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ARMENIA

(official name, Republic of Armenia; formerly, the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, one of the Soviet Union's 15 republics).

A mountainous, landlocked state in the Southern Caucasus bordering Turkey in the west, Georgia in the north, Azerbaijan in the east, Iran and Nakhichevan (an exclave of Azerbaijan) in the south.

Area, 29,800 squ km. Population, 3,215,800 (2006 estimate), with ethnic Armenians accounting for 97.9 percent of the population; Yazidi Kurds, some 1.3 percent; and Russians, 0.5 percent. Capital, Yerevan. Official language, Armenian. Religion, Christian since A.D. 301; 94 percent of believers belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Armenia has existed, either as an independent state, a semi-autonomous principality, or as a province of some empire, since 600 B.C. It was successively incorporated in the Persian Empire, the Arab Caliphate, the Byzantine Empire, the Seljuk Empire. At one time it was overrun by the Mongols, and in the early sixteenth century it was divided between the Ottoman Empire and Persia. After Russian-Persian wars, Eastern Armenia (the Yerevan Khanate and the Karabakh Khanate) were incorporated in the Russian Empire (in 1813 and 1828). During World War I Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of the Turks, up to 1.5 millions of them dying in state-organized massacres.

As the Russian empire collapsed after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, Armenia, along with Georgia and Azerbaijan, declared independence. These years were marked by collapse of all law and order and incessant conflicts - war with Turkey, bloody fighting between Armenians and Azeris, with the British intervening, internal strife within each of the Caucasus republics, and so on. All this ended with the formation in 1922 of the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic consisting of the three South Caucasus countries - Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. In 1936 the federation ceased to exist, each of the three republics becoming constituent entities of the Soviet Union.

Armenia declared independence, thus seceding from the Soviet Union, on 23 August 1991, the last day of the abortive communist coup in Moscow. It immediately became embroiled in a military conflict with Azerbaijan over the region of Nagorny Karabakh, mostly Armenian-populated but in Soviet times administered by Azerbaijan.  In this period Armenia suffered great hardships owing to Azeri and Turkish blockade of railways on which Armenian economy heavily relied, Armenia being a landlocked country. The war ended in 1994 in a ceasefire achieved with Russia's mediation, but since then there has been little or no progress in reaching a postwar settlement at talks between the two sides mediated by the OSCE.

Politically, Armenia is a presidential republic, the president having considerable powers as the guarantor of the republic's independence, territorial integrity and security. It is up to the president, elected for a term of five years, to ensure normal functioning of the legislative, executive and legal branches of government. The country's legislature is a unicameral parliament - the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia consisting of 131 deputies. The party currently in power is the Republican Party of Armenia, a nationalist, conservative party led by the president, Serzh Sarksyan. There are numerous other parties.

The current president, Serzh Sarksyan, was elected to the office in February 2008, easily beating the other strong contender and ex-president, Levon Ter-Petrosyan. However, Ter-Petrosyan's supporters refused to accept the results of the vote and staged mass protests for more than a week after the election. These were violently suppressed by the police on March 1, with eight deaths. A state of emergency was imposed that ended 20 days later.

Armenia has the closest ties with Russia, with some 1.1 million Armenians living in Russia and supporting their relatives back home with their earnings. There is also a strong defense dimension to Armenian-Russian relations, as both countries are members of the 1992 Collective Security Treaty Organization and of the United CIS ABM System. Armenia is also home to Russia's 102^nd military base at Gyumri.

Economic ties are also strong, Russia being a major investor in Armenia's economy. Many Armenian businesses are Russian-owned. Gazprom has an 82 percent stake in Armgazprom, Armenia's gas monopolist. United Energy Systems of Russia owns four of the five units of the Razdan power plant. Much of Armenia's electricity is produced at the Armenian nuclear power plant, for which Russia supplies uranium fuel. The Yerevan aluminum-processing plant is fully owned by the Russky Aluminy Co. There are plans for expanding these economic ties - e.g., Gazprom has announced its intention to build a refinery near Megri, close to the border with Iran.

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