Armenia
Armenia (i/ɑrˈmiːniə/ Armenian: Հայաստան Hayastan), officially the Republic of Armenia (Armenian: Հայաստանի Հանրապետություն, Hayastani Hanrapetut’yun), is a landlocked, mountainous country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe,[9] it is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north, the de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan to the south.
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A former republic of the Soviet Union, Armenia is an emerging democracy and as of 2011 was negotiating with the European Union to become an associate member. It has the right to be an EU member provided it meets necessary standards and criteria.[14][15][16][17] The Government of Armenia holds European integration as a key priority in its foreign policy.[18]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia
Armenians (Armenian: հայեր, hayer [hɑˈjɛɾ]) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.
The Republic of Armenia and the unrecognized de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic are the two countries where Armenians form a majority, both with a nearly homogeneous population. Because of a wide-ranging and long-lasting diaspora, an estimated total of 5-7 million people of full or partial Armenian ancestry live outside of Armenia. As a result of the Armenian Genocide, a large number of survivors fled to many countries throughout the world. The largest Armenian populations today exist in Russia, the United States, France, Georgia, Iran, Lebanon, and Syria.
Most Armenians adhere to the Armenian Apostolic Church, a non-Chalcedonian church, which is also the world's oldest national church. Christianity began to spread in Armenia soon after Jesus's death, due to the efforts of two of his apostles, St. Thaddeus and St. Bartholomew.[3] In the early 4th century, the Kingdom of Armenia became the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion.[4]
Armenian is an Indo-European language. It has two mutually intelligible and written forms: Eastern Armenian, today spoken mainly in Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Iran and the former Soviet republics, and Western Armenian, used in the historical Western Armenia and, after the Armenian Genocide, primarily amongst the Armenian diaspora. The unique Armenian alphabet was invented in 405 AD by the scholar and evangelizer Mesrop Mashtots.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenians
Armenian language
The Armenian language (Armenian: հայերեն, Armenian pronunciation: [hɑjɛˈɾɛn], hayeren) is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenians. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora. It has its own script, the Armenian alphabet, and is of interest to linguists for its distinctive phonological developments within Indo-European.
Linguists classify Armenian as an independent branch of the Indo-European language family.[2] Armenian shares a number of major innovations with Greek,[3] and some linguists group these two languages together with Phrygian and the Indo-Iranian family into a higher-level subgroup of Indo-European which is defined by such shared innovations as the augment. More recently, others have proposed a Balkan grouping including Greek, Armenian, Phrygian and Albanian.[4][5]
Armenian has a long literary history, with a fifth-century Bible translation as its oldest surviving text. Its vocabulary has been heavily influenced by Western Middle Iranian languages, particularly Parthian, and to a lesser extent by Greek, Latin, Old French, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and other languages throughout its history. There are two standardized modern literary forms, Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian, with which most contemporary dialects are mutually intelligible. The divergent and almost extinct Lomavren language is a Romani-influenced dialect with an Armenian grammar and a largely Romani-derived vocabulary, including Romani numbers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_language
Armenian Proverbs
Hope
Transliteration: Arevn ampi tak chi mna.
Translation: The sun won't stay behind the cloud.
¶ Խնձորը ծառից հեռու չի ընկնում։
Transliteration: Khndzor@ tzarits heroo chi @nknoom.
Translation: The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Meaning: Children observe daily and — in their behaviour — often follow the example of their parents.
References
Armenia
[1]^ a b "The Constitution of the Republic of Armenia (with amendments)". Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia. 5 July 1995. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
[2]^ Asatryan, Garnik; Arakelova, Victoria (Yerevan 2002). The Ethnic Minorities in Armenia. Part of the OSCE.
[3]^ "The World Fact Book – Armenia". Central Intelligence Agency. Archived from the original on 19 July 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-17.
[4]^ "Statistical Service of Armenia". World Economic Outlook Database, October 2009. IMF. Archived from the original on 10 October 2010. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
[5]^ "News.am". World Economic Outlook Database, October 2009. IMF. Retrieved 1 January 2011.
[6]^ a b c d "Armenia". International Monetary Fund. Retrieved 2012-04-17.
[7]^ "Distribution of family income – Gini index". The World Factbook. CIA. Retrieved 2009-09-01.
[8]^ "Human Development Report 2010". United Nations. 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
[9]^ Armenia may be considered to be in Asia and/or Europe. The UN classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook "Armenia". The World Factbook. CIA. Archived from the original on 10 October 2010. Retrieved 2 September 2010. "Armenia". National Geographic. , "Armenia". Encyclopædia Britannica. and Oxford Reference Online "Oxford Reference". Oxford Reference Online. Retrieved 20 October 2012. also place Armenia in Asia. Conversely, some sources place Armenia in Europe such as "Europe". Worldatlas. Archived from the original on 15 August 2010. Retrieved 2 September 2010.[unreliable source?]
[10]^ "The conversion of Armenia to Christianity was probably the most crucial step in its history. It turned Armenia sharply away from its Iranian past and stamped it for centuries with an intrinsic character as clear to the native population as to those outside its borders, who identified Armenia almost at once as the first state to adopt Christianity". (Garsoïan, Nina (1997). In ed. R.G. Hovannisian. Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. Volume 1, p.81.).
[11]^ Grousset, René (1947). Histoire de l'Arménie (1984 ed.). Payot. p. 122.. Estimated dates vary from 284 to 314. Garsoïan (op.cit. p.82), following the research of Ananian, favours the latter.
[12]^ The republic has separation of church and state
[13]^ "The Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, Article 8.1". President.am. Archived from the original on 20 December 2010. Retrieved 2010-12-30.
[14]^ "How Armenia Could Approach the European Union" (PDF). Retrieved 2013-03-12.
[15]^ "EUROPA – Press Releases – EU launches negotiations on Association Agreements with Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia". Europa (web portal). 15 July 2010. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
[16]^ "Armenia-EU association agreement may be concluded shortly | Armenia News –". News.am. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
[17]^ "3rd PLENARY ROUND OF THE EU-ARMENIA NEGOTIATIONS ON THE ASSOCIATION AGREEMENT". Ec.europa.eu. 2010-12-15. Retrieved 2012-08-28.
[18]^ "Information Center – Official News – The Government of the Republic of Armenia". Gov.am. 27 November 2010. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
Armenians
[1]^ "2001 Armenian National Census: De Jure Population (Urban, Rural) by Age and Ethnicity". National Statistical Service of the Republic of Armenia. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
[2]^ National Statistical Service of Nagorno-Karabach Republic. "De Jure Population (Urban, Rural) by Age and Ethnicity" (PDF). Archived from the original on 5 March 2009. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
[3]^ a b c see Hastings, Adrian (2000). A World History of Christianity. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 289. ISBN 978-0-8028-4875-8.
[4]^ "Armenia first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion.". Archived from the original on 2011-02-11. Retrieved 2007-02-27.
Armenian language
[1]^ Crystal, David (2001). A dictionary of language. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 24. ISBN 9780226122038.
[2]^ Armenian language – Britannica Online Encyclopedia
[3]^ "The Armenian Language".
[4]^ Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction, Benjamin W. Fortson, John Wiley and Sons, 2009, p383.
[5]^ Hans J. Holm (2011): “Swadesh lists” of Albanian Revisited and Consequences for its position in the Indo-European Languages. The Journal of Indo-European Studies, Volume 39, Number 1&2.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenians
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_language