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The region of Vayots Dzor claims to be home to the oldest winery in the world, in operation some 6,100 years ago. Discovered in 2007, the Areni-1 cave complex held evidence of large-scale wine production and the likely domestication of vines. -
The Areni-1 shoe is a 5,500-year-old leather shoe that was found in 2008 in excellent condition in the Areni-1 cave located in the Vayots Dzor province of Armenia. -
The Book of Genesis identifies the land of Ararat as the resting place of Noah's Ark after the "great deluge" described there. The Indo-Europeans were people who presumably spread from the Caucasus, settling on lands along the way. Armenian is one of the Indo-European language branches. -
The warrior-king Hayk organizes the Armens against the invading forces of the tyrant Bel of Babylon attacking from the south, from Mesopotamia into the highlands of Ararat. The battle takes place near Lake Van. Haik fires a triple-headed broad arrow from his longbow directly into the chest of Bel. The ample arrow splits the breastplate of Bel, who mortally wounded, falls to the ground. Bel's soldiers flee the battlefield. Haik calls on his kinsmen to unite into one single nation -
It is attributed to the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium BC. Trialeti culture emerged in the areas of the preceding Kura-Araxes culture. -
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Urartu is a geographical region commonly used as the exonym for the Iron Age kingdom also known by the modern rendition of its endonym, the Kingdom of Van, centered around Lake Van in the historic Armenian Highlands. The kingdom rose to power in the mid-9th century BC, but went into gradual decline and was eventually conquered by the Iranian Medes in the early 6th century BC
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Urartian king Argishti the First founded Erebuni, the military and administrative center of the state of Urartu -
Armenia is annexed to Persia by Darius I. Urartu is officially called Armenia for the first time in the Behistun inscription.
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Aramazd was regarded as a generous god of fertility, rain, and abundance, as well as the father of the other gods, including Anahit, Mihr, and Nane. The main sanctuary of Aramazd was located in Kamax in northern Armenia. Another sanctuary of Aramazd was located in Bagavan (now Turkey). -
Armenian Festival, where people release doves and sprinkle water on each other with wishes of health and good luck. Although now a Christian tradition, celebrating the transfiguration of Jesus Christ, Vardavar's history dates back to pagan times. The ancient festival is traditionally associated with the goddess Astghik. The name comes from vart "rose" and var "to burn/be burning", this is why it was celebrated in the harvest time in mid-July. Nowadays is celebrated 98 days after Easter. -
Vahagn the Dragon Reaper was the god of fire, thunder, and war. He was identified with the Greek deity Heracles. He had blonde hair, flaming beard and sparkling eyes. Vahagn was the Armenian god of storm and lightning of whom the kings and generals were praying bravery. Vahagn’s main sanctuary was located in Ashtishat (Turkey) - the holy center of Ancient Armenia. -
Astghik, the goodness of love and water and whose cult was associated with the planet Arusyak (Venus), was Vahagni’s lover. Her temple was in Ashtishat and was called “Vahagn’s room”. They were portraying Astghik as a naked and swimming beautiful girl. She was swimming in the river Euphrates every night. Many boys were hiding to see her, but she covered the Taron valley with fog to stop them to do so. One tradition holds her as Noah's daughter, born after the great flood. -
Anahit was the goddess of fertility and healing, wisdom and water in Armenian mythology. In early periods she was the goddess of war. In Armenia, Anahit-worship was established in Erez and Ashtishat (Turkey) and Armavir and Artashat (Armenia). She was the mother goddess and was depicted with a child in her hands, covered with a typical Armenian headscarf to the shoulders. -
Nane, was an Armenian mother goddess, as well as the goddess of war and wisdom. Nane was depicted as a young beautiful woman in the clothing of a warrior, with spear and shield in hand, as the Greek Athena. Her cult was closely associated with the cult of the goddess Anahit. The temple of the goddess Nane was in the town of Thil in Erzincan (Turkey) across from the Lycus River. -
Mihr, was the son and light god. His main temple was located in the Bagaharich village of the Derjan region (Turkey). The ancient pagan temple of Garni was built as a temple to the sun god Mihr. -
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Vardan Mamikonian was an Armenian military leader, a martyr and a saint of the Armenian Church. He is best known for leading the Armenian army at the Battle of Avarayr in 451, which ultimately secured the Armenians' right to practice Christianity. -
Alexander the Great attacks Persia and defeats Darius III, but never conquers Armenia. As a result, Armenia regains its independence from Persia.
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The Parthian Empire also known as the Arsacid Empire was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran
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Armenia becomes the first official Christian state in the world, King Tiridates III proclaims Christianity as the official state religion of Armenia. Zoroastrianism starts to decline gradually. -
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Marzbān, were a class of margraves, warden of the marches, and by extension military commanders, in charge of border provinces of the Parthian Empire (247 BC–224 AD) and mostly Sasanian Empire (224–651 AD) of Iran.
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The Armenian calendar is the calendar traditionally used in Armenia, primarily during the medieval ages. The Armenian month names are: nawasard, hoṙi, sahmi, trē, kʿałocʿ, aracʿ, mehekan, areg, ahekan, mareri, margacʿ, hroticʿ, aweleacʿ. Navasard is the first month of the Armenian calendar, starting on 11 August and ending on 9 September. In ancient Armenia, the first day of Navasard was a holiday, held in honor of Anahit. The sick went to the temples asking for recovery. -
Tsovinar or Nar was the Armenian goddess of water, sea, and rain. She was a fierce goddess, who forced the rain to fall from the heavens with her fury. Her name, Tsovinar, means "daughter of the seas". Also identified as the princess Tsovinar, who agreed to marry the Muslim Caliph of Baghdad in order to save her father's kingdom. She conceives the divine twins Sanasar and Bagdasar on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land after quenching her thirst from a sacred spring. -
Son of Tsovinar and father of Mher. One day he and his twin go to the sacred spring, where her mother conceived them. Sanasar asks Baghdasar to jump in the spring, but he refuses. Sanasar bravely jumps in the spring and falls into an underground kingdom. A miracle happens, the Holy Mother of God (Surb Astvatsatsin) hands over to Sanasar three invulnerable weapons and armor: a magical lightning sword; the divine warhorse Kurkik Jalalik, and the Battle Cross. The boys built the city of Sasun. -
The first Arab invasion under the leadership of Abd ar-Rahman ibn Rabiah devastates the region of Taron.
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Armenia becomes the main battleground of the Khazar–Arab Wars & Byzantine–Arab Wars which leaves the lands depopulated.
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Son of Sanasar and father of David. Mher had inhuman strength and could uproot trees. Mher used his strength for the sake and welfare of the native people. Mher killed a lion, that had invaded Sasun, blocking the road leading to the wells and almost starving people, with his bare hands. Mher goes to Egypt to fight Mira Melik in one-on-one combat. After seeing they're evenly matched, they become blood brothers. After Mira Melik' death he fathers a son with his widow, David. -
David, son of Mher, was placed in the care of Ismil-Chatun, widow of the Sultan of Mysr, after Mher's death and nursed and raised on honey and milk. He returns to Sasun, which has suffered demands for tribute that Arab troops are trying to collect. With his supernatural miracle weapons, he drove Arab invaders out, rebuilt the temple of the mother of the gods, Maruta, and returns the treasures stolen by the Arabs to the Armenians. -
Little Mher, is born to David and Lady Khandut in Tabriz (Iran, former Azerbaijan). He kills his 5 uncles from Tabriz who had angered him. When his father learns this, he fights him and an Angel renders Mher infertile at his father's request. Mher and his Georgian wife go to Azerbaijan, where he is king for 7 years. At the end of his life, he splits a rock in Agravakar in two and enters the mountain, the rock closes and imprisons him forever. He shall come out when there are no lies in the world
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Formal recognition of Armenian sovereignty by Constantinople.
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Gagik II was the last Armenian king of the Bagratuni dynasty. Known as Gagik II, King of Ani, a juvenile at the time, he was enthroned as Gagik II and ruled for a brief period from 1042 to 1045 before the Bagratid dynasty rule collapsed in Armenia. -
Armenia falls to Byzantine troops, and an exodus from the Armenian lands begins.
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Byzantine Ani, once the capital of Bagratid Armenia, is conquered and destroyed by the Seljuk Turks.
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Armenia annexed by the Turko-Persian Seljuk Empire
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It was an Armenian state formed during the High Middle Ages by Armenian refugees fleeing the Seljuk invasion of Armenia. Located outside the Armenian Highlands and distinct from the Kingdom of Armenia of antiquity, it was centered in the Cilicia region northwest of the Gulf of Alexandretta.
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Mongol Invasion of Anatolia, much of the sedentary population of Armenia is slaughtered. (to 1244)
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The Mamluks defeat the Armenians at the disaster of Mari. -
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Tamerlane's devastating invasion of Georgia, Armenia and Central Anatolia leads to the slaughter of large portions of the population of Armenia and the enslavement of over 60,000 people from Anatolia and the Caucasus. -
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Mehmet II moved many Armenians to Constantinople, where the conditions were so unbearable that they migrated to Bruges. By 1478 Armenians had established a hospice mainly related to the trade of carpets in Bruges. Armenian merchants also started importing cotton goods, spices, perfumes, and other materials from the Orient and exporting European goods to markets in the East.
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The Safavid Dynasty is established in Persia, that conquers Armenia. -
In the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid dynasty of Iran divided Armenia. From the early 16th century, both Western Armenia and Eastern Armenia fell to the Safavid Empire. From the mid 16th century with the Peace of Amasya, and decisively from the first half of the 17th century with the Treaty of Zuhab until the first half of the 19th century, Eastern Armenia was ruled by the successive Safavid, Afsharid and Qajar empires, while Western Armenia remained under Ottoman rule.
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The Ottoman-Persian Wars rage in the Armenian Highlands for the first time, the Ottomans temporarily gain Western Armenia. -
Ottoman-Safavid War (1532-1555) commences.
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Establishment of Armenian printing press in Constantinople. -
Shah Abbas of Persia invades Ottoman Armenia (to 1618) and reestablishes full control over Eastern Armenia and large parts of Western Armenia as part of his empire.When forced to abandon the siege of Kars, Shah Abbas orders the complete destruction of many Armenian towns and villages and deports over 300,000 Armenians to Persia, of which only half survive.
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Melikdoms were Armenian feudal entities on the territory of modern Nagorno-Karabakh and neighboring lands, from the dissolution of the Principality of Khachen in the 15th century to the abolition of ethnic feudal entities by the Russian Empire in 1822.
The five Armenian principalities (melikdoms) in Karabakh were:
Gulistan, Jraberd, Khachen, Varanda and Dizak. -
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The Persians establish the Karabakh Khanate, a political entity ruled by a khan, on the territories of modern-day Armenia and Azerbaijan -
Khachatur Abovian, renowned novelist, poet, and playwright, is born. -
Russian Romantic painter who is considered one of the greatest masters of marine art. Baptized as Hovhannes Aivazian, he was born into an Armenian family in the Black Sea port of Feodosia in Crimea and was mostly based there. -
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Eastern Armenia is forcefully ceded by Persia to Russia per the Russo-Persian War (1826-1828), strengthening Russian control of Transcaucasus. -
Russian Armenia is the period of Armenian history under Russian rule from 1828, when Eastern Armenia became part of the Russian Empire following Qajar Iran's loss in the Russo-Persian War (1826–1828) and the subsequent ceding of its territories that included Eastern Armenia per the out coming Treaty of Turkmenchay of 1828.
Eastern Armenia remained part of the Russian Empire until its collapse in 1917. -
Armenian philologist, folklorist, ethnographer, and ecclesiastic. -
Armenian poet, linguist, translator and educator. He was a key contributor to the Ashkharabar literature movement and a promoter of literacy in Armenia. He has been called the founder of Classic Armenian poetry. -
He is the national poet of Armenia. Tumanyan wrote poems, quatrains, ballads, novels, fables, and critical and journalistic articles -
Armenian priest, musicologist, composer, arranger, singer, and choirmaster, who is considered the founder of the Armenian national school of music. -
Armenian fedayee leader in the Ottoman Empire and a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. -
Armenian and Soviet music composer, conductor, founder of Armenian national symphonic music -
Armenia's national epic Daredevils of Sassoun dates back to the 8th century, and was first put in written form in 1873 by Garegin Srvandztiants. It is performed annually on the first Saturday of October (Epic Day holiday) and major national cultural events. Usually the epos teller sits, wearing national costume and is accompanied on the duduk, a woodwind instrument. -
He was a prominent Armenian lyric poet, writer and public activist. -
Armenian neoclassical architect, well known for his work in the city of Yerevan. -
Armenian revolutionary, statesman, and a leading member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) party. He is widely regarded as the founder of the First Republic of Armenia. -
He was a Soviet Armenian painter, the founder of a modern Armenian national school of painting. -
Armenian poet, prose-writer, and doctor -
Armenian nationalist and socialist political party founded in 1890 in Tiflis, Russian Empire by Christapor Mikaelian, Stepan Zorian, and Simon Zavarian. The ARF has always maintained its ideological commitment to "a Free, Independent, and United Armenia". -
Beknazarian was a Soviet Armenian film director, actor and screenwriter. He shot many films in Tbilisi, including Patricide and Lost Treasures. In 1925, he shot his first Armenian film and moved to Armenia. In 1933, he shot the first Armenian sound film Pepo. In 1941, Beknazarian was awarded the Stalin Prize. Besides feature films, he also shot a few documentaries. -
Armenian civilians who voluntarily left their families to form self-defense units and irregular armed bands in reaction to the mass murder of Armenians and the pillage of Armenian villages by criminals, Kurdish gangs and Turkish forces, and Hamidian guards during the reign of Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II in late 19th and early 20th centuries, known as the Hamidian massacres. -
Hamidian Massacres; an estimated 80,000–300,000 are killed.
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He was an Armenian poet, writer and public activist. Charents' literary subject matter ranged from his experiences in the First World War, socialist revolution, and frequently Armenia and Armenians. -
Mark Grigorian was a Soviet Armenian neoclassical architect -
Soviet architect of Armenian origin. While he followed modernism in his student days, he adapted to socialist classicism in the 1930s to 1950s . From the 1960s he returned to a modern design language. -
He is considered one of the leading Soviet composers. -
French-Armenian poet and communist activist. An Armenian genocide survivor, he moved to France from an orphanage in Lebanon in 1925. He was active in communist Armenian literary circles. -
Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film The Human Comedy. -
Soviet Armenian astrophysicist and science administrator. One of the 20th century's top astronomers, he is widely regarded as the founder of theoretical astrophysics in the Soviet Union. -
Adana Massacre: An estimated 15,000–30,000 are killed. -
Armenian-American sculptor and painter -
The Armenians were a primarily Christian ethnic group who had lived in Eastern Anatolia (Eastern Turkey) for centuries. As many as 1.5 million Armenians were killed in what was the Ottoman Empire during World War I. In an effort to "solve the Armenian problem," Ottoman troops led hundreds of thousands of Armenians on forced marches into the Syrian desert to Deir ez-Zor, little to no food and water was provided on these ‘death marches’ and those who could not keep up or continue were executed. -
Those who survived the death marches were imprisoned in camps, such as Deir ez-Zor or Ras al-Ayn, where conditions were extremely poor and many thousands died of disease and malnutrition. -
Armenian writer and novelist -
As anti-Armenian sentiment became increasingly violent, raids were carried out in Istanbul where authorities arrested and deported thousands of intellectuals belonging to the Armenian elite. In May, the Ottoman army began the mass deportation of all remaining Armenians from the eastern regions of the empire, claiming they might aid invading Russian troops. -
The Bolshevik government in Baku was established -
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk gives Kars, Ardahan and Batum regions to the Ottoman Empire. -
The Armenian Congress of Eastern Armenians declares the first Republic of Armenia. -
The Ottoman State lost the First World War and then agreed to a ceasefire with the Armistice of Mudros, agreeing to leave the Transcaucasus. The Democratic Republic of Armenia assumes control of Western Armenia, now that the Ottomans are forced to leave. -
The Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic (TDFR;[a] 22 April – 28 May 1918)[b] was a short-lived state in the Caucasus that included most of the territory of present-day Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, as well as parts of Russia and Turkey. The state lasted only for a month before Georgia declared independence, followed shortly after by Armenia and Azerbaijan. -
Though the Ottoman Empire—in a period of relative decline—had initially aimed to stay neutral in World War I, it soon concluded an alliance with Germany and entered the war on the side of the Central Powers in October 1914. The Turks fought fiercely and successfully defended the Gallipoli Peninsula against a massive Allied invasion in 1915-1916, but by 1918 defeat by invading British and Russian forces and an Arab revolt had combined to destroy the Ottoman economy and devastate its land -
Fall of the first Republic of Armenia, fully occupied by the Turkish National Movement and the Red Army (Soviet Union). -
It was a conflict between the First Republic of Armenia and the Turkish National Movement following the collapse of the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920. Remnants of the Ottoman Army’s XV Corps under the command of Kâzım Karabekir attacked Armenian forces controlling the area surrounding Kars. He had orders to "eliminate Armenia physically and politically". Nearly 100,000 Armenians were massacred in Transcaucasia by the Turkish army, and another 100,000 fled from Cilicia during the French withdrawal. -
It was a military campaign carried out by the 11th Army of Soviet Russia from September to 29 November 1920 to install a new Soviet government in the First Republic of Armenia, a former territory of the Russian Empire. -
After the Ottoman State lost the First World War signed the peace agreement of Sèvres. The signatories agreed to let US President Wilson determine the boundary between Turkey and Armenia, which would pass through the provinces of Erzerum, Trebizond, Van and Bitlis and prescribe an outlet for Armenia to the Black Sea. Turkey renounced any claim to the ceded land. -
It was established in December 1920, when the Soviets took over control of the short-lived First Republic of Armenia and lasted until 1991. It is sometimes called the Second Republic of Armenia, following the First Republic of Armenia's demise.
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He was a Soviet and Armenian composer and pianist. He was made a People's Artist of the USSR in 1971. -
Armenian conductor and composer. -
Establishment of the Soviet Union; Armenian SSR annexed to the Soviet Union. -
Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast is created granting Armenian autonomy for Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan SSR. -
Franco-Armenian singer, lyricist, actor and diplomat. -
Armenian poet, translator and literary critic. He is considered one of the greatest Armenian poets of the 20th century -
Soviet Armenian film director, screenwriter and artist who made seminal contribution to world cinema with his films Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and The Color of Pomegranates. Parajanov is regarded by film critics, film historians, and filmmakers to be one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in cinema history. -
Iranian-born Armenian film director. He was the brother of actor Yervand Manaryan. He repatriated to Soviet Armenia in 1946 and graduated from the Yerevan State Conservatory in 1952 and from the Moscow Institute of Cinematography in 1962. -
Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian was a Soviet Armenian Grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran". -
Mher Musheghi Mkrtchyan better known by the name Frunzik, was an Armenian stage and film actor. Mkrtchyan is widely considered one of the greatest actors of the Soviet period among Armenians and the USSR as a whole. He received the prestigious People's Artist of the USSR award in 1984. -
Armenian writer and script writer. By the time of his death he was considered Armenia's "most prominent and accomplished contemporary novelist". -
Ruben Gevorkyants was born on November 30, 1945 in Yerevan, Armenian SSR, USSR [now Armenia]. He was a director and writer, known for Islands (1987), Requiem (1989) and Autumn of the Magician (2009). He died on June 23, 2017 in Yerevan, Armenia. -
Armenian military commander and politician. He was the first Defence Minister of Armenia from 1991 to 1992 and then from 1995 to 1999. He served as Armenia's Prime Minister from 11 June 1999 until his assassination on 27 October of that year. He rose to prominence during the mass movement for the unification of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia in the late 1980s and led Armenian volunteer groups during the early clashes with Azerbaijani forces. -
Armenian-American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, and political activist. He is best known as the lead vocalist, primary lyricist, keyboardist, and occasional rhythm guitarist of heavy metal band System of a Down, which was formed in 1994. -
First Nagorno-Karabakh War commences. -
Earthquake with a surface wave magnitude of 6.8 and a maximum MSK intensity of X (Devastating). Between 25,000 and 50,000 were killed and up to 130,000 were injured. -
The Declaration of State Sovereignty of Armenia was signed by Armenia's president Levon Ter-Petrossian and Supreme Council of Armenia secretary Ara Sahakian on August 23, 1990 in Yerevan. -
First-ever Armenian presidential election, Levon Ter-Petrosyan elected President with overwhelming popular support. -
Artsakh is a breakaway state in the South Caucasus supported by Armenia, whose territory is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. -
The Battle of Shusha was the first significant military victory by Armenian forces during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. The battle took place in the strategically important mountain town of Shusha on the evening of May 8, 1992, and fighting swiftly concluded the next day after Armenian forces captured it and drove out the defending Azerbaijanis. -
The Gyumri massacre was a mass murder of seven members of the Armenian Avetisyan family. The suspect, Valery Permyakov, a Russian serviceman from the Russian 102nd Military Base, was apprehended by the Armenia-based Russian Border Guards near the border with Turkey and brought into custody at the Gyumri base for further investigation under the Russian jurisdiction. The existence of a Russian military base in Armenia is controversial. Permyakov confessed to the crime and was sentenced to life. -
Anti-government protests in Armenia staged by various political and civil groups led by a member of the Armenian parliament — Nikol Pashinyan. Protests and marches took place initially in response to Serzh Sargsyan's third consecutive term. As a response Parliament held elections for a new Prime Minister, with the opposition leader Pashinyan as the only nominee. He won with a 59–42 margin -
He was sentenced to seven years in prison for "organizing mass disorders" on 1–2 March 2008. He was released from Artik prison on 27 May 2011 in accordance with the general amnesty declared by the government. He was elected prime minister in 2018. On 25 April 2021, Pashinyan announced his formal resignation from his post of prime minister to allow snap parliamentary elections in June. -
The main combatants were Azerbaijan, with support from Turkey, Russia and foreign mercenary groups on one side; and the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh and Armenia, on the other. Following the capture of Shusha, a “peace” agreement was signed. Azerbaijan kept all the areas they held at the end of the war, gained transport communication to its Nakhchivan exclave bordering Turkey and Iran. Armenia returned the surrounding territories it had occupied since 1994 Azerbaijan.