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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].
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.
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.
==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 Empire 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".
==Government and Political Conditions==
==Government and Political Conditions==