Echoes of Suffering: The History of the Armenian People

The Armenians are an Indo-European linguistic group with more than 2500 years of history. They formed the Kingdom of Armenia out of the Achaemenid Zoroastrian Persian Empire in 321 BC. They were the followers of Indo-European polytheism and then Zoroastrianism, before the conversion to Christianity of the Armenian King Tridat or Tiridates III. He was baptised by Gregory the Illuminator in 301. Thus, Armenia became the first state to adopt Christianity as the state religion, and Gregory was made the first head of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Being at the crossroads of two great empires, Roman and Persian, Armenia could not emerge as an independent regional power. Nevertheless, the Armenians retained their distinct heritage and culture due to the mountainous terrain of their South Caucasus homeland and the martial spirit of their ancestors. They also migrated to different parts of West Asia and left their cultural footprints, e.g., the Armenian Quarter of Old Jerusalem. 

With the advent of Islam, the Armenian identity was threatened, and the Ottoman Sunni Turkic and Safavid Shia Persian Empires dominated portions of Armenia. During World War I, about 1.2 million Armenians disappeared from the Ottoman Empire. It is considered to be the first genocide of the 20th century, perpetrated by the Turkish military to eliminate the Armenian Christians, whom they considered collaborators of the Russian Empire. Thus, the Armenians lost the Western part of their homeland. 

The Eastern part had been captured by the Russians from the Persians. Then, it became a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It was organised into the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. When the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1989-91, Armenia emerged as an independent republic, and after a war with Azerbaijan, it established Nagorno-Karabakh as the de facto Republic of Artsakh. 

However, the international community regarded Nagorno-Karabakh as the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan. In 2020, amidst the rising power of Azerbaijan due to oil and gas resources and the support of Turkey, the Armenian forces were defeated by the Azeris, and the ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh were disarmed. Finally, in 2023, Azerbaijan annexed the region, and the majority of the 120,000 ethnic Armenians became refugees. The International Court of Justice has ordered Azerbaijan to ensure the safety of the remaining ethnic Armenian population in the region and allow the safe return of those who migrated to Armenia. 

However, the situation remains dire for the Armenian refugees. Since 2020, the Republic of Armenia has been provided with military equipment by India and France. The history of the Armenian people supports the realist worldview described by Thucydides as “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must”.

Published as “Echoes of Suffering: The History of the Armenian People”, VideshNeeti, 1 March 2024, 1 (2): 3.