ABSTRACT

The Armenian Republic, from 1920 until 1991 part of the Soviet Union, is located between the Black and Caspian Seas, between Georgia and Azerbaijan on the north and east, and between Turkey and Iran on the south and east. Once a potent kingdom bridging the borders of Europe and Asia - in 1947 it celebrated its two thousandth anniversary - modern Armenia was reduced to its present 29,000 square kilometres (10,670 square miles) through a succession of invasions and historic circumstances. Accepting Christianity as its state religion as early as AD 301 - the first state to do so - the Armenians quickly found themselves in conflict with their non-Christian neighbours.