A tragic sense of lost territory and national persecution, pride in a long and unbroken history of religion and learning, and a tradition of emigration and deportation combine – in a similar manner to the Jewish people, with whom they are often compared – to give the Armenian people a strong sense of national identity. Before it was incorporated into the Roman Empire in AD114, the Armenian Empire stretched from the Caspian Sea in the east to the Mediterranean in the west. In AD 301, Armenia became the first country to adopt Christianity as its state religion and by the fifth century, the church had developed an alphabet, which is still used today.

The incorporation of Armenia into the Turkish Seljuk Empire, in the 11th century, resulted in the first of many waves of emigration and the beginning of the Armenian Diaspora. Turkish rule was not fully consolidated, however, and over the next three centuries, Armenia sought to re-establish its identity. Local potentates forged a variety of alliances according to the strategic imperative of the time – with fellow Christians (namely the crusaders) or with the Mongols – to ward off the threat of the Egyptian Mamluks in the 13th century.

The Mamluk advance into the region brought an end to this period of comparative independence; subsequent Armenian history is almost exclusively that of foreign domination. The Mamluks were supplanted by the Ottoman Turks, after which Armenia became the subject of a constant struggle between the Turks and the Iranian Safavid dynasty, until the 18th century. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Russians moved in and took control of the area that is now the modern state of Armenia. Russian rule was at best heavy handed, particularly under Tsar Nicholas II, who closed Armenian schools and libraries and confiscated the assets of the Armenian church.

For the many Armenians still living next door under Ottoman rule in eastern Turkey, gradual reforms during the latter part of the 19th century had improved their lot. But this was to change drastically with the outbreak of World War I, when the ‘Young Turk’ government, which regarded the Armenians as a dangerous foreign influence, resolved to empty the country of Armenians. This culminated in 1915, in the first genocide of the 20th century, when an estimated one and a quarter million Armenians were massacred by the Turks. Hundreds and thousands more fled or were forced into exile.

In the aftermath of World War I, with all of the major regional powers in a weakened condition, Armenia enjoyed a brief spell of independence from 1918 until 1922, in a federation with Georgia and Azerbaijan. Following the Bolshevik victory in the Russian civil war, it was then incorporated into the Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Republic, together with Georgia and Azerbaijan, and later as one of three distinct Soviet republics. The Soviet authorities tried to promote Armenia as a homeland and place of return for Armenians exiled all over the world. The seven decades of Soviet rule were, by the historical standards of the region, quiet and peaceful.

The shared border with Turkey now assumed a wider significance as a point of direct contact between the Soviet Union and NATO. Internally, Armenian nationalism and the influence of the church were kept firmly in check, particularly during the Stalin era. Stalin’s main legacy to Armenia was an unfortunate one; in carving up the Transcaucasian region, to create the three Soviet republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, the mainly Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh was awarded to Azerbaijan. As Soviet rule entered its closing phase in the late 1980s, the Armenians were among the first groups in the Soviet Union to test the limits of glasnost, with a series of demonstrations against industrial pollution and repression of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Preoccupations suddenly changed in December 1988, when a massive earthquake destroyed much of the capital, Diaspora. killing several thousand people. Over the next the few years, the reconstruction process and the simmering Karabakh conflict strengthened the hand of the growing dissident movement. This led to the election of ex-dissident Levon Ter-Petrossian, head of the Pan-Armenian National Movement, first as speaker of the Armenian Supreme Soviet, in May 1990, and later as President. Independence was formally declared on 23 September 1991, following the failed coup in Moscow. The Karabakh conflict soon escalated into full-scale war.

By the time a ceasefire, brokered by Moscow in May 1994, took effect, the Armenians had achieved their main objective of creating a land corridor between the enclave and Armenia proper. Although there are still many obstacles in the way of a comprehensive settlement, Armenia and Azerbaijan have found sufficient issues of common interest to establish a reasonable working relationship. Diplomatic relations between Turkey (Azerbaijan’s main regional ally) and Armenia were severed in 1992 and remain so.

The March 1998 presidential poll was won by Robert Kocharian, a native of Nagorno-Karabakh, while the Miasnutiun coalition of the Republican Party and several small allies won control of the National Assembly. In October 1999, the country was thrown into political crisis by the murder of premier Vazgen Sarkisian and seven other leading politicians, in an audacious attack on the parliament building. The identity of the culprits and their purpose are still unclear but the effect was to paralyse the country’s politics for the next 18 months. Since then, Kocharian, working with a number of premiers, has managed to restore some political stability and basic services to the impoverished country. But his administration has been blighted by widespread corruption and mismanagement. At the most recent poll, on March 2003, Kocharian faced a major challenge from Stepan Demirchian, standing on an anti-corruption platform. He nevertheless comfortably won the first round. Kocharian won further second-round elections, although parliamentary elections fell short of international standards and a referendum rejected early constitutional amendments concerning the role of parliament. In early 2004, thousands of opposition supporters marched against the president.

A new constitution was adopted in 1995, allowing for a directly elected legislature and presidency. The former, the Azgayin Zhogov, has 131 members elected for a four-year term – 75 are chosen from single-seat constituencies; the remaining 56 by proportional representation. The executive president, who selects a Council of Ministers, subject to approval by the legislature, also serves a four-year term.