [[Communism]] is incompatible with [[Islam]].
* [[Gun control]] - key element to create a police state
* [[Asian painting]]
{{Clear}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.afghan-web.com/ Afghanistan Online.]
* [http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/02/2674562.htm Afghan opium crop in decline.]

==Further reading==
* Jones, Seth. ''In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan'' (2009) [https://www.amazon.com/Graveyard-Empires-Americas-War-Afghanistan/dp/0393068986/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253093556&sr=1-3 excerpt and text search]

===America's role in their defeat===

The book ''[[Horse Soldiers]]'' describes the previously secret 5-week campaign, materially aided by the [[CIA]] and [[Special Forces]]. [http://features.csmonitor.com/books/2009/09/08/horse-soldiers/]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Copyright Details (US Government)}}

Source = [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5380.htm]

{{Asian Countries}}
[[Category:Afghanistan]]
[[Category:Landlocked Countries]]
[[Category:Muslim-Majority Countries]]
[[Category:Cold War]]
[[Category:British Empire]]
[[Category:Afghanistan War]]

{{Terrorism}}

[[Category:Middle Eastern Countries]]
[[Category:Islam]]
[[Category:Terrorism]]
[[Category:Police State]]
[[Category:Gun Control]]
[[Category:Oppression]]

Armenia

2019-10-19T17:56:22Z

RamK: update

{{Country
|name =''Հայաստանի Հանրապետություն Hayastani Hanrapetowt’yown''
|map =Armenia rel 2002.jpg
|flag =Flag of Armenia.jpg
|arms =Arms of Armenia.png
|capital =Yerevan
|capital-raw =
|government =Republic
|government-raw =
|language =Armenian language
|king =
|queen =
|monarch-raw =
|president =Armen Sarkissian
|president-raw =
|chancellor =
|chancellor-raw =
|pm =Nikol Pashinyan
|pm-raw =
|area =11,506 sq mi
|pop =3,215,800 (2005)
|pop-basis =
|gdp =
|gdp-year =$14.17 billion (2005)
|gdp-pc =$4,270 (2005)
|currency =Dram
|idd =
|tld =
}}
'''Armenia''' is a small, rugged, mountainous, landlocked nation in the Caucasus, the crossroads of [[Europe]] and [[Asia]], which gained its independence in the breakup of the [[Soviet Union]] in 1989. Although it is in Asia geographically (located on the Asian side of the Caucasus, the Border between Europe and Asia), it is considered European because of its strong and ancient links with [[Europe]]. Present-day Armenia comprises Eastern Armenia, only half the historic homeland. The Armenians in Western Armenia, with its iconic Mount Ararat, were driven out and mostly killed by the [[Ottoman Empire]] in 1915 in a genocide that to this day chills relations between Armenia and Turkey. In addition, many Armenians live in other countries, in the "Armenian Diaspora." Armenia was the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as its state religion in AD 301.

==Cities==
[[Yerevan]] (pop. 1,100,000 in 2006), founded in the eighth century BC, is the capital and has always been the chief city. [[Gyumri]], or Kumayri (called Leninakan from 1924 to 1992), with a population of 120,000 in 1989, was the second largest city until it was devastated by an earthquake in December 1988; it has now recovered with a population of 148,000. [[Vanadzor]] (formerly Kirovakan) is third with a population of 106,000.

==People==
Birth rates are low, at 11.7 births per 1000 population and a total fertility rate (births per childbearing woman) of only 1.33
===Diaspora===
The Armenian diaspora over many centuries has created Armenian settlements in many parts of Russia, Poland and the Balkans, as well as in the cities of the former [[Ottoman Empire]] and in the United States.
===Religion===
After decades of eclipse, religion has become an increasingly important part of life, and many religious groups have emerged.

Except perhaps for the Soviet era (1920-1989), religion was central to Armenian identity. Since the rise of Islam in 700 AD, Armenia has seen itself as the Christian outpost in the sea of Islam. The traditions of Eastern Christianity, as opposed to those of both Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Christianity, have been preserved in virtual isolation and account for the survival of the Armenian people between their loss of independence in 1375 and the emergence of Armenian nationalism in the 19th century. Christianity has caused the Armenians to look toward Europe for cultural inspiration, especially—since the 18th century—to Italy, then France, then Russia (an indirect route for Western ideas), and finally to the United States.

In Armenia itself 98% of the population is ethnic Armenian. The link between Armenian ethnicity and the Armenian Orthodox Church is strong. An estimated 90% of citizens nominally belong to the Armenian Church, one of six ancient [[autocephalous]] Eastern churches with its spiritual center (Mother See) located at the Etchmiadzin cathedral and monastery near the capital of Yerevan.

There are small communities of other religious groups, which constitute less than 5% of the population and include Roman Catholics, Armenian Uniate (Mekhitarist) Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Armenian Evangelical Christians, Molokans, Pentecostals, Seventh-day Adventists, Baptists, various groups of charismatic Christians, Jehovah's Witnesses, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Yezidis (non-Muslim Kurds who practice Yezidism), Jews, Sunni Muslim Kurds, Shi'ite Muslims, Baha'is, and others.

Yezidis are concentrated primarily in agricultural areas around Mount Aragats, northwest of Yerevan. Armenian Catholics live mainly in the north, while most Jews, Mormons, Baha'is, and Orthodox Christians reside in Yerevan, along with a small community of mostly Shi'ite Muslims, including Iranians, and temporary residents from the Middle East.

Although the law prohibits foreign funding of foreign-based denominations, the Government did not enforce the ban. Indeed, the Government generally does not enforce existing legal restrictions on religious freedom.

==History==

Armenia was traditionally a border state that was kept independent by the [[Roman Empire]] against frequent [[Parthian]] and later [[Persian]] invasions. It served as a buffer state between the empires. Armenia was the first nation to convert to Christianity, in 301 before Christianity was even legal in Rome. Armenia then flourished and its capital Ani was called the "city of a thousand and one churches."

Armenia was converted to Christianity by Saint Gregory the Illuminator, traditionally in 314 AD. Armenia thus became the first nation to embrace Christianity as its state religion. Always an autonomous church, the Armenian Apostolic Church was in communion with the rest of the Christian Church until 555 AD. After that it was communion only with the Monophysite churches, such as the Coptic Church of Egypt, the Ethiopic Church, and the Syrian Jacobite Church.

The Armenian Apostolic Church is headed by the catholicos of all Armenians, whose see has been at the monastery of Echmiadzin, near Yerevan, since 1441. Under his primacy the church is divided into four autonomous jurisdictions: the catholicosate of Echmiadzin; the catholicosate of Cilicia, at Sis (now Kozan, Turkey) from 1293 to 1930 and at Antelias, Lebanon, since 1930; the patriarchate of Jerusalem, created in 1311; and the patriarchate of Constantinople (Istanbul), created in the 16th century.

By 1200 AD some Armenians came to accept the authority of the Roman Catholic pope. In 1742 they formed the Armenian Catholic Church, with a patriarch residing at Beirut, Lebanon. Armenian Protestantism began with the arrival of American Congregationalist missionaries from Boston in 1830.

==Ottoman control of Western Armenia==
Following victory over [[Persia]] at the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514, the [[Ottoman Empire]] extended its rule over western Armenia. In 1555 Armenia was divided between the Shahs of Persia and the Sultans of Turkey.

In traditional Ottoman society the Armenians were defined, as were other Christians and the Jews, as a "dhimmi millet", a non-Muslim religious community of the empire. Their actual treatment by the state varied to some extent with the military fortunes of the empire, the religious passions of its elites, and the encroachment upon their land by Muslim refugees from the Balkans and the Caucasus as well as by Kurdish pastoralists. Normally dhimmis were free to practice their religion, but they were distinctively inferior to Muslims in status. In the nineteenth century the Armenians challenged the traditional hierarchy of Ottoman society as they became better educated, wealthier, and more urban. In response—despite attempts at reforms—the empire became more repressive toward Armenians, who more than any other Christian minority bore the brunt of persecution

===Conflict with Ottoman Empire===
Conflict between Turks and Armenians resulted from dissimilar cultural elements and social organization. By the end of the 19th century, the Ottoman authorities justified their attacks on Armenians by accusing them of being "revolutionaries, terrorists, and troublemakers acting on behalf of Russia or other foreign powers." Even with the demise of the Ottoman Empire following World War I, the conflict between Turks and Armenians remained unresolved, resulting in contemporary Armenian terrorist attacks on Turkish targets.

The Armenians expected outside assistance in their efforts to break away from Ottoman rule and were led to carry out a number of rash terror actions, including bombing and assassinations. The Russians therefore discouraged the Armenian liberation movement from establishing an independent Armenia on the southern borders of Russia. But the Russian government also took active steps to prevent the massacres of Armenians by Sultan Abdul Hamid.

When Sultan Abdul Hamid II came to power in 1876, he steered a course of political and social repression and technological modernization. But the Empire was the "sick man of Europe" and nationalist revolts among Christian minorities led to the loss of Serbia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, Romania and large parts of Bulgaria, which comprised 40% of the territory. Some 400,000 Muslim refugees were expelled; the Empire became more Muslim and hatred of Christians intensified. The old program of using Christian minorities to speed the modernization process had failed. The Empire was bankrupt and the Christians wanted autonomy, not participation.

In August and September 1894, a series of massacres occurred in the vicinity of Sassun as a result of an uprising that was put down with ferocity by Kurdish irregular cavalry (Hamidieh regiments). The massacres soon spread, and in October and November 1895 there were pogroms at Trabzon, Erzurum, Bitlis, Kurun, Maras, and elsewhere. The essential cause of the massacres lay in the failure of the European powers to secure the reforms envisaged by the Treaty of Berlin for the Asian provinces of the Ottoman Empire. In August 1896 after an attack on the Ottoman Bank in Constantinople a massacre of Armenians occurred in the Ottoman capital; 4,000 to 6,000 Armenians were killed. By the end of 1896 over 80,000 Armenians lad dead in the eastern provinces.
===Genocide===
see [[Armenian genocide]]

With the advent of [[World War I]] the situation became much worse. As Christians in an Empire of Muslims that was now at war with Christian nations, especially Russia, the Armenians were viewed by the Ottoman government as a threat and potential subversive allies of the Russians. The Ottomans first disarmed the Armenian population, and then sought to destroy them starting in 1915. A massive [[genocide]] occurred, consisting of the deaths of 600,000 or more Armenian men, women and children. Most died by starvation in the desert. Turkey has never admitted the deaths were a premeditated genocide, and the topic is generally not discussed in Turkey.
==Russian control of Eastern Armenia==
The Armenians, divided under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and Persia and ravaged by the fighting between them, turned for military assistance and political protection in the 18th and 19th centuries to [[History of Russia|Russia]]. The Russian advance along the Caspian and the expansion into Georgia encouraged requests for help. When a 70,000 strong Persian army entered Transcaucasia in 1804, the Russian general Tsitsianov began his advance on Erevan. Many Armenians joined the Russians captured in 1808. In 1810 the Turks and Persians invaded the area, but the Russian commander M. I. Kutuzov routed the Ottoman army on the Danube. Turkey recognized Russian rule in Transcaucasia in the Treaty of Bucharest in 1812. Resounding defeats imposed on the Persians forced the shah to agree in 1813 to the incorporation of a large part of Transcaucasia into the Russian Empire. Russian victories over renewed war with Persia led to the unification of Transcaucasia with Russia, 1829.

After 1828 many Armenians remained in Persia but 45,000 were allowed to migrate to Eastern Armenia on condition they leave behind their houses, property and wares. Following the 1828-29 Russo-Turkish War, about 100,000 Armenians migrated from Turkey to Transcaucasia.

Under Russia, the number of Armenians in the area now represented by present-day Armenia increased from 46,000 in 1827 to 511,000 in 1897. Thus by joining Russia, Eastern Armenia became the home of the national survival of the Armenian people. Despite tsarist restrictions and oppression, the Armenians developed a cultural renaissance and a national awareness which surpassed that of their co-nationals in the Ottoman and Persian empires. During the 19th century the Eastern Armenians (those in Russia) strove for regional autonomy and for the repartition of Transcaucasia into distinct ethnic provinces as well as for personal and collective security. They did not seek national independence but identified with oppositional Russia in an attempt to effect internal reforms.

Being part of Russia opened up new market opportunities and allowed the emergence of capitalism, which brought about socioeconomic changes in almost all the regions of Eastern Armenia, including Zangezur and Kazakh. By the end of the 19th century both Zangezur and Kazakh had become major grain producers, and while Zangezur was also engaged in sericulture, an important occupation in Kazakh was hog raising. The rising class of Armenian businessmen and bankers were centered not so much in Yerevan but in Baku and Tiflis (Tbilisi, Georgia), and sent younger sons to set up business connections in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, Russians occupied the six Armenian vilayets, and Armenian nationalism was stimulated. In 1880, a revolutionary organization known as the Defenders of the Fatherland was organized in Erzurum. A few years later, in 1885, the Armenakan society was organized, and in 1887 the Hunchagian Party appeared. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktzutun) was formed in 1890. The Dashnaks were socialists who sought to overthrow the Tsarist system and create an independent state. They also wanted to acquire the Armenian areas in the Ottoman Empire by force.
===Independence===
Amidst the chaos of Russia in 1918, period the Armenian National Council, with German help, declared the establishment of the Republic of Armenia (May 1918) on the territory of Russian Armenia. While most Armenians desired a democracy in their first chance at independence in 1918-20, for practical reasons they settled for a benevolent dictatorship instead. The government sought a mandate status with Armenia under the control of the United States, but the U.S. Senate rejected the idea, and Armenia was taken over by Soviet Russia in December 1920. Several hundred thousand Armenian refugees at the end of the war were scattered, and most emigrated to California.

[[File:Armenia2.jpg|thumb|550px|Ethnicity in Armenia and Caucasus]]
The most serious problem between the short-lived Transcaucasian republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan was over the control of a mountainous region called Nagorno-Karabakh, located inside Azerbaijan but with a 75% Armenian population. Britain, which occupied Transcaucasia after World War I, decided in favor of Azerbaijan in the summer of 1919. The settlement remained in force after the Red army took over both republics in 1920, but the Soviets were never able to resolve the dispute, which exploded into war as soon as both nations became independent.<ref>Artin H. Arslanian, "Britain and the Question of Mountainous Karabagh," ''Middle Eastern Studies'' 1980 16(1): 92-104.</ref>

Armenia regained its independence with the breakup of the [[Soviet Union]] in 1989. Communism was overthrown but there were tensions with neighboring [[Georgia]] and a war broke out with the Muslim nation of [[Azerbaijan]]. The '''[[Nagorno-Karabakh War]]''' was fought over the [[Nagorno-Karabakh]]. It is a small region inside Azerbaijan, but the population was three-fourths Armenian and they refused to be ruled by Azerbaijan. The war lasted from February 1988 to May 1994, with the heaviest fighting occurring in the spring of 1992. Some 17,000 people were killed in the conflict. The region, now 95% Armenian, is controlled by Armenia and has a population of 140,000.<ref>see [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/nagorno-karabakh.htm Analysis of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict], and [http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_280.shtml Air War over Nagorniy-Kharabakh, 1988-1994]</ref>

Relations with Turkey (a [[NATO]] member) remain tense, primarily because Armenia demands, and Turkey refuses, to admit that Turkey was guilty of genocide in 1915. (Turkey says it was not genocide and that the Ottoman Empire was in charge.) As a candidate, President Obama said he would acknowledge the genocide. However, he visited Turkey in 2009 without using the word, which would offend Turkey, an important American ally. The White House released a statement on Armenian Remembrance Day in April that paid tribute to those who died but did not explicitly use the word "genocide".

==Culture==
===Cultural trends in Western Armenia (Ottoman)===
Armenian names followed traditional formulas. During the 5th-15th centuries the clergy, being traditionalists, used names of two components: Christian and birthplace (George Garnetsi, meaning George of Garni). The nobility could have names of several components: individual's, father's, family's, birthplace, title, and profession. The humbler classes used three-component names: individual's, father's, and family's, like those in Armenia today. The usual surname ending -ian was replaced by -ov or -ev in Russia, by -oghlou or -chi in Western Armenia, and by -ovitch in Poland. Other suffixes denoting surname were -iants, -ents, -onts, and -ounts.

Lives of saints and martyrologies were prevalent Armenian literary genres. Initially martyrology had three components: conflict between the Christian and his heathen torturer; interrogation between judge and defendant; and martyrdom. As political conditions changed, historical truth replaced idealization, superhuman saints became humanized, and visions and miracles gave way to stories of hardships suffered by ordinary individuals as under the Turks.

Of the many 17th century Armenian poets, the best known was Nerses Mokats'i (d. 1625), who studied at the Amrdolu monastery in Bitlis and the Mets Anapat in Siunik'; later he founded a monastic order on the island of Lim in Lake Van. Many works focused on the exile forced on many Armenians and the destruction wrought in Armenia by foreign forces, comparing this with the fate of Jerusalem. The destruction of the Armenian city of T'okhat' in 1602 by the Jalalis was lamented by Step'anos and Hakob T'okhat'ts'i. Simeon Lehats'i (1584-1637) criticized the educational level of the clergy in his historical poem Vipasanut'iun Nikolakan [Nikolian epic]. Many works eulogized cities and monasteries. Others were historical, such as the ''History of the Ottoman Kings'' and odes to [[John III Sobieski]] and [[Louis XIV]] by Eremia Ch'elepi K'eomiurchyan (1637–95).

The religious meditational poem Matyan Oghbergut'yan [Book of lamentations] by the medieval Armenian cleric Grigor Narekats'i (951-1003) was published widely in the 18th century and inspired contemporary poets such as Petros Nakhijevants'i (d. 1784) and Movses Jughayets'i.

The writer, poet, and critic from western Armenia Artashes Harut'iunyan (1874-1915) belonged to the "provincial" school, which took its inspiration directly from the people. In his view the Armenian writing of Constantinople was derivative, being inspired by French romanticism. He corresponded with French and Belgian writers, translated works by Maxim Gorky and Leo Tolstoy, and wrote articles for the French press. His novels portray Armenian village life, one of the best being ''Zghjume'' [The regret]. Together with other Armenian intellectuals, he was arrested in April 1915 and murdered.

===Cultural trends in Eastern Armenia (Russia)===
The making of a modern Armenian nation was an intellectual event that took place largely outside the Armenian heartland in the Armenian communities of Western Turkey, Russia, India, and Europe. It was here that the first generation of patriotic intellectuals emerged. By the 18th century the Armenian language had fragmented into numerous mutually incomprehensible dialects, while any knowledge of Armenian history had been effectively wiped out except among a small group of monks, who copied and recopied the ancient texts. The first modern generation of Armenian patriots undertook a revival of Armenian letters and spread the new nationalism to the next generation of patriotic intellectuals from Western Anatolia and the Armenian colonies of the Russian Empire.<ref>Ronald Grigor Suny, "The Formation of the Armenian Patriotic Intelligentsia in Russia: The First Generations." ''Armenian Review'' 1983 36(3): 18-34.</ref>

The new literature of the Eastern Armenians which emerged in the mid-19th century resulted in a shift from the antiquated church language, which had dominated the literature of both parts of the country, to the currently used vernacular. The eastern center of its development was finally Yerevan, whose dialect became the adopted literary language of the east. The literature ranged from a romantic to a realist approach.

Despite his short and difficult life, Armenian poet Petros Durian (1851–72) left a rich literary legacy: plays, poetry, and journalistic articles. His historical plays are the first examples of the romantic drama in Armenian literature, and express a deeply democratic mood of the writer; his journalistic writings show that Durian was concerned about contemporary social issues. But his poetry was his greatest contribution, rejecting classicism and descriptiveness, and full of deep feelings. Durian's lyrical hero, with few exceptions, is the poet himself, but his poems express mankind's thoughts and aspirations, and possess great social meaning.

Alexander Yeritsian (1841-1902) was a major Armenian public and literary figure who wrote on historical, archaeological, ethnic, and socioeconomic matters from a national-conservative viewpoint. Yeritsian was well read in European economics, and his views, as expressed in the economic weekly ''Vacharakan'', which started publication in Tiflis in 1866, cover commerce, speculative finance, silver and gold currency, paper money, rise and fall in the value of money, free trade, competition, supply and demand, industry and savings, and other aspects of the world economy of his day.

The Armenian journalist Grigor Artsruni (1845–92) published the first European-style Armenian magazine, ''Mshak'' in Tbilisi. As editor and proprietor from 1872 to 1892, he published views on a wide range of contemporary national and international issues: the Russo-Turkish War of 1877, the rise of the Eastern Question, and the Congress of Berlin in 1878, especially as they affected the Armenian subjects of the Ottoman Empire. The newspaper has played an important role in Armenian social and intellectual life, consistently promoting solidarity among Armenians, Russians, and the people of the Caucasus, and promoting economic and cultural ties. During the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–78, convinced that the liberation of the Armenian people was possible only with Russia's help, Mshak supported the western Armenians' liberation movement. Encouraging the development of Armenian literature, the newspaper championed critical realism. It broadened the world view of the Armenian press by covering all major events and cultural phenomena. Many Armenian intellectuals contributed to ''Mshak''; the most prominent was the novelist Raffi (pseud. for Hakob Melik` Hakobyan, 1835–88). .

A. Araskhanian (1857-1912), editor of the Armenian monthly ''Moorch'' published in Tiflis, 1889-1907, resolved to foster literary cultural progress through the press. Philologists, literary critics, and intellectuals wrote on the history and theory of literature for Moorch and encouraged young writers and initiators of the literature of village life. Moorch enhanced understanding between writers in Eastern Armenia (in Russia) and Western Armenia (in the Ottoman Empire), emphasized the interaction between life and literature, and consistently observed progressive principles in literary criticism.
====Painting====
Gevorg Bashinjaghian (1857-1925) was a leading Armenian landscape painter. Educated at the Petersburg Academy of Art, Bashinjaghian was acquainted with European, Russian, Oriental, and classical Greek and Roman art. His 1883 exhibition in Tiflis of 16 landscapes of Armenia and the Caucasus established Armenian realistic landscape painting as a distinct genre of art. In Italy in 1884, he admired Renaissance art, and in Paris, 1899-1901, he participated in exhibitions with contemporary European artists. He painted several views of Ararat, Lake Sevan, and other Armenian landscapes combining peacefulness, simplicity, and majesty.

Hakob Kochoyan (1883-1959), was a prominent Armenian painter, professor, and lecturer in the Yerevan Institute of Fine Arts, famed as an innovator in his style of drawing. Receiving his artistic education and living in Europe before settling in Yerevan in 1922, he expressed the artistic traditions of East and West. His work represents a rich variety of style, theme, genre, and technique in oil, watercolor, gouache, engravings, pencil drawings, and sketches on canvas, stamps, crystal, and china. His paintings and illustrations in books and periodicals deal with Armenian history, natural scenery, folklore, and contemporary life. They express the nation's vitality and durability. His paintings have been exhibited internationally.

====Music and song====
Valuable poetry and songs were written by Bishop Petros Berdoumian Nakhichevantsi, (d. 1784) erudite theologian and poet. He represents the revival and renovation of 18th century national religious songs, which were meant to combat the weakening in traditional Armenian [[piety]] and morals due to the plans of the sultans to assimilate subject nations. Nakhichevantsi witnessed the siege of Nakhichevan in 1740 by the tyrant Tahmaz, and his Elegy expressed the nation's sufferings and the misery of the church. His message to the people is to struggle against tyranny and live a meaningful life.

Armenian folk songs emerged when minstrels transmitted mythological and epic songs orally from generation to generation. Later folk songs reflected every aspect of life: love, religion, humor, patriotism, aspiration for freedom, emigrants' nostalgia, wedding songs, lullabies, dances, and festivities. In 1891 Komitas (1869-1935) started collecting and setting them to music, a program that folklorists have continued. After World War I, floklorists traveled across Europe to systematically collect, set to music, and save thousands of folk songs from permanent loss.

Spiridon Melikian (1880-1933) a student of Komitas, composer, conductor and lecturer, devoted his life to Armenian music. While studying music in Berlin (1905–08) he had his copy of Komitas's collection of Armenian folk songs, which he published in 1931. His expeditions into Armenian villages yielded more than 1,000 folk songs which he set to music. In Tiflis (1909–21) and Erevan Conservatory (1923–33) he conducted choirs, taught theory, trained musicians, and prepared textbooks for music teachers. Apart from his compositions, he published ''Analysis of Komitas's Work,'' ''Scales of Armenian Folk-songs,'' and ''Outline of Armenian Music''. Two volumes of his folk songs were published posthumously (1949, 1952).

The classical musician Genari Korganov (1858–90) was known as a pianist, composer, and critic. He was the music critic for the Tiflis (Tbilisi) ''Kavkaz'' (''Caucasus'') newspaper, his principal interest being operatic and symphonic works, and gave a number of recitals from 1884 to his sudden death in 1890. The Russian composer Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov (1859-1935) dedicated his Armenian Rhapsody to him.

A leading musician of the 20th century was Armen Tigranian (1879-1950) of Yerevan. In 1912 he composed his opera "Anush", based on Hovhannes Toumanian's dramatic ballad reflecting Armenian village life. Reedited in its final form in 1939, Anush has been popular with Armenians everywhere. Tigranian's second opera, "Davit-Bek" (started during World War II and finished in 1949) was inspired by an 18th-century national freedom fighter. Tigranian's music is melodious, lyric, and closely linked with traditional Armenian secular and church songs, truly the music of the people, composed with inspiration, talent, and technical skill.

The most important Armenian composer was [[Aram Khachaturian]] (1903–78). Born in Tiflis, he moved to Moscow in 1924 and built his careeer there. he was an enthusiastic Communist until his music was condemned by the Party in 1948.<ref>Victor Yuzefovich, ''Aram Ilych Khachaturyan,'' (1985) 283 pp.</ref>

In the Armenian diaspora, important cultural leaders have included writers Michael Arlen (1895-1956) in Britain, Arthur Adamov (1911–70) and Henri Troyat in France, and [[William Saroyan]] (1908-1981) in California. The prolific composer [[Alan Hovhannes]] (1908-2000), based in Boston and New York, drew upon Armenian church music to produce major classical compositions.

===Historiography===
Stepan Malkhassiants (1857-1947) was a philologist, lexicographer, prolific author on Armenology, and founding member of the Armenian Academy of Sciences. His philological works and translations from ancient to modern Armenian made national classics accessible to the masses. His ''Armenian Explanatory Dictionary,'' explaining all words of ancient, middle, and modern Armenian in all dialects as well as loan words, is a model work of its kind.

Garo Sassouni (1889-1977), intellectual, author, journalist, educator, and public figure, was born in western Armenia. He received a law degree from the University of Constantinople. He became a member of the parliament of the Independent Republic of Armenia and a provincial governor. After the fall of the republic he went abroad and became a leader of the Armenian Revolutionary Committee. He wrote a large number of Armenian-language historical and cultural studies.

The historian Ashot Hovhannisyan (1887-1972) studied in Germany where he received his doctorate in 1913. In 1920 he was a member of the Soviet Russian delegation sent to negotiate with the government of Armenia. Subsequently, he held a number of educational and political posts. Arrested in 1937, he resumed his historical studies in 1954 and was appointed director of the Historical Section of the Armenian Academy of Sciences in 1961. During this period he published several important works, the principal one being his ''Drvagner Hay Azatagrakan Mtk'i Patmut'yan'' [Episodes in the history of the concept of Armenian liberation].

Under the totalitarian Soviet regime, historiographical policy was laid down by the Party authorities and imposed through the Academy of Sciences. As a consequence, 19th-20th century Armenian history could not be analyzed critically. The events of 1917-21 had to be discussed purely from a class point of view, suppressing national aspects. In medieval studies, Armenian history of the 12th and 13th centuries could not be based on primary evidence; the religious T'ondrakian movement had to be presented purely as a social phenomenon. Nevertheless, many good studies were published, especially on the ancient and medieval periods. There were also some positive aspects of Soviet policy, such as the establishment of the Academy of Sciences of Armenia in 1943.

==Further reading==
[[File:Armenia1.jpg|thumb|350px]]
===Guide books===
* ''Armenia with Nagorno Karabagh'' (2nd ed. 2006) [https://www.amazon.com/Armenia-Nagorno-Karabagh-2nd-Travel/dp/1841621633/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242980296&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* ''Armenia & Karabagh'' (The Stone Garden Guide) by Matthew Karanian and Robert Kurkjian (2006) [https://www.amazon.com/Armenia-Karabagh-Stone-Garden-Guide/dp/096721209X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242980296&sr=8-3 excerpt and text search]
* ''Georgia Armenia & Azerbaijan'' by John Noble (2008) [https://www.amazon.com/Georgia-Armenia-Azerbaijan-Multi-Country/dp/1741044774/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242980296&sr=8-4 excerpt and text search]

===Surveys===
* Adalian, Rouben P. ''Historical Dictionary of Armenia'' (2002).
* Chahin, M. ''The Kingdom of Armenia: A History‎'' (2001) 350pp [https://books.google.com/books?id=OR_PHoKZ6ycC&pg=PP1&dq=intitle:armenia+intitle:history&lr=&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=2000&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES excerpt and text search]
* Herzig, Edmund, and Marina Kurkchiyan. ''The Armenians: Past and Present in the Making of National Identity'' (2005) [http://www.questia.com/read/110137949 online edition]
* Hovannisian, Richard G. ed. ''The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times. Vol. 2: Foreign Dominion to Statehood: The Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century.'' 1997. 493 pp.
* Oshagan, Vahe, ed. ''Armenia.'' (Review of National Literatures) (1984). 264 pp.
* Panossian, Razmik. ''The Armenians: From Kings and Priests to Merchants and Commissars.'' 2006. 442 pp.
* Payaslian, Simon. ''The History of Armenia‎'' (2007) 304pp
* Somakian, Manoug Joseph. ''Empires in Conflict: Armenia and the Great Powers, 1895-1920.'' 1995. 276 pp.
* Suny, Ronald Grigor. ''Looking toward Ararat: Armenia in Modern History.'' (1993). 289 pp.
* Thierry, Jean Michael and Donabédian, Patrick. ''Armenian Art'' (1989). 624 pp.
* Walker, Christopher J. ''Armenia: The Survival of a Nation.'' (1990). 476 pp.

===Specialty studies===
* Chorbajian, Levon; Donabedian, Patrick; and Mutafian, Claude. ''The Caucasian Knot: The History and Geopolitics of Nagorno-Karabagh.'' (1994). 198 pp.
* Hovannisian, Richard G. ''Armenia on the road to independance 1918'' (1967)
* Hovannisian, Richard G. ''The republic of Armenia. Vol. 1, The first year, 1918-1919'' (1971); ''Vol. 2, From Versailles to London, 1919-1920'' (1982); ''Vol. 3, From London to Sèvres, February–August 1920'' (1997); ''Vol. 4, Between crescent and sickle: partition and Sovietization'' (1997)
* Mitra, Saumya, et al. '' The Caucasian tiger: sustaining economic growth in Armenia‎'' (2007) 610pp [https://books.google.com/books?id=fWAwYSslb7UC full text online free from World Bank]
* Villa, Susie Hoogasian and Matossian, Mary Kilbourne. ''Armenian Village Life Before 1914.'' (1982). 197 pp.
===Genocide===
* Bloxham, Donald. ''The Great Game of Genocide: Imperialism, Nationalism, and the Destruction of the Ottoman Armenians'' (2005), scholarly history of the wartime massacres; 344 pages [http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=&mkt=en-us&scope=books&FORM=LIVSOP#q=bryce%20toynbee&filter=all&start=1&t=H6WeD-pdFZ8QQ5kq6p5CJw&sq=bryce%20toynbee excerpt and text search]
* Bloxham, Donald. "Rethinking the Armenian Genocide." ''History Today'' 2005 55(6): 28-30. Issn: 0018-2753 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]
* Dadrian, Vahakn N. ''The History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=78126590 online edition]
* Papazian, Bertha S. ''The Tragedy of Armenia: A Brief Study and Interpretation'' (1919) [https://books.google.com/books?id=TJgLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA13&dq=intitle:armenia+date:1910-2007&num=100&as_brr=1#PPA160,M1 full text online]

==References==
<references/>

{{Asian Countries}}

[[Category:Armenia]]
[[Category:Former Soviet Countries]]
[[Category:Landlocked Countries]]
[[Category:Genocide]]
[[Category:World War I]]
[[Category:Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Turkey]]
[[Category:Christian-Majority Countries]]

Argentina

2019-10-19T17:54:27Z

RamK: update

{{Country
|name =''República Argentina''
|map =Argentina rel96.jpg
|map2 =Argentina1.png
|flag =Flag of Argentina.png
|arms =Arms of Argentina.png
|capital =Buenos Aires
|capital-raw =
|government =Federal republic
|government-raw =
|language =Spanish
|king =
|queen =
|monarch-raw =
|president =Mauricio Macri
|president-raw =
|chancellor =
|chancellor-raw =
|pm =
|pm-raw =
|area =1,073,514 sq mi
|pop =43,847,430
|pop-basis =2016
|gdp =$922 billion
|gdp-year =2019
|gdp-pc =$20,481 (2019)
|currency =peso
|idd =
|tld =
}}
'''Argentina''' is the second largest country in [[South America]] (after [[Brazil]]). It is a multi-party representative and federal democracy.

==People==
[[File:Tipical dance Mataderos Buenos Aires.jpg|left|250px]]
Argentines are a fusion of diverse national and ethnic groups, with descendants of Italian and Spanish immigrants predominant (97%). Waves of immigrants from many European countries arrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Syrian, Lebanese, and other Middle Eastern immigrants number about 500,000 to 600,000, mainly in urban areas. Argentina's population is overwhelmingly Catholic, but it also has the largest Jewish population in Latin America, estimated at between 280,000 and 300,000. In recent years, there has been a substantial influx of immigrants from neighboring countries, particularly Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru. The indigenous population, estimated at 700,000, is concentrated in the provinces of the north, northwest, and south. The Argentine population has one of Latin America's lowest growth rates. Eighty percent of the population resides in cities or towns of more than 2,000, and over one-third lives in the greater Buenos Aires area.

Globally, Argentina is well known for its successful national [[soccer|football]] team, which won the [[FIFA World Cup]] in 1978 and 1986.

==Government and Political Conditions==
Argentina's constitution of 1853, as revised in 1994, mandates a separation of powers into executive, legislative, and judicial branches at the national and provincial level. Each province also has its own constitution, roughly mirroring the structure of the national constitution. The president and vice president are directly elected to 4-year terms. Both are limited to two consecutive terms; they are allowed to stand for a third term or more after an interval of at least one term. The president appoints cabinet ministers, and the constitution grants him considerable power, including authority to enact laws by presidential decree under conditions of "urgency and necessity" and the line-item veto.
[[File:Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires.jpg|thumb|left|Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires.]]

Since 2001, senators have been directly elected, with each province and the Federal Capital represented by three senators. Senators serve 6-year terms. One-third of the Senate stands for reelection every 2 years. Members of the Chamber of Deputies are directly elected to 4-year terms. Voters elect half the members of the lower house every 2 years. Both houses are elected via a system of proportional representation. Female representation in Congress—at nearly one-third of total seats—ranks among the world's highest, with representation comparable to European Union (EU) countries such as Austria and Germany. Female senators include Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who was a nationally known member of the Senate for the Province of Santa Cruz before her husband was elected President, and was reelected on October 23, 2005 as a Senator for the Province of Buenos Aires.

The constitution establishes the judiciary as an independent government entity. The president appoints members of the Supreme Court with the consent of the Senate. The president on the recommendation of a magistrates' council appoints other federal judges. The Supreme Court has the power to declare legislative acts unconstitutional.

===Political Parties===
[[File:Obelisco Buenos Aires Argentina.jpg|right|thumb|Obelisco by night, Buenos Aires.]]
The two largest political parties are the Justicialist Party (PJ—also called Peronist), founded in 1945 by [[Juan Domingo Perón]], and the Union Civica Radical (UCR), or Radical Civic Union, founded in 1891. Traditionally, the UCR has had more urban middle-class support and the PJ more labor support, but both parties have become more broadly based. The PJ does not currently have a recognized national committee or leader due to internal differences. President Kirchner, a Peronist by origin, nominally is head of his Frente Para la Victoria (FPV) coalition that includes Peronists and non-Peronists aligned with him. Kirchner announced in July 2007 that he would not run for reelection in presidential elections in October 2007, and publicly supported the candidacy of his wife, Senator Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Fernandez de Kirchner formally announced her campaign for the presidency in July.

While the national leadership of the UCR remains in opposition to the Kirchner government, many of its governors, mayors, and other representatives have allied with President Kirchner. In the April 2003 presidential elections, the UCR received only 2% of the national vote, the lowest tally in the party's history. The UCR continues to retain significant strength in many parts of the country, and persons identifying with the party govern roughly one-third of the provinces. The UCR is the only opposition political party with a nationwide structure.

Smaller parties, such as the center-right Propuesta Republicana (PRO) and the left-leaning Afirmacion para una Republica Igalitaria (ARI) represent various positions on the political spectrum, and are strongest in Buenos Aires. PRO's candidate for mayor of Buenos Aires city, businessman Mauricio Macri, won a strong majority in elections in June 2007. He defeated Education Minister Daniel Filmus, who was supported by President Kirchner, in a high-visibility second round vote.

Historically, organized labor—largely tied to the Peronist Party—and the armed forces also have played significant roles in national life. However, the Argentine military's public standing suffered as a result of its perpetration of human rights abuses, economic mismanagement, and defeat by the United Kingdom during the period of military rule (1976–83). The Argentine military today is a downsized, volunteer force fully subordinate to civilian authority.

===Principal Government Officials===
[[File:Mauricio Macri 2016.jpg|200px|thumbnail|Mauricio Macri.]]
*President—[[Mauricio Macri]]
*Vice President—Gabriela Michetti
*Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers—Marcos Peña
*President of the Senate—Gabriela Michetti
*Provisional President—Federico Pinedo
*First Minority Leader—Miguel Ángel Pichetto
*Second Minority Leader—Ángel Rozas
*President of the Chamber of Deputies—Emilio Monzó
*First Vice President—José Luis Gioja
*First Minority Leader—Mario Negri
*Second Minority Leader—Agustín Rossi
*President of the Supreme Court—Carlos Rosenkrantz

===Foreign Relations===
Argentina's foreign policy priorities are focused on increasing regional partnerships, including expanding the MERCOSUR regional trade bloc by integrating Venezuela and Bolivia as new full members. Argentina has played a positive role in promoting human rights and democratic institutions in the hemisphere, particularly in Haiti. Argentina currently has nearly 600 peacekeeping troops in Haiti in support of MINUSTAH, reflecting its traditionally strong support of UN peacekeeping operations. As a member of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Argentina has been a strong voice in support of nuclear non-proliferation issues.

 

==Defense==
The president and a civilian minister of defense control the Argentine armed forces. The Interior Ministry controls the paramilitary Gendarmeria (border police), the Federal Police, the Prefectura Naval (coast guard), and the Airport Security Police. The Argentine armed forces maintain close defense cooperation and military supply relationships with the United States. Other countries also have military relationships with the Argentine forces, principally [[Israel]], [[Germany]], [[France]], [[Spain]], [[Italy]], [[Brazil]], [[Chile]], and [[Venezuela]].

The current Minister of Defense has pursued an aggressive restructuring program based on the Argentine 1988 defense law. Priorities include emphasis on joint operations and peacekeeping. There has been minimal recapitalization due to budget constraints experienced over the past 5 years.

==Economy==
[[Image:Patagonia Agentina.jpg|right|300px|Patagonia, Argentina]]
Argentina's economy has sustained a robust recovery following the severe 2001/2002 economic crisis, with 4 consecutive years of over 8% growth in real gross domestic product (GDP). Argentine GDP reached U.S. $213 billion in 2006, approximately U.S. $5,460 per capita, with real investment up 18.7%. Economic expansion is creating jobs, with unemployment down from 20.4% in the first quarter of 2003 to 9.8% in the first quarter of 2007. Poverty levels have also dropped dramatically; 26.9% of the population in the 28 largest urban areas remained below the poverty line in the last half of 2006, down from over 50% in the immediate aftermath of the economic crisis.

Argentina benefits from rich natural resources, a highly literate population, an export-oriented agricultural sector, and a diversified industrial base. Its post-crisis move to a flexible exchange rate regime and favorable international commodity and interest rate trends were catalytic factors in supporting renewed growth, allowing the government to accumulate a reserve cushion (over $40 billion as of June 2007) to help insulate the economy from external shocks. A higher tax burden and the recovery's strong impact on revenues allowed the government to record a primary fiscal surplus in 2006 equivalent to 3.5% of GDP. Argentina should continue to perform well in 2007 with GDP growth projected in the 7.5%-8% range. A range of economic experts have identified challenges to sustaining high levels of economic growth in the future, including capacity constraints; the need for substantial new investment in primary infrastructure; potential energy shortages in the face of high growth and energy prices below international market levels; and inflation (9.8% in 2006) and the government's heterodox policies to contain it, including pressure on the private sector to limit price increases.

Argentina's exchange rate policy is based on a managed float that appears to be targeting a nominal exchange rate in the 3 Argentine pesos (ARP) per U.S. dollar range. Market analysts consider the peso's real exchange rate broadly undervalued. This, along with historically high global commodity prices, has helped lift export volumes and value to record levels, resulting in a $12 billion trade surplus in 2006. Foreign trade equaled approximately 38% of GDP in 2006 (up from only 11% in 1990) and plays an increasingly important role in Argentina's economic development. Exports totaled approximately 22% of GDP in 2006 (up from 14% in 2002), and key export markets included MERCOSUR (21% of exports), the EU (18%), and NAFTA countries (13%). Total two-way trade with the U.S. in 2006 totaled almost $9 billion. The production of grains, cattle, and other agricultural goods continues to be the backbone of Argentina's export economy. Energy products, high technology goods, and services are emerging as significant export sectors.

Over 450 U.S. companies are currently operating in Argentina and employ over 150,000 Argentine workers. U.S. investment in Argentina is concentrated in the manufacturing, information, and financial sectors. Other major sources of investment include Spain, Chile, Italy, France, Canada, and Japan. Continuing Argentine arrears to international creditors (including over $20 billion in default claims by international bondholders and over $6 billion owed to official creditors, including the U.S. Government) and a large number of arbitration claims filed by foreign companies are legacies of the 2001/2002 economic crisis that remain to be resolved and adversely impact Argentina's investment climate.

==History==
[[File:José de San Martín.jpg|300px|thumbnail|José de San Martín, one of the founding fathers of Argentina.]]
[[File:Gaucho 1868 Argentina.jpg|thumb|Gaucho, 1868.]]
Europeans arrived in the region with the 1502 voyage of Amerigo Vespucci. Spanish navigator Juan Diaz de Solias visited what is now Argentina in 1516. Spain established a permanent colony on the site of Buenos Aires in 1580, although initial settlement was primarily overland from Peru. The Spanish further integrated Argentina into their empire by establishing the Vice Royalty of Rio de la Plata in 1776, and Buenos Aires became a flourishing port. Buenos Aires formally declared independence from Spain on July 9, 1816. Argentines revere Gen. [[José de San Martín]]—who campaigned in Argentina, Chile, and Peru—as the hero of their national independence. Following the defeat of the Spanish, centralist and federalist groups waged a lengthy conflict between themselves to determine the future of the nation. A modern constitution was promulgated in 1853, and a national unity government was established in 1861.

Two forces combined to create the modern Argentine nation in the late 19th century: the introduction of modern agricultural techniques and integration of Argentina into the world economy. Foreign investment and immigration from Europe aided this economic revolution. Investment, primarily from Britain, came in such fields as railroads and ports. As in the United States, the migrants who worked to develop Argentina's resources—especially the western pampas—came from throughout Europe.

From 1880 to 1930, Argentina became one of the world's 10 wealthiest nations based on rapid expansion of agriculture and foreign investment in infrastructure. Conservative forces dominated Argentine politics until 1916, when their traditional rivals, the Radicals, won control of the government. The Radicals, with their emphasis on fair elections and democratic institutions, opened their doors to Argentina's rapidly expanding middle class as well as to groups previously excluded from power.
[[File:Juan Domingo Perón.jpg|200px|thumbnail|left|[[Juan Domingo Perón]].]]
[[File:Eva Perón.jpg|200px|thumbnail|left|[[Eva Perón]].]]
The Argentine military forced aged Radical President Hipolito Yrigoyen from power in 1930 and ushered in another decade of Conservative rule. Using fraud and force when necessary, the governments of the 1930s attempted to contain the currents of economic and political change that eventually led to the ascendance of [[Juan Domingo Perón]] (b. 1897). New social and political forces were seeking political power, including a modern military and labor movements that emerged from the growing urban working class.

The military ousted Argentina's constitutional government in 1943. Perón, then an army colonel, was one of the coup's leaders, and he soon became the government's dominant figure as Minister of Labor. Elections carried him to the presidency in 1946. He created the Partido Unico de la Revolucion, which became more commonly known as the Peronist or Justicialista party (PJ). He aggressively pursued policies aimed at empowering the working class and greatly expanded the number of unionized workers. In 1947, Perón announced the first 5-year plan based on the growth of industries he nationalized. He helped establish the powerful General Confederation of Labor (CGT). Perón's dynamic wife, Eva Duarte de Perón, known as Evita (1919–52), played a key role in developing support for her husband. Perón won reelection in 1952, but the military sent him into exile in 1955. In the 1950s and 1960s, military and civilian administrations traded power, trying, with limited success, to deal with diminished economic growth and continued social and labor demands. When military governments failed to revive the economy and suppress escalating terrorism in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the way was open for Perón's return.

On March 11, 1973, Argentina held general elections for the first time in 10 years. Perón was prevented from running, but voters elected his stand-in, Dr. Hector Campora, as President. Perón's followers also commanded strong majorities in both houses of Congress. Campora resigned in July 1973, paving the way for new elections. Perón won a decisive victory and returned as President in October 1973 with his third wife, Maria Estela Isabel Martinez de Perón, as Vice President. During this period, extremists on the left and right carried out violent acts with a frequency that threatened public order. The government resorted to a number of emergency decrees, including the implementation of special executive authority to deal with violence. This allowed the government to imprison persons indefinitely without charge.

[[File:Tte.Gral.Videla.jpg|200px|thumbnail|[[Jorge Rafael Videla]].]]
[[File:Argentine prisoners of war - Port Stanley.jpg|250px|thumbnail|left|Argentine Soldiers prisoners in the [[Falklands War]].]]
Perón died on July 1, 1974. His wife succeeded him in office, but a military coup, led by [[Jorge Rafael Videla]], removed her from office on March 24, 1976, and the armed forces formally exercised power through a junta composed of the three service commanders until December 10, 1983. The armed forces applied harsh measures against those they considered extremists and many suspected of being their sympathizers. While they were able to gradually restore basic order, the human costs of what became known as "El Proceso," or the "Dirty War" were high. Conservative counts list between 10,000 and 30,000 persons as "disappeared" during the 1976-83 period. Serious economic problems, mounting charges of corruption, public revulsion in the face of human rights abuses and, finally, the country's 1982 defeat by the [[United Kingdom]] in an unsuccessful attempt to seize the [[Falkland Islands]] (Islas Malvinas) all combined to discredit the Argentine military regime. The junta lifted bans on political parties and gradually restored basic political liberties.

Democracy returned to Argentina in 1983, with Raul Alfonsin of the country's oldest political party, the Radical Civic Union (UCR), winning the presidency in elections that took place on October 30, 1983. He began a 6-year term of office on December 10, 1983. In 1985 and 1987, large turnouts for mid-term elections demonstrated continued public support for a strong and vigorous democratic system. The UCR-led government took steps to resolve some of the nation's most pressing problems, including accounting for those who disappeared during military rule, establishing civilian control of the armed forces, and consolidating democratic institutions. However, failure to resolve endemic economic problems, and an inability to maintain public confidence undermined the effectiveness of the Alfonsin government, which left office 6 months early after Justicialista Party (PJ) candidate Carlos Saul Menem won the 1989 presidential elections.

President Menem imposed peso-dollar parity (convertibility) in 1992 to break the back of hyperinflation and adopted far-reaching market-based policies. Menem's accomplishments included dismantling a web of protectionist trade and business regulations, and reversing a half-century of statism by implementing an ambitious privatization program. These reforms contributed to significant increases in investment and growth with stable prices through most of the 1990s. Unfortunately, widespread corruption in the administrations of President Menem and his successor President Fernando De la Rua, who won election in 1999 at the head of a UCR-led coalition of center and center-left parties known as the "Alianza", shook confidence and weakened the recovery. Also, while convertibility defeated inflation, its permanence undermined Argentina's export competitiveness and created chronic deficits in the current account of the balance of payments, which were financed by massive borrowing. The contagion effect of the Asian financial crisis of 1998 precipitated an outflow of capital that gradually mushroomed into a 4-year depression that culminated in a financial panic in November 2001. In December 2001, amidst bloody riots, President De la Rua resigned.

A legislative assembly on December 23, 2001, elected Adolfo Rodriguez Saa (PJ) to serve as President and called for general elections to choose a new president within 3 months. Rodriguez Saa announced immediately Argentina's default on $88 billion in debt (the largest sovereign debt default in history), but expressed his commitment to maintain the currency board and the peso's 1-to-1 peg to the dollar. Rodriguez Saa, however, was unable to rally support from within his own party for his temporary administration and this, combined with renewed violence in the Federal Capital, led to his resignation on December 30. Yet another legislative assembly elected Eduardo Duhalde (PJ) President on January 1, 2002 to complete the term of former President De la Rua. Duhalde assumed office in the midst of a widespread public rejection of the "political class" in Argentina. Duhalde—differentiating himself from his three predecessors—quickly abandoned the peso's 10-year-old link with the dollar, a move that was followed by a sharp currency depreciation and rising inflation. In the face of increasing poverty and continued social unrest, Duhalde moved to bolster the government's social programs and to contain inflation. He was able to stabilize the social situation, but advanced presidential elections by 6 months in order to pave the way for a president elected with a popular mandate.

[[Image:Cristina Fernández y gobernadores.jpg|thumb|220px|[[Cristina Fernández de Kirchner]] and governors.]]
In the first round of the presidential election on April 27, 2003, former President Carlos Menem (-PJ) won 24.3% of the vote, Santa Cruz Governor Nestor Kirchner (PJ) won 22%, followed by RECREAR candidate Ricardo Lopez Murphy with 16.4% and Affirmation for an Egalitarian Republic (ARI) candidate Elisa Carrio with 14.2%. Menem withdrew from the May 25 runoff election after polls showed overwhelming support for Kirchner in the second round of elections. President Kirchner assumed the presidency on May 25, 2003. He took office following the immense social and economic upheaval stemming from the financial crisis caused by a failed currency convertibility regime. Despite widespread concern, democracy and democratic institutions survived the crisis, and Nestor Kirchner took firm control as President. After taking office, Kirchner focused on consolidating his political strength and alleviating social problems. He pushed for changes in the Supreme Court and military and undertook popular measures, such as raising government salaries, pensions, and the minimum wage. On October 23, 2005, President Kirchner, bolstered by Argentina's rapid economic growth and recovery from its 2001/2002 crisis, won a major victory in the midterm legislative elections, giving him a strengthened mandate and control of a legislative majority in both the Senate and Chamber of Deputies. President Kirchner is considered by many experts to be the most powerful Argentine president since democracy was restored in 1983. In 2015 [[Mauricio Macri]] was elected due to the people wanting a change, he promised to be right-wing but he has shown to be a [[social democrat]].

== See also ==
* [[Gallery of South-American painting]]
* [[Gallery of Latin-American painting]]
* [[Terrorism in the South of Chile and Argentina]]

== External links ==
* [http://www.presidencia.gov.ar/ Presidencia de Argentina] In Spanish.

 
{{Copyright Details (US Government)}}

Source = [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35640.htm]

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[[Category:Argentina|!]]
[[Category:Spanish Empire]]
[[Category:Economic Preparedness]]
[[Category:Inflation]]
[[Category:Christian-Majority Countries]]