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Armenia

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Ayaslu, Armenia Photos|

The 71 years of Soviet rule in Armenia were a period of relative security from hostile neighbours, of great economic development, and of cultural and educational achievements. But full expression of Armenian national aspirations was impossible under the imposed Soviet regime. Particularly harsh were the years of Joseph Stalin’s rule (1928–53), during which state terror was used to suppress the political and intellectual elite in the republic, to crush peasant resistance to the collectivization of agriculture, and to destroy the influence of the church.|

The first, unsuccessful, raid into Armenia in 640 found the defense of the country in the hands of the Byzantine general Procopius and the Theodor Rshtuni. Unable to prevent the pillage of Dvin in 642, Theodor in 643 gained a victory over another Arab army and was named commander in chief of the Armenian army by the Byzantine emperor Pogonatus. In 653, after the truce with Muʿāwiyah, then Arab governor of Syria, Constans voluntarily surrendered Armenia to the Arabs, who granted it virtual autonomy and appointed Theodor as governor ().|

You can use NobelCom's prepaid phone cards to stay in touch with all your friends, family and business partners in Armenia without making any compromise on call quality.|

Diplomatic tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan reached a high point in 2012 when Azerbaijan gave an official pardon to an Azerbaijani army officer convicted of having murdered an Armenian officer in in 2004. The Azerbaijani officer, Ramil Safarov, had served eight years of a life sentence in Hungary before being transferred back to Azerbaijan, where he received a hero’s welcome.|

During the Soviet period political life was directed by the Communist Party of Armenia, which was controlled by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Major political parties now include the Armenian National Movement, a moderate nationalist party that has governed Armenia since independence; the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), which ruled Armenia during the brief period of independence before the Soviet takeover; and the Democratic Party of Armenia, the successor to the Communist Party.|

More than 15 soil types occur in Armenia, including light brown alluvial soils found in the plain and the Ararat Plain, poor in humus but still intensively cultivated; rich brown soils, found at higher elevations in the hill country; and chernozem (black earth) soils, which cover much of the higher steppe region. Much of Armenia’s soil—formed partly by residues of volcanic lava—is rich in nitrogen, potash, and phosphates. The labour required to clear the surface stones and debris from the soil, however, has made farming in Armenia difficult.|

The hierarch of the Armenian Church is the . The current Catholicos is Garegin II, who resides at the Holy See of Echmiadzin, west of Yerevan. However, a minority of the church outside Armenia is under the jurisdiction of the Catholicos of Cilicia, who resides in Antilias in Lebanon, as a result of a dispute that emerged while Armenia was under Communist rule.|

Azerbaijan and Armenia on Monday both reported more losses in a sharp escalation of fighting over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, with 18 soldiers now confirmed dead.|

Armenia was a founding member of the Commonwealth of Independent States. In 1992 Armenia joined the United Nations.|

The by the nobles of Smbat’s son , who had been accepted as “prince of princes” by the Arabs in 862, to be king of Armenia in 885 was recognized by both caliph and emperor. Throughout the 10th century, art and literature flourished. (the Merciful; 952–977) transferred his capital to and began to make it into one of the architectural gems of the .|

After the defeat of the Seleucid king (the Great) by Rome at the (winter 190–189 ), his two Armenian satraps, (Artashes) and (Zareh), established themselves, with Roman consent, as kings of and , respectively, thus becoming the creators of an independent Armenia. built his capital, Artashat (Artaxata), on the Aras River near modern Yerevan. The Greek geographer Strabo refers to the capital of Sophene as Carcathiocerta. An attempt to end the division of Armenia into an eastern and a western part was made about 165 when the Artaxiad ruler sought to suppress his rival, but it was left to his descendant (the Great; 95–55 ) to establish, by his conquest of Sophene, a unity that was to last almost 500 years.|

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