ABSTRACT
The Armenians are an ultimately Indo-European people with an ancient history, who are first identifiable in the sixth century bc in the ruins of the kingdom of Urartu aroundLakeVan inwhat is nownorth-easternTurkey. Theirmost dramatic historical era was the first century bc, when they resisted the eastwards spread of the Roman Empire, in association with Mithradates the Great of Pontus, and formed a valuable buffer state between Rome and Parthia during the struggles for power between Mark Antony, Cleopatra and Octavius Caesar (later Augustus). Christianity was recognised as the state religion in ad 300, and the Armenian Church centred in Etchmiadzin is theworld’s oldest establishedChristianChurch. The uniqueArmenian alphabet was derived from theAramaic by StMesrop in the early fifth century. Traditionally skilled in commerce and with a wide diaspora, not least in the United States, they are considered by some to be an even more truly cosmopolitan people than the Jews.
