hayastan dans la francophonie.

Is Armenia the Southernmost Caucasian country, or the most Eastern Anatolian state? I expected Armenia to be a miniature Georgia, but being situated in the Lesser Caucasus and having a lot less water, it looked more like Kurdistan. Armenia isn't an isolated, land-locked version of Sakartvelos, with Russian instead of American friends. But even the Armenians themselves don't really know what it is then. 

To start with, the Armenians call their own country not Armenia, but Hayastan. The Kingdom of Armenia was the first state to adopt Christianity in 301 (the Georgian kingdom of Imeria was second in 337), and because of early Bible translations the Armenians can brag on one of the oldest alphabets. While the Armenian nation is defined by the Armenian Catholic Church, the borders of the Armenian homeland are a little less settled though. 

During its heyday in Medieval times, the Kingdom of Armenia covered  large parts of Eastern Anatolia and current Kurdistan. Later, the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia was situated in the Southern coastal region of Anatolia. In 1813-28, Eastern Armenia was annexed by the Russian Empire, however. After the October Revolution, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Eastern Armenia formed an independent Transcaucasian Federation for some months in 1918, before internal war lead to the First Republic of Armenia being established. In 1920 the Treaty of Sèvres granted the Western Armenian lands to Eastern Armenia, and there was even a Cilician Republic proclaimed on the Mediterranean shore (as a French protectorate). However, in 1920 the Turkish nationalist forces marching from the West and the Soviet troops advancing from the North divided Armenia again, and until after 1991 Eastern Armenia was part of the USSR.

Nevertheless, Armenia has good relations with most of the countries of the world, including, and probably even its most important, with Iran. There's a lot of Armenians in Northern Iran, and I never heard of any religious friction. However, Armenia's relations with its neighbours to the West and East aren't that good. Since their war over Nagorno Karabakh, the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan is closed, and in solidarity with its ethnic Azeri kin, Turkey closed its borders with Armenia as well. In Soviet times the Turkish-Armenian border was a very much closed NATO-Warsaw Pact border, by the way.

The Armenian diaspora is immense. There's five million Armenians outside the Second Republic, and only three million in. As a comparison, in Israel there's about six million Jews, and about seven million live elsewhere. Iran has the fifth largest Armenian diaspora community. The biggest is living in the Russian Federation. There's half a million Armenians in the US, and on the third place is occupied by the French-Armenian diaspora of 250.000. France has the largest Armenian diaspora community of the European Union. I figured that Armenia is even part of la Francophonie! This might also be because of the French supervision over the First Armenian Republic in the twenties, when Azerbaijan was under British mandate, and Georgia was under German protection. 

Having such a large diaspora obviously leads to some schizophrenia and cosmopolitanism. It starts at the border. I didn't expect the epithet in English, but I Russian is widely used in Armenia.

The construction of the so-called Cascade in the centre of Yerevan was started in 1971, but postponed in 2009, when the Armenian-American sponsor Gerard Cafesjian died. The architect is Jim Torosyan.

 

On its summit of the stairway you find the monument commemorating fifty years of Soviet Armenia. Its the connection with the Cascade was never completed.

This is Alexander Tamanyan, the architect of modern Yerevan. His statue is on the other end of the Cascade.

Halfway you find le Maison Charles Aznavour, probably Armenia's most famous diasporan.

 

There's a plaquette commemorating the visit of French President Nicholas Sarkozy in 2011. French Presidents have a well-established tradition of visiting Armenia.

 

O, and by the way - the Armenians are convinced 'merci' is an Armenian expression. Since the Armenian equivalent is 'shnorhakalutyun', I might agree.