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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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Russia in the Caucasus

"From a European perspective, Russia can be regarded as a primitive nation. But from an Asiatic perspective, it is a great connecting factor between East and West." Jean Loris Melikoff

The End of Armenian Seclusion

The settlement of the Turanian tribes in Asia Minor and their succession to Byzantine rule had a huge impact on the situation of Armenia regarding the role of the country as the link between East and West.

When Constantinople fell into the hands of the Turks during the 15th century, Georgia and Armenia discovered that the only way to establish contact with Europe was closed to them. From that point on, the Armenians not only lost their independence but also their unique position on the border between two civilisations.

Whereas during the Roman and Byzantine Empires, the Euphrates River, which passed through Armenia, constituted the border between East and West, with the emergence of the Ottoman Empire the border was moved all the way to the Danube River (at one point it seemed it might stretch as far as the Elbe River).

The mainland link between Armenia and Europe was restored during the 19th century, but not, as one might have expected, through the advancement of the European major powers towards Constantinople, but through the Russian advance into the Orient. The Russian Empire, which was rapidly expanding eastward, entered the Caucasus and once more connected Armenia to Europe, putting an end to several centuries of seclusion of the country.

The Wars Between Russia and Persia



The wars between Russia and the Ottoman Empire during the 18th century took place on the western shores of the Black Sea, since Russia, in those days, did not share any borders with the Ottoman Empire in Asia.

Present-day Armenia, Azerbaijan and Daghestan were not part of the Ottoman Empire, but an integral part of Persia; Persia also had control over Georgia, although Georgia had managed to remain a national state until the end of the 18th century.

Thus it was not from the Ottoman Empire but from Persia that Russia, at the turn of the 19th century, after several wars took Georgia, Azerbaijan and Eastern Armenia. 3

The famous Russian ruler, Peter the Great, hailed as the founder of modern Russia, created the drive to extend Russian territory into this region. He saw the Caucasus as the key for advance into the Orient, but he also wanted to prevent the Ottoman Empire from reaching the Caspian Sea. Therefore, he planned to put Armenia and Georgia under Russian protection. 4 For this reason he established contacts with the Armenians of Karabakh and received their leader, Ori. 6 The plans of Peter the Great resulted in the first war against Persia, with the Russians advancing all the way to Derbend (1722) and even to Baku. Peter the Great had intended to invite the Armenians to settle in Baku 7, but the plan was never realised since the Russians, following the death of the tsar, withdrew from the region.