Forgotten World (111): Armenia
It’s time for another week of postings in my long-running series called Forgotten World – a look at parts of the world that hardly feature in our media or thoughts. You can check the previous 110 entries here.
Armenia was one of the earliest Christian civilisations and its first churches were founded in the fourth century. An independent republic was proclaimed at the end of the First World War but it was short-lived, lasting only until the beginning of the 1920s when the Bolsheviks incorporated it into the Soviet Union. When that empire in turn collapsed in 1991, Armenia regained independence but retained a Russian military base at Gyumri.
In the mid-1990s the government embarked on an economic reform programme which brought some stability and growth. The country became a member of the Council of Europe in 2001. However, unemployment and poverty remain widespread. Armenia’s economic problems are aggravated by a trade blockade, imposed by neighbouring Turkey and Azerbaijan, since the dispute over the enclave Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenia has a huge diaspora and has always experienced waves of emigration, but the exodus of recent years has caused real alarm. It is estimated that Armenia has lost up to a quarter of its population since independence, reducing the population to 3 million.