September 21, 1991, the Armenian parliament unanimously declared a sovereign state outside the Soviet Union and two days later, on September 23, Armenia declared its independence.
INDEPENDENT, POST-SOVIET ARMENIA
On October 16, 1991, barely a month after independence, Armenians went to the polls. Levon Ter-Petrossian, representing the Armenian National Movement (ANM), won 83 percent of the vote. Neither the Dashnaks nor the Communists could accept their defeat and, ironically, they found common cause against Levon Ter-Petrossian’s government.
Receiving a clear mandate did not mean that the government of Levon Ter-Petrossian would be free from internal or external pressures. The major internal problem was the virtual blockade of Armenia by Azerbaijan, exacerbated by the plight of the hundreds of thousands of Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan and the earthquake zone. Other domestic issues involved the implementation of free-market reforms, the establishment of democratic governmental structures, and the privatization of land. The external concerns involved future relations with Russia, Turkey, Georgia, and Iran. The immediate concern, however, was the conflict with Azerbaijan over mountainous Karabakh and the political uncertainties in Georgia, which contained 400,000 Armenians.
Ter-Petrossian attempted to assure Turkey that Armenia had no territorial claims against it and
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that it desired neighborly diplomatic and economic relations. Rather than espousing an ideologically dogmatic and biased outlook, Armenia was to have a pragmatic and flexible foreign policy. In the long run, however, Armenian efforts to establish political and economic relations with Turkey did not materialize. The Turks not only maintained their blockade of Armenia, but also insisted that the issue of Karabakh had to be resolved before anything else could be discussed. The Azeri blockade had resulted in food and fuel shortages and, since 1989, had virtually halted supplies for earthquake reconstruction. The closing down of the Medzamor Nuclear Energy Plant in 1989 meant that Armenian citizens, including the many refugees, would have to face many difficult winters.
The presidential election of 1996 was marred by accusations of fraud. A broad coalition supported Vazgen Manoukian, the candidate of the National Democratic Union, but the election results gave Ter-Petrossian a victory with 51 percent of the vote. The opposition accused the ruling party of massive frauds in the counting of the ballots. Foreign observers cited some irregularities, but concluded that these did not significantly affect the outcome. Continued rallies, riots, and some shootings resulted in arrests and the ban on all public gatherings for a short time. By early 1998, a major split over Karabakh had occurred between Levon Ter-Petrossian and members of his own cabinet. Prime Minister Robert Kocharian, Defense Minister Vazgen Sargisian, and the Interior and National Security Minister Serge Sargisian joined forces against the president, who was forced to resign. Kocharian succeeded him.
The parliamentary elections of May 1999 reshaped the balance of power. The Unity Coalition, led by Vazgen Sargisian, and the People’s Party of Armenia, led by Karen Demirjian, won the elections and left Kocharian without any control over the parliamentary majority. Sargisian became prime minister, and Demirjian became the speaker of Parliament. They removed Serge Sargisian, a Karabakhi and Kocharian’s closest ally, from his post of minister of the interior. Karen Demirjian, meanwhile, became the speaker of Parliament. But on October 27, five assassins entered the building of the National Assembly of Armenia and killed Sargisian and Demirjian, as well as two deputy speakers, two ministers, and four deputies. With the government in the hands of Kocharian, the economy at a standstill, and the Karabakh conflict unresolved, Armenians by the tens of thousands voted with their feet and emigrated from the country. See also: ARMENIAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH; AZERBAIJAN AND AZERIS; CAUCASUS; DASHNAKTSUTIUN; NATIONALITIES POLICIES, SOVIET; NATIONALITIES POLICIES, TSARIST; NAGORNO- KARABAKH; TER-PETROSSIAN, LEVON
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bournoutian, George A. (1992). The Khanate of Erevan under Qajar Rule, 1795-1828. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Press. Bournoutian, George A. (1994). A History of Qarabagh. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Press. Bournoutian, George A. (1998). Russia and the Armenians of Transcaucasia: 1797-1889. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Press. Bournoutian, George A. (1999). The Chronicle of Abraham of Crete. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Press. Bournoutian, George A. (1999). History of the Wars: 1721-1738. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Press. Bournoutian, George A. (2001). Armenians and Russia: 1626-1796. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Press. Bournoutian, George A. (2002). A Concise History of the Armenian People. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Press. Bournoutian, George A. (2002). The Journal of Zak’aria of Agulis. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Press. Hovannisian, Richard. G. (1967). Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918. Berkeley: University of California Press. Hovannisian, Richard. G. (1971-1996). The Armenian Republic. 4 vols. Berkeley: University of California Press. Libaridian, Gerard. (1991). Armenia at the Crossroads. Wa-tertown, MA: Blue Crane Publishing. Libaridian, Gerard. (1999). The Challenge of Statehood. Watertown, MA: Blue Crane Publishing. Matossian, Mary Allerton Kilbourne. (1962). The Impact of Soviet Policies in Armenia. Leiden: E.J. Brill. Nalbandian, Louise. (1963). The Armenian Revolutionary Movement. Berkeley: University of California Press. Suny, Ronald Grigor. (1993). Looking toward Ararat. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
GEORGE A. BOURNOUTIAN
The Armenian Apostolic Church has a long and ancient history. Its received tradition remembers the apostolic preaching of Saint Bartholomew and Saint Thaddeus among the Armenians of Edessa and surARMENIAN REVOLUTIONARY FEDERATION rounding territories. It is likely that there were Armenian Christians from early times, such that Saint Gregory the Illuminator, in the fourth century, who worked among people who had previous contact with Christianity. The Armenian Church celebrates the year 301 as the time when Gregory converted King Trdat. The king, in turn, made Christianity the state religion. There is disagreement among scholars about this date. It should also be remembered that the idea of Christianity as state religion was an innovation at that time.
Events of the fifth century were critical to the making of a distinctively Armenian Christian culture and identity. The foremost of these was the invention of the Armenian alphabet by the monk Mesrob Mashtots and his community. Translations of scripture, commentaries, liturgy, theology, and histories were made. Greek and Syriac literature were important sources. In addition, the fifth century witnessed the first flowering of original Armenian literature. An example is Eznik Koghbatsi’s doctrinal work, Refutation of the Sects. The Battle of Avarayr in 451 against Persia, although a defeat for the Armenians under Vartan, has been remembered as critical for winning the Armenians the right to practice their Christian belief.
The fact that the Armenians eventually rejected the Christology of the Council of Chalcedon (451) has defined their communion with the Oriental Orthodox churches and their schism from the Orthodox churches that grew out of Constantinople (that is, the Orthodox churches of the Greeks, Georgians, and Russians, among others). The dispute concerned the way in which the natures of Christ were properly described. The Armenian Church believed that the language of Chalcedon, defining the person of Jesus Christ as “in two natures,” destroyed the unity of divinity and humanity in Christ.
Throughout much of its history, the Armenian Orthodox Church has been an instrument of the Armenian nation’s survival. The head of the church, called catholicos, has been located in various Armenian cities, often in the center of political power. In the early twenty-first century the supreme catholicos is located in the city of Echmiadzin, near the Armenian capital, Yerevan. Another catholicos, descended from the leaders of Sis in Cili-cia, is located in Lebanon. During the existence of Cilician Armenia (from the eleventh to fourteenth centuries), when Crusaders were present in the Middle East, the Armenian Church had close ties with Rome. Nerses Shnorhali, known as “the Graceful” (1102-1173), was an important catholi-cos of this period.
The Armenian Church played a significant role in the succession of Muslim empires in which its faithful were located. Because some of these were divided according to religious affiliation, the leaders of the Armenian were, in fact, also politically responsible for their communities. The Armenian Church was greatly affected by two phenomenon in the twentieth century: the genocide in Turkey, in which 1.5 million died, and the Sovietization of eastern Armenia, which ushered in seven decades of official atheism. The genocide essentially destroyed the church in Turkey, where only a remnant remains. It has also profoundly affected the way in which the Armenian Church approaches the idea of suffering in this world.
