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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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Religious missionary groups also played their part in the awakening of nations in the Orient, teaching extracts from their holy scripts in line with resurrection. From the 17th century onwards, the French Jesuits and later the Lazarists and the Dominicans opened French schools in Turkey. In the 19th century English schools also appeared, but were outnumbered by American and Protestant missionary groups. These bodies, through the distribution of their publications and the Bible in the languages of the land, and through the establishment of educational institutions, came to exert a very important influence in spreading a new mode of thought in the region. 9

The increasing trade between Europe and the Near East also facilitated the exchange of concepts.

From the first half of the 19th century we see the creation of independent or self-governing states in the Balkans and witness the expansion of the Russian Empire into Transcaucasia and Eastern Armenia. All these events had their share in the strengthening and encouraging of the Armenian renaissance.

The Armenian Church and its Role

The Armenian renaissance in the 19th century, as in the other Christian nations in the Orient, was therefore intrinsically linked to the western experience at that time; yet it would have been impossible had not the Armenian Church, the guardian of patriotism and faith, for several centuries defended and preserved the culture and civilization of the Armenian nation.

Whereas the Christian churches in the Balkans were on European soil and were adjacent to the capital of the Empire, the Armenian Church, situated in most eastern corner of Asia Minor and surrounded by more primitive nations and fanatical peoples, performed this task of preservation under much more difficult circumstances. 10

B. Bareilles confirms the important role that the Armenian Church played in the preservation of the customs. He writes: "In the church, where the Armenians have taken refuge, they have not only found a joining point but also an ark in which all the customs, habits, language and literature, everything which ties the Armenians to their background, have been well preserved."

The Armenian people, during the centuries under foreign rule, owes its national spirit and sentiment to its church. In the Near East and the Orient, where faith has always been a shelter and a defender of the survival of a nation, when the nation itself has been destroyed by the enemy, the Armenian Church has been the body in which the soul of the Armenian nation has been kept alive, waiting for its resurrection.

Bareilles writes: "For its survival the Armenians did not need to do anything more than gather around their churches and rest in their shadow, awaiting the resurrection. When, put in contact with the thoughts of the western world, they awakened, they could continue on their path without feeling that they had just awoken from several centuries of long and deep sleep. They continued their national life as if it had never been broken, united their customs and habits together and adjusted them to the new thoughts and ideas." 11/310

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