THE HISTORY OF ARMENIA FROM THE ORIGINS TO THE PRESENT

Journal of History Culture and Art Research, 2019

The Iranian civilization, which was the basis of the Armenian culture until the Conversion to Christianity, was far from the historiographic tradition in comparison to Greeks and Romans even if they portrayed their own history by means of reliefs. In this respect, there is a cultural affinity between the absence of historiography before Christianity in the Armenian society and the absence of the literary tradition in pre-Islamic Iran. However, this cultural relationship, which lasted until the fourth century, modified after the adoption of Christianity by the Armenians and caused to emerge the idea of historiography among the Armenians. Thus, there is a parallel between the beginning of the custom of historiography and the acceptance of Christianity in the Armenian society. The general structure of the Armenian historiography, originally based on patristic roots, was shaped after the Battle of Vartanants (Avarayr) in 451 and turned into an ideological struggle for Armenians. This idea shows that the Armenians tend to create historical depth and common destiny in the late antiquity. Following this, the collapse of the Sassanid Empire and the arrival of Muslims to the world of Armenians naturally opened a new era in Armenian historiography. This period was built directly on the idea of "opposition" and "other". This study aims to establish a direct connection between the acceptance of Christianity by Armenians and the start of historiography tradition by the intellectual Armenians and examine the reasons why historiography flourished for Armenians.

Evidence of a long history is present throughout Armenia today, in monuments, artifacts, and books, as well as in people's minds. It is not surprising to find a village miller, who, while sharing a midday meal with a visitor, might describe the nation's boundaries under Tigran the Great in the 1st century BC. Or he might recount the events that took place on the morning of May 26, 451, at Avarair, when his ancestors fought a losing battle with the Persians - which was considered a victory, nonetheless, since the weakened Persians withdrew, allowing the Armenians to keep their new Christian faith. The Armenian reading of history often incorporates its own sense of justice and injustice in addition to facts, a dynamic that one needs to comprehend to understand modern Armenia.

As early as 1889 I was interested in Armenian history, and I made a brief incursion into this interesting subject in a volume entitled Mission Scientifique au Caucase, fitudes archeologlques et historiques. Tome II. Recherches sur les origines des peuples du Caucase, But, as the title shows, this research was not restricted to the Armenians and the history of Armenia was only included in its main aspects, my attention being more particularly directed to the questions as to the origins of the Kartvelian peoples.

This essay was written with a particular audience in mind. The audience in question may have heard of or even seen Armenia firsthand, known some of its people, food, or holidays, but its encounter with Armenian culture in all its depth and richness has remained in a fog of mystery. My purpose in writing this essay was thus to convey to such an audience some of the meanings which I experienced and conceptualized firsthand as belonging to the core of the Armenian world so as to lift this fog and afford intelligibility and insight. Armenia as I experienced it was replete with paradoxical meanings. These various meanings not only revealed truths about the land and its people but raised a host of questions that cannoteven ought not-be easily answered. Indeed, this essay is an attempt to chart out some of these meanings in as much detail as is necessary for an understanding of Armenia that is descriptively rich and which seeks to leverage rather than obfuscate the very sense of curiosity that prompts these questions into their existence. By the end, the reader should be able to imagine and think about Armenia along the following two dimensions: (b) the faith and (c) the law. The question concerning Armenia's faith seeks to address core aspects of the history and nature of Armenian Christianity, its relationship to pre-Christian Armenian paganism, as well as its mythological substructure. The question concerning the law, then, seeks to address core aspects of Armenians' attitudes toward rule-following, social complexity, and institutions, outlining some possible causes of their deficiency.

Eurasian Geography and Economics, 2022

Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, 2006

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, numerous studies on its former republics have been published. Armenia is no exception. In this article, I analyze the development of literature and published material on Armenia studies. Although this article does not encompass all of the literature published on Armenia, it should serve as a reference point for scholars who are interested in Armenia or want to use Armenia as a case study in their research.