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This article covers the Armenians as an ethnic group, not Armenians in the sense of citizens of Armenia.
| Total population: | 2004: 8 million (est.) | |
| Significant populations in: | Armenia: 3 – 3.5 million 1 (est.) Russia: 2 – 2.5 million 2 (est.) Georgia: 400,000 4 (est.) United States: 385,488 (2000 census) – 1 million 3 (est.) 3 France: 250,000 6 (est.) Iran: 200,000 6 (est.) Nagorno-Karabakh: 156,000 5 (est.) South America: 150,000 6 (est.) Syria: 100,000 6 (est.) Lebanon: 75,000 6 (est.) Iraq: 60,000 6 {est.}
CanadaCanada historically the Dominion of Canada is the second-largest, and northernmost, country in the world. It is a decentralized federation of 10 provinces and 3 territories, governed as a constitutional monarchy, and formed in 1867 through an act of Confe: 40,505 (2001 census) – 100,000 3 (est.) Rest of world: 100,000 6 (est.) | |
| Language | Armenian languageArmenian is an Indo-European language spoken in the Caucasus mountains (particularly in the Armenian Republic) and also used by the Armenian Diaspora. It is its own independent branch of the family of the Indo-European languages, with no living close rela, local languages of various countries | |
| Religion | Armenian Apostolic Church Armenian Catholic Especially in diaspora, miscellaneous Protestant denominations | |
| Related ethnic groups | Greeks | |
Until modern times, the history of the Armenians is the history of ArmeniaThe earliest known culture in what is now Armenia was the Shulaveri-Shomu culture, who occupied the central Transcaucasus roughly 6000 4000 BC. Another early culture in the area was the Kura-Araxes culture ( 4000 2200 BC,) which developed into the Trialet, a name which designated a shifting region, but a reasonably continuous people in the Caucasus and eastern Asia Minor. Armenia first emerged into history around 800 BC as part of the Kingdom of Urartu or Van; the first Armenian state, founded in 190 BC. At its zenith ( 95– 65 BC), that state extended from the all the way to what is now eastern Turkey and Lebanon. It became part of the Roman Empire in 64 BC.
In AD 301, Armenia became the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion (see #Religion . During its later political eclipses, Armenia depended on the church to preserve and protect its unique identity. From around 1100 to 1350, the focus of Armenian nationalism was the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, which had close ties to the Crusader States.
As with virtually all other nations of this region, between the 4th and 19th centuries, Armenia was conquered and ruled by, among others, Persians, Byzantines, Arabs, Mongols, and Ottoman Turks. This last was to prove particularly disastrous, with two genocidal campaigns against the Armenians in 1894– 1896 and 1915– 1916.
In the 1820s parts of historic Armenia under Persian control centering on Yerevan and Lake Sevan were incorporated into Russia. Following the breakup of Russian empire in the aftermath of World War I for a brief period from 1918 to 1920, it was an independent republic. In late 1920, the communists came to power following an invasion of Armenia by the Red Army, and in 1922, Armenia became part of the Transcaucasian Federative Soviet Socialist Republic, later the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic ( 1936– September 21, 1991), now the independent state of Armenia.