Armenia

Armenia is a country in West Asia situated in the southwestern region of Asia in the Cucasus. This former Soviet Republic is bounded by Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Iran. It is a landlocked country. Yerevan is its capital city, and Armenian is its official language. Surface area of this country is 29,800 sq km and the currency is dram.

The ancient Armenia was an independent country with much bigger area compared to the present one, but now it is divided between Turkey, Russia, and Persia. Until the first decade of the 20th century it was occupying a plateau west of the Caspian Sea and north of Kurdistan Mts, interspersed with fertile valleys, which culminates in Mt. Ararat, in which the Euphrates and Tigris have their sources.

The Armenia fell under Turkish rule in the 16th century, but with the decline of the Ottomans was divided among Turkey, Iran and Russia. The Turks forcibly deported 1.75 million Armenians to the deserts of Syria and Mesopotamia in 1915. Over 600,000 of Armenians were either killed or died on forced marches.

In 1922, the Russian Armenia was absorbed into the former Soviet Union, but gained independence as a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States in December 1991.

There has been conflict with neighbouring Azerbaijan since 1998 over the ethnically Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and the predominantly Azerbaijani territory of Naxcivan.