Armenia

There is a great deal of interest in the history of Armenia since its renewed independence in the 1990s and the ongoing debate about the genocide - an interest that informs the strong desire of a new generation of Armenian Americans to learn more about their heritage and has led to greater solidarity in the community. By integrating themes such as war, geopolitics, and great leaders, with the less familiar cultural themes and personal stories, this book will appeal to general readers and travellers interested in the region.

Originally published in 1970, this book is the result of many years of study and research in the field. It begins with a geographic and ethnic survey of the land and Armenian people and traces the land’s prehistory back to the Old Stone Age. The origins of the wine-making and bronze-working industries are discussed, in which Armenia played a pioneering role. The outstanding Armenian contribution to Church art and architecture is also explored as is the contribution of Armenia to painting, philosophy, and science. The final section is devoted to an account of Soviet Armenia.

Interventions on behalf of Armenia and Armenians have come to be identified by scholars and practitioners alike as defining moments in the history of humanitarianism. This volume reassesses these claims, critically examining a range of interventions by governments, international and diasporic organizations, and individuals that aimed to ‘save Armenians’. Drawing on perspectives from a range of disciplines, the chapters trace the evolution of these interventions from the late-nineteenth to the present day, paying particular attention to the aftermaths of the genocide and the upheavals of the post-Soviet period. Geographically, the contributions connect diverse spaces and places – the Caucasus, Russia, the Middle East, Europe, North America, South America, and Australia – revealing shifting transnational networks of aid and intervention. These chapters are followed by reflections from leading scholars in the fields of refugee history and Armenian history, Peter Gatrell and Ronald Grigor Suny. Aid to Armenia not only offers an innovative exploration into the history of Armenia and Armenians and the history of humanitarianism, but it provides a platform for practitioners to think critically about contemporary humanitarian questions facing Armenia, the South Caucasus region and the wider Armenian diaspora.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenia has struggled to establish itself, with a faltering economy, emigration of the intelligentsia and the weakening of civil society. This book explores how a new national elite has emerged and how it has constructed a new national narrative to suit Armenia’s new circumstances. The book examines the importance of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan, considers the impact of fraught relations with Turkey and the impact of relations with other neighbouring states including Russia, and discusses the poorly-developed role of the very large Armenian diaspora. Overall, the book provides a key overview to understanding the forces shaping all aspects of present-day Armenia.

An introduction to the geography, history, people, government, and culture of Armenia with emphasis on the challenges facing this newly independent nation.

The Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict for control of the mountainous territory of Nagorny Karabakh is the longest-running dispute in post-Soviet Eurasia. Laurence Broers shows how more than 20 years of dynamic territorial politics, shifting power relations, international diffusion and unsuccessful mediation efforts have contributed to the resilience of this stubbornly unresolved dispute. Looking beyond tabloid tropes of 'frozen conflict' or 'Russian land-grab', Broers unpacks the unresolved territorial issues of the 1990s and the strategic rivalry that has built up around them since.

Between 1915 and 1925 as many as 1.5 million Armenians, a minority in the Ottoman Empire, died in Ottoman Turkey, victims of execution, starvation, and death marches to the Syrian Desert. Peterson explores the American response to these atrocities, from initial reports to President Wilson until Armenia's eventual absorption into the Soviet Union.

As a new independent Republic of Armenia is established among the ruins of the Soviet Union, Armenians are rethinking their history—the processes by which they arrived at statehood in a small part of their historic homeland, and the definitions they might give to boundaries of their nation. Both a victim and a beneficiary of rival empires, Armenia experienced a complex evolution as a divided or an erased polity with a widespread diaspora. Ronald Grigor Suny traces the cultural and social transformations and interventions that created a new sense of Armenian nationality in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Perceptions of antiquity and uniqueness combined in the popular imagination with the experiences of dispersion, genocide, and regeneration to forge an Armenian nation in Transcaucasia. Suny shows that while the limits of Armenia at times excluded the diaspora, now, at a time of state renewal, the boundaries have been expanded to include Armenians who live beyond the borders of the republic.

"In Black Garden, Thomas de Waal tells the full story of this tragic quarrel and its aftermath for the first time. He travels the length and breadth of Armenia and Azerbaijan, talking to veterans, refugees and the inhabitants of ruined towns and villages. He recreates the story of the descent into conflict of two former Soviet neighbors, its disastrous consequences and the confused efforts of the "Great Powers" - Russia, France and the United states - to bring peace to the Caucasus."--BOOK JACKET.