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Index

Armenia

The Urartu Civilisation

Victory for Independence

Artashisian Dynasty on the Armenian Throne

Armenia caught between Rome and the Arsacids

The Acceptance of Christianity

Defending Christianity

Armenia Under the Bagratouni Dynasty

Cilicia - the New Armenia

Armenia Under Turanian Rule

The Renaissance or the Resurrection of Armenia

The Eastern Question

Russia in the Caucasus

The Armenian Question

Battle on Two Fronts

Tsarist Russia Against the Armenians

The Revolution of the Young Turks and the Armenian People on the Eve of World War I

The First World War

The Resurrection of Armenia

Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

- Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

Eastern Armenia

Western Armenia

"The Fateful Years" (1914-1917)

"Hopes and Emotions" (March-October, 1917)

The Bolshevik Revolution and Armenia

Transcaucasia Adrift (November, 1917

Dilemmas (March-April, 1918)

War and Independence (April-May, 1918)

The Republics of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia

The Suppliants (June-October, 1918)

In conclusion

Soviet Armenia

The Second Independent Republic of Armenia

Epilogue

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One of the notable designs suggesting that Armenian architecture developed several centuries before the architecture in the western world, is that of the triangle-shaped roofs in Ani 141, mentioned earlier, which date to the end of the 10th century. The Gothic style in the western world, with its interesting roofs over the elliptical port chamber was only introduced in the 12th century in I'lle-de France. 142

In his second book, Strzygowski writes: "Armenian architecture, by the introduction of the dome in the building of the large churches during the 5th and 6th centuries, had paved the way for the architectural style of the Middle Ages in the western world. During the 10th century, with the cathedral in Ani which is the masterpiece of the great Armenian architect Tiridat, they created the foundation for the transition from the architectural art of the western world to the Gothic style. In fact, in creating their masterpieces, western artists had accomplished nothing more than continuing along the same path which the Armenian pioneers had paved in front of them." 143

The Meaning of the Bagratouni Armenia and Its Fate

Bagratouni Armenia, despite its short existence, played a large role in the history of the Armenian people. It is because of Bagratouni Armenia, and the creation of a New Armenia in Cilicia, that an independent Armenian government existed during the Middle Ages and during the peak of the medieval civilisations.

The Bagratouni era was the forging period from which the modern Armenia emerged, the link to the history of an independent Armenia during Ancient times. In contrast to other nations, who recount their lost civilisations, Armenians are able to claim a continuation from their early independent history, to their nation today.

Bagratouni Armenia, for the Armenian people, was the symbol which connected the history of their nation to the present time. Bagratouni Armenia constitutes a link in the long history of the Armenian people, a link moulded in the most precious metal. As Macler judges, the two centuries of Bagratouni Armenia characterize the most national phase in the history of Armenia, the period during which the Armenian people and their leaders truly envisaged the heritage they would leave behind and displayed Armenian creativity and spirit of development in its full capacity.

At the same time, this period was instrumental in the development of the "character" of Armenia. When the Bagratouni kingdom was first created and the Bagratouni family, with a firm and steady hand, revived reconnected the broken lifeline of Armenia, the country was no more than a province within the Byzantine Empire. By the end of its life, it was more than just a symbolic western nation which disappeared. Thus, Jacques de Morgan writes: "The history of the Armenian people is the history about an outstanding Indo-European bastion which faces the Asiatic world."

Earlier, we looked at the factors which contributed to the creation of an independent Armenia and its rebirth as a nation. These factors include the the courage and stamina of the mountain-dwellers of Armenia; the political and national insight of one of the greatest Armenian noble families, the Bagratouni; the ever present guidance of the church; and finally the foreign policy, the fine-tuned balancing act that Armenia orchestrated between the Byzantine Empire and the Arab Empire, during a time of rebirth of the former and the disintegration of the latter.