Timeline Armenia
Return to home
CIA Factbook: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/am.html
Links: http://www.armeniaemb.org/
Lycos: http://travel.lycos.com/Destinations/Europe/Armenia/
Map: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/commonwealth/Armenia.GIF
Rover: http://www.worldrover.com/country/armenia_main.html
Timeline: http://www.csupomona.edu/~armenian_students/armenia/timeline.html
Timeline: http://www.bravenewworld.demon.co.uk/armenia/timeline.htm
USLC: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/amtoc.html
Armenia’s capital is Yerevan.
(WSJ, 3/31/97, p.A10)
The theory most favored by Armenian historians claims that they
descended from a Thracian-Phrygian group, that originated in the Balkan
Peninsula and by the pressure of Illyrians migrated to eastern Anatolia
in the sixth century BC.
(http://www.atmg.org/ArmenianFAQ.html#q6)
782BC Urartian
king Argishti the First founded Erebuni, the military and
administrative center of the state of Urartu, situated in the location
of present-day Yerevan, Armenia.
(www.anahit.am/regions/yerevan/)(SSFC, 10/17/04,
p.D8)
700BC-600BC A migration of the Cimmerians and
Scythians took place in the seventh century BC. These were nomadic
tribes from the Russian steppes, who made their way round the eastern
end of the Caucasus, burst through into the Moghan plains and the basin
of Lake Urmia, and terrorized Western Asia for several generations,
till they were broken by the power of the Medes and absorbed in the
native population. It was they who made an end of the Kingdom of
Urartu, and the language they brought with them was probably an
Indo-European dialect answering to the basic element in modern Armenian.
(http://tinyurl.com/btq4l)
700BC-600BC The Armenians, an Indo-European people,
migrate from the west to mingle with the people of URARTU. It was ruled
by kings of the Orontid dynasty as a satrapy of the Persian empire
until the defeat of Persia by Alexander the Great.
(CO Enc. / Armenia)
521BC The name Armenian was
mentioned for the first time in the Behistan (Behistun) inscription of
the Mede (Persian) Emperor Darius from this year: "I defeated the
Armenians."
(http://www.atmg.org/ArmenianFAQ.html#q6)(ON, 4/04,
p.7)
94BC-56BC Tigranes (Dikran) the Great, a scion of the
Eastern Dynasty, ruled. He welded the two Armenian satrapies into one
kingdom, and so created the first strong native sovereignty that the
country had known since the fall of Urartu five centuries before.
(http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/docs/bryce2.htm)
52 Trdat I received his crown from
the Roman emperor Nero and began the Arsacid (Arshakuni) monarchy.
(MH, 12/96)
286-336 King Trdat III ruled Armenia.
(MH, 12/96)
301 King Trdat III declared
Christianity to be the state religion. Armenia became the first country
to adopt Christianity.
(MH, 12/96)(SFEC, 3/22/98, p.A25)
387 The Parthians and Romans
agreed to settle the Armenian question by the drastic expedient of
partition. The Sassanid kings of Persia (who had superseded the
Parthians in the Empire of Iran) secured the lion's share of the
spoils, while the Romans only received a strip of country on the
western border which gave them Erzeroum and Diyarbakir for their
frontier fortresses.
(http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/docs/bryce2.htm)
405 The Armenian alphabet was
invented.
(MH, 12/96)
410 The Bible was translated into
Armenian. [see 422-432]
(http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/docs/bryce2.htm)
422-432 The Bible and the works of the church fathers
were translated into Armenian. [see 410]
(MH, 12/96)
428 The Arsacid (Arshakuni)
monarchy of Armenia ended and control fell to the rule of the Persian
Sassanids.
(MH, 12/96)
438-457 The Persian King Yazdegird II ruled. He
pressured the Armenians to accept Zoroastrianism and worship the
supreme god Ahura Mazda. Mihr-Nerseh, the Persian grand vizier,
promulgated an edict that enjoined the Armenians to convert.
(MH, 12/96)
449 The Armenians held a General
Assembly to ponder the Persian edict that demanded conversion to
Zoroastrianism. They chose to remain Christian and their leaders were
summoned to Persia to answer to the king. The leaders opted to yield
under heavy pressure but were renounced on their return home.
(MH, 12/96)
451 Apr 13, A Persian Army of
300,000 men under Mushkan Nusalavurd arrived at a place between her and
Zarevand (now Khoy and Salmast in Iran) to face the Armenian forces.
(MH, 12/96)
451 May 26, The Battle of Avarair.
Vardan Mamikonian, son of Sparapet (general) Hamazasp Mamikonian and
Sahakanush, daughter of the Catholicos Sahak Bartev, led a force of
66,000 Armenians to face the Persians. Prior to battle Vardan read
aloud the story of the Jewish Maccabees. Persian losses tripled the
Armenian dead, but Mushkan won and Vardan was killed.
(MH, 12/96)
451 The Armenians were the first
Christians to take up arms in defending their right to worship.
(HN, 7/25/98)
451-484 Vahan Mamikonian led the Armenians in a
33-year guerrilla war. The Persian Sassanids underwent 3 rulers and
pressure from the Ephthalites, White Huns, and when King Peroz was
killed by the White Huns, his successor, Balash, sued for peace. Vahan
demanded and was granted religious freedom.
(MH, 12/96)
478-490 The Catholicos Hovhan I Mandakuni.
(MH, 12/96)
484 A treaty was signed in the
village of Nuwarsak with the Persians and Vahan Mamikonian was
appointed marzban of Armenia.
(MH, 12/96)
485-505 Vahan Mamikonian began his rule with services
at the Cathedral of Dvin with the Catholicos Hovhan I Mandakuni
presiding.
(MH, 12/96)
552 Jul 10, Origin of Armenian
calendar.
(MC, 7/10/02)
628 Apr 3, In Persia, Kavadh sued
for peace with the Byzantines. He handed back Armenia, Byzantine
Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine and Egypt.
(HN, 4/3/99)
683-685 Khazars invaded Transcaucasia and inflicted
much damage and stole
much booty. The Khazar invaders killed the rulers of Armenia and
Georgia. (TJOK, p.159)
730 Khazar commander Barjik led
Khazar troops through the Darial Pass
to invade Azerbaijan. At the Battle of Ardabil, the Khazars defeated an
entire Arab army. The Battle of Ardabil lasted three days, and resulted
in the death of a major Arab general named Jarrah. The Khazars then
conquered Azerbaijan and Armenia and northern Iraq for a brief time.
(TJOK, pages 160-161)
820 Dec 25, Leo V, the Armenian,
Byzantine gen and Emperor (813-20), was murdered.
(MC, 12/25/01)
895 The Tatev Monastery was built
near the village of Tatev, Armenia. The construction on the Church of
Peter and Paul was completed in 906.
(www.cilicia.com/armo5_tatev.html)
921 In Turkey the Armenian Akdamar
church, called the Church of Surp Khach, or Holy Cross, was
inaugurated. Written records say the church was near a harbor and a
palace on the island on Lake Van, but only the church survived. Turkey
restored the church in 2007.
(AP, 3/25/07)
961 Ani became the capital of
Armenia. At its height it had over 100,000 inhabitants. Within a
century it began falling victim to waves of conquerors including Seljuk
Turks, Georgians and Mongols.
(Econ, 6/17/06, p.59)
1198 Fleeing from the Turks, a
group of Armenian nobles and their followers settled in Byzantine
Cilicia where they established a state know as Lesser or Little
Armenia. In this year the area attained the status of kingdom and
survived to 1375.
1319 Ani, capital of Armenia, was
devastated by an earthquake.
(Econ, 6/17/06, p.59)
1350 Sargis Pitsak, Armenian
artist, produced illuminated manuscripts of the bible. Color picture
"Souls Ascending the Heavenly Ladder to Christ," featured in:
( SF Chronicle, 5/12/1994, p. E-1)
1720 Handel composed his opera
"Radamisto." It dealt with the tyrant Tiridate, King of Armenia, and
his insatiable pursuit of a woman who is not his wife.
(LGC-HCS, p.41)(WSJ, 7/5/00, p.A20)
1828 Russia conquered the Armenian
provinces of Persia, and this brought within her frontier the Monastery
of Etchmiadzin, in the Khanate of Erivan, which was the seat of the
Katholikos of All the Armenians.
(http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/docs/bryce2.htm)
1868 Tigran Tcukhatjian
(Tchukhadjian) composed "Arshak II," a pseudo-European grand opera.
(WSJ, 1/25/00, p.A18)(WSJ, 10/9/01, p.A20)
1869-1955 Calouste Gulbenkian, Armenian oil merchant.
By 1907 he combined Royal Dutch Oil and Shell Oil and emerged with a
large block of stock in the combined company. He later brokered all the
oil sold in Iran to the West for a 5% commission and earned the
nickname Mr. Five percent. He collected old master paintings, Turkish
carpets, illuminated manuscripts and left a fortune valued at $1
billion.
(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)
1877 Nov 17, Russians launched a
surprise night attack that overran Turkish forces at Kars, Armenia.
(HN, 11/17/98)
1887 The Marxist Hunchakian
Revolutionary Party, called the Hunchaks, was founded in Geneva,
Switzerland by Armenians from Russia.
(http://homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~dwilson/Armenia/justin.html)
1890 The Marxist Armenian
Revolutionary Federation, called the Dashnaks, was founded in the
Russian Empire, in Tiflis.
(http://homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~dwilson/Armenia/justin.html)
1894 Nov 16, 6,000 Armenians were
massacred by Turks in Kurdistan.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1894-1896 Thousands of Armenians were massacred by
the Turks after attempts for autonomy and self-defense failed. This
issue was then referred to as the "Armenian Question."
(Compuserve Online Enc. / Armenia)
1904 Apr 15, Arshile Gorky
(d.1948), artist, was born as Vostanig Adoian of Armenian parents in
Eastern Turkey. Some sources say 1905. He came to the US in 1920 and
assumed a new name in admiration of Russian writer Maxim Gorky.
(WSJ, 5/12/99, p.A20)(HN, 4/15/01)
1912 Arshile Gorky’s 1926
painting, "The Artist and His Mother," was based on a photograph taken
in Armenia in 1912, not long before his mother died of starvation. The
work took ten years to complete.
(WSJ, 4/9/98, p.A21)
1914 Fall, Armenian volunteer
bands organized themselves and fought against the Turks. "The
Protestant missionaries distributed... propaganda in favor of England
and stirred the Armenians to desire autonomy under British protection."
(History of Armenia, Horen Ashikian)
1914 A Dashnaktsutiun Party
Congress was held in Erzurum, which the Dashnaks regarded as the
capital of a future "Greater Armenia."
(www.ataa.org/ataa/ref/myth/lastchance.html)
1915 Apr 11, The Armenians of Van
began a general revolt, massacring all the Turks in the vicinity so as
to make possible its quick and easy conquest by the Russians.
(http://www.atmg.org/ArmenianFAQ.html#q6)
1915 Apr 20, The Turks fired the
first shot at Van; the first Armenians were deported from Zeitoun on
the 8th April, and there is a record of their arrival in Syria as early
as the l9th.
(http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/docs/bryce2.htm)
1915 Apr 24-May 14, Turkey said
Armenians had sided with Russia and issued a deportation order for the
mass deportation of Armenians. Armenian organizations in Istanbul were
closed and 235 members were arrested for treason. Turkish police
arrested hundreds of the most prominent Armenians in Constantinople,
took them into the hinterlands and shot them. With that the terror
spread through "Turkish Armenia" spearheaded by the "Special
Organization" of soldiers of the Turkish leader Enver. In 2006 Taner
Akcam authored “A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question
of Turkish Responsibility.”
(AP, 4/24/97)(HN, 4/24/98)(SFC, 4/27/99, p.A10)(HNQ,
5/30/99)(Econ, 10/21/06, p.95)
1915 May 12, Croatians plundered
Armenia and killed 250.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1915 Jun 1, A forced exodus [of
Armenians] from Baibourt [Turkey] took place. All the villages, as well
as three-fourths of the town, had already been evacuated. A 3rd convoy
included from 4,000 to 5,000 people. Within six or seven days from the
start, all males down to below fifteen years of age had been murdered.
(http://www.ku.edu/~kansite/ww_one/docs/bryce.htm)
1915 Nov 6, An order from
Constantinople reached the local authorities, at any rate in the
Cilician plain, directing them to refrain from further [Armenian]
deportations.
(http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/docs/bryce2.htm)
1915 In 2003 Peter Balakian, Prof.
at Colgate Univ., authored "The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide
and America's Response," a one-sided account of the 1915 Armenian
genocide and the Turkish massacres of Armenians in the 1890s.
(SSFC, 10/11/03, p.M4)
1915-1917 Of the 1.75 million Armenians in Turkey at
the outset of World War I, 250,000 fled into Russia. Some 600,000
starved to death in the Mesopotamian desert. Henry Morgenthau, US
ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, alerted Pres. Wilson of a massacre of
Armenians by the Turks. Evidence and photographs of the camps were
provided to Morgenthau by Armin Wegner, German Red Cross official and
Johannes Lepsius, a German missionary. British diplomat Lord Bryce
hired Arnold Toynbee to document the slaughter. In 2004 Turkey's
Culture Ministry allowed the film "Ararat" by Atom Egoyan, which
recalled the plight of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey during this time, to
be shown in Turkey with one rape scene cut. In 2004 Armenian
descendants of some of the dead, who held 2,400 insurance policies,
reached a $20 million settlement with New York Life Insurance Co.
(AP, 4/24/97)(HN, 4/24/98)(SFC, 4/27/99, p.A10)(HNQ,
5/30/99)(PC, 1992, p.711)(SFC, 1/2/04, p.D15)(SFC, 1/29/04, p.A3)
1916 Feb 16, Russian troops
conquered Erzurum, Armenia.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1916 C.F. Dixon-Johnson authored
"The Armenians," with the aim of "presenting the public an opportunity
of judging whether or not 'the Armenian Question' has another side than
that which has been recently so assiduously promulgated throughout the
Western World."
(www.mfa.gov.tr/grupe/eh/eh08/06.htm)
1916 Arnold Toynbee edited a
document titled: "The Treatment of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire:
1915-1916."
(http://www.ku.edu/~kansite/ww_one/docs/bryce.htm)
1918 Mar, The Bolshevik government
in Baku was established. In that period, the Bolshevik-Dashnak
coalition came to power on the backs of thousands of corpses of
innocent Turko-Moslems.
(www.khazar.org/jas/text/history.html)
1918 Dec 2, Armenia proclaimed
independence from Turkey. An independent Republic of Armenia was
established in Russian Armenia under Dashnak administration.
(HN, 12/2/98)(Compuserve Online Enc. / Armenia)
1919 May 28, Armenia declared it's
Independence. [see Dec 2, 1918]
(MC, 5/28/02)
1920 Jan 15, The United States
approved a $150 million loan to Poland, Austria and Armenia to aid in
their war with the Russian communists.
(HN, 1/15/99)
1920 Aug 10, The Ottoman sultanate
at Constantinople signed the Treaty of Sevres with the Allies and
associated powers. It promised a homeland for the Kurds, but the
nationalist government in Ankara did not sign the treaty. It set the
borders of Turkey recognized Armenia as an independent state.
(SFC, 2/17/99, p.A10)(EWH, 4th ed,
p.1086)(www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/versa/sevres1.html)
1921 Oct 13, In the Treaty of Kars
Turkey formally recognized the Armenian Soviet Republic.
(EWH, 4th ed, p.1086)
1921 The borders of the region
were gerrymandered when the Caucasus territories were made part of the
Soviet Union. This made the area of Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous
enclave of mostly Armenians surrounded by Azerbaijan dependent on
Moscow. The site of Ani, former capital of Armenia, was ceded to Turkey.
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.C2)(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A18)(Econ,
6/17/06, p.59)
1922 May 29, Jevgeni B. Vachtangov
(39), Armenian-Russian actor, director, died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1923 Jul 24, The Treaty of
Lausanne, which settled the boundaries of modern Greece and Turkey, was
concluded in Switzerland. It replaced the Treaty of Sevres and divided
the lands inhabited by the Kurds between Turkey, Iraq and Syria.
Article 39 allowed Turkish nationals to use any language they wished in
commerce, public and private meetings, and publications. The treaty
specifically protected the rights of the Armenian, Greek and Jewish
communities. The former provinces of Baghdad, Basra and Mosul were
lumped together to form Iraq. Both countries agreed to a massive
exchange of religious minorities. Christians were deported from Turkey
to Greece and Muslims from Greece to Turkey. In 2006 Bruce Clark
authored “Twice a Stranger: The Mass Expulsions that Forged Modern
Greece and Turkey.”
(WSJ, 3/20/97, p.A17)(AP, 7/24/97)(SSFC, 12/22/02,
p.A14)(Econ, 3/19/05, Survey p.9)(Econ, 10/14/06, p.50)(Econ, 12/9/06,
p.92)
1924 Jul 25, Greece announced the
deportation of 50,000 Armenians.
(HN, 7/25/98)
1928 Jul 4, Cathy Berberian, US
singer, was born in Armenia.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1933 Franz Werfel
(1890-1945), Czech-born Austrian writer, authored "The Forty Days of
Musa Dagh," an account of the 1915 Armenian resistance to Turkey. The
author's friend, Rabbi Albert Amateau, testified in 1989 that Werfel
was ashamed for having written the book, learning that he had
extensively relied on the forgeries of Aram Andonian, which provides
the only "evidence" of extermination orders.
(http://www.tallarmeniantale.com/musa-dagh.htm)
1936 Dec 5, Armenian SSR,
Azerbaijan SSR, Georgian SSR, Kazakh SSR & Kirghiz SSR became
constituent republics of Soviet Union.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1978 May 1, Aram Khachaturian
(b.1903), Georgia-born Armenian composer, died in Moscow.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aram_Khachaturian)
1981 Sep 24, Four Armenian gunmen
seized the Turkish consulate in Paris, holding 60 hostages for 15 hours
before surrendering.
(AP 9/24/01)
1988 Feb 28, Ethnic unrest broke
out between Armenians and Azerbaijanis in the city of Sumgait. There
was an anti-Armenian pogrom in the town of Sumgait. A national
awakening occurred in Azerbaijan when conflict erupted over the
Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, included by the Soviets in the
Republic of Azerbaijan. The Armenian population in Nagorno-Karabakh
began fighting for independence.
(WSJ, 8/7/96, p.A15)(AP, 2/28/98)(SFC, 11/27/96,
p.A13)(WSJ, 5/14/97, p.A22)
1988 May 21, The Soviet news
agency Tass reported that the Communist Party leaders of Armenia and
Azerbaijan had been dismissed after fresh outbreaks of ethnic tensions
in the two southern Soviet republics.
(AP, 5/21/98)
1988 Jul 7, The European
Parliament adopted a resolution condemning brutalities against
Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
(www.armeniaforeignministry.com/pr_04/040227sumgait.html)
1988 Jul 14, The Soviet press
agency Tass reported that Azerbaijan has rejected an attempt by
Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly Armenian enclave, to secede and join
Armenia. Some 200,000 demonstrated in Soviet Armenia for the
incorporation of Nagorno-Karabakh.
(http://tinyurl.com/n6dfc)
1988 Dec 7, A magnitude 6.9-8.0
earthquake devastated Spitak in northern Armenia; an estimated
25,000-55,000 people died with some $14 billion in losses.
(AP, 12/7/97)(AP,
6/22/02)(www.who.int/archives/inf-pr-1997/en/pr97-08.html)
1988 Dec 9, In the wake of the
Armenian earthquake that claimed tens of thousands of lives, countries
around the world began sending emergency supplies and offering pledges
of relief funds.
(AP, 12/9/98)
1988 Dec 10, Soviet President
Mikhail Gorbachev visited the republic of Armenia, the scene of a
devastating earthquake that had killed an estimated 25,000 people.
(AP, 12/10/98)
1988 Dec 11, A Soviet military
transport plane crashed, killing nearly 80 people involved in Armenian
earthquake relief efforts.
(AP, 12/11/98)
1988 Dec 14, Sixty more survivors
were pulled from rubble of earthquake that rocked Armenia.
(AP, 12/14/02)
1990 Jan 15, Soviet leader
Gorbachev and the Soviet Presidium declared a state of emergency in
parts of Azerbaijan and Armenia in the wake of escalating ethnic
violence.
(AP, 1/15/00)
1990 Jan 16, The Soviet Union sent
more than 11,000 reinforcements to the Caucasus to halt a civil war
between Armenians and Azerbaijanis.
(AP, 1/16/00)
1990 Jan 20, The Soviets attacked
Baku, leaving dozens dead and wounded. Gen’l. Lebed led Russian forces
in Baku to crush the nationalist Azeri Popular Front. 62 civilians were
killed and more than 200 wounded when the Soviet army stormed into the
city of Baku to end what Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev called
fratricidal killing between Muslim Azerbaijanis and Christian Armenians.
(WSJ, 12/18/96, p.A21)(CO, Grolier’s Amer. Acad.
Enc./ Azerbaijan)(WSJ, 8/7/96, p.A15)(AP, 1/20/00)
1990 Aug 4, In Armenia Levon
Ter-Petrosyan (52) was elected Chairman of the Armenian Supreme Soviet.
(www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Levon_Ter_Petrosian)
1990 Aug 23, Armenia declared
independence.
(www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Soviet_Armenian_History)
1991 Armenia gained independence
and was immediately involved in a territorial dispute with Azerbaijan
over the Nagorny Karabakh region.
(COE / Armenia)(WSJ, 5/2/97, p.A15)
1992 Feb 11, US Secretary of State
James A. Baker III, on a tour of six former Soviet republics, visited
Armenia, where he heard an appeal from the republic's president for
U.S. help in resolving a bloody feud with neighboring Azerbaijan.
(AP, 2/11/02)
1992 The Azerbaijanis under a new
nationalist government tried to reconquer Nagorno-Karabakh, but were
soon repulsed.
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A18)
1993 The film "Calendar" was
directed by Canadian Atom Egoyan. It was shot in Armenia with funds won
from the Moscow Prize for "The Adjustor." It was a memory piece of
himself as a photographer.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.C18)
1993 Turkey sealed its land
frontier with Armenia after it seized the province of Nagorno-Karabakh
from their Azeri cousins. Direct air travel was still allowed.
(Econ, 6/17/06, p.59)(Econ, 11/18/06, p.53)
1994 May, A cease-fire was
declared between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan Pres. Geidar Aliyev
negotiated a cease-fire with Armenian forces in the conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh. More than 35,000 people had died in 6 years of
fighting.
(WSJ, 5/14/97, p.A22)(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A18)(SFC,
12/13/03, p.A20)
1994 Pres. Levon Ter-Petrossian
outlawed the Dashnaksitun political party.
(SFC, 12/11/96, p.C1)
1994-1996 Russia’s Defense Minister, Pavel Grachev,
approved the transfer of more than $1 billion worth of weaponry to
Armenia.
(WSJ, 5/14/97, p.A22)
1995 Apr, Patriarch Catholicos
Garegin I (born as Nshan Sarkisian in Kassab Syria), was elected
leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church. He succeeded Vazgen I who held
the post for 40 years.
(SFC, 6/30/99, p.C2)
1996 Sep 23, Pres. Levon
Ter-Petrossian claimed victory in elections as did his opponent former
Prime Minister Vazgen Manukian. The next day the Pres. claimed victory
and the PM claimed fraud. Int’l. observers claimed serious
irregularities.
(SFC, 9/24/96, p.A14)(WSJ, 9/25/96, p.A1)
1996 Sep 26, Tanks were called in
after 59 people were injured in protests over the re-election of the
president.
(SFC, 9/27/96, p.A12)
1996 Dec 10, The Supreme Court
sentenced 3 members of the outlawed Dashnaksitun political party to
death on terrorism charges.
(SFC, 12/11/96, p.C1)
1996 Dec, The Lisbon Summit of
Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe chose Azerbaijan’s
argument for territorial integrity over Armenia’s argument for
self-determination in Nagorno-Karabakh.
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A18)
1997 Mar 31, Pres. Levon
Ter-Petrossian chose war-hero Robert Kocharian as the new prime
minister.
(WSJ, 3/31/97, p.A10)
1997 Sep 2, Ethnic Armenians in
Nagorno-Karabakh elected Arkady Gukasian as president with an 89% vote.
Azerbaijan called the vote invalid.
(SFC, 9/3/97, p.C3)
1997 The book "The History of the
Armenia Genocide" appeared in Turkey, but copies were confiscated and
the publisher Aysenur Zarakolu was arrested and fined.
(SFC, 3/6/98, p.A12)
1997 In Armenia the game of Bingo
was introduced and became a big hit.
(SFEC, 3/22/98, p.A25)
1997 Armenia’s population was
about 3 mil. The enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan had 150,000
Armenians.
(WSJ, 3/31/97, p.A10)
1998 Feb 3, Armenia Pres. Levon
Ter-Petrosyan (52) resigned after 7 years of leadership. His support
for a compromise settlement over the Nagorno-Karabakh caused backers to
defect to the opposition.
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.C2)
1998 Feb 26, Azerbaijan accused
Armenia of launching fresh attacks over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh.
(WSJ, 2/27/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 16, In Armenia elections
for president were held and the voting was marred by fraud. Prime
Minister Robert Kocharian led the vote over former Communist boss Karen
Demirchian, but failed to get a majority and a runoff was planned for
Mar 30.
(SFC, 3/17/98, p.B3)(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 30, Prime Minister Robert
Kocharian won the runoff vote with 59%.
(SFC, 3/31/98, p.B5)(WSJ, 4/1/98, p.A1)(SFC, 4/2/98,
p.C2)
1998 Dec 9, Vagram Khorkhoruni,
deputy defense minister, was shot dead outside his home in Yerevan.
(SFC, 12/10/98, p.C7)
1999 Jun 29, Patriarch Catholicos
Garegin I, leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church, died at age 66.
(SFC, 6/30/99, p.C2)
1999 Jun, Pres. Robert Kocharian
appointed Vazgen Sarkisian as Prime Minister after Armen Darbinian
resigned.
(SFC, 10/28/99, p.A14)
1999 Oct 27, In Armenia gunmen
burst into the parliament and killed Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkisian
and 7 other officials. They then took a number of hostages and declared
their intent to topple the government.
(SFC, 10/28/99, p.A1)
1999 Oct 27, Garegin Nersesian
(48) was elected as the new spiritual leader, Catholicos Garegin II, of
the Armenian Apostolic Church.
(SFC, 11/5/99, p.A17)
1999 Oct 28, In Armenia the
assassins of the prime minister surrendered following negotiations with
Pres. Robert Kocharian. Nairi Unanian, his younger brother Karen, their
uncle Vram Galstian were 3 of the 5 arrested.
(SFC, 10/28/99, p.A1)(SFC, 10/29/99, p.A14)
2000 Mar 22, Gunmen ambushed
Arkady Gukasyan, the president of Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave
in Azerbaijan. 28 suspects were arrested.
(SFC, 3/23/00, p.D2)
2000 May 2, Pres. Robert Kocharian
fired Prime Minister Aram Sarkisian and his government for allowing the
economy to deteriorate and for ignoring discord in the military. Police
security was tightened around government buildings.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A14)
2000 Jun 30, Vahe Oshagan, poet,
died at age 78 in Philadelphia. His work included 8 volumes of poetry
and 6 volumes of fiction along with short stories, plays and
commentaries.
(SFC, 7/11/00, p.A23)
2001 Mar 22, Sabiha Gokcen,
Turkey's 1st woman pilot and the adopted daughter of Ataturk, died.
Armenians held that she was Armenian by birth.
(Econ, 3/27/04, p.52)
2001 Apr 5, Presidents Robert
Kocharian of Armenia and Heydar Aliyev of Azerbaijan met in Key West,
Fla., for negotiations on Nagorno-Karabakh.
(SFC, 4/4/01, p.A10)
2001 Jul 6, It was reported that
almost 25% of the 3.4 million population had left the country. A census
was scheduled for October.
(WSJ, 7/6/01, p.A6)
2001 Sep 25, Pope John Paul cut
short a speech in Armenia due to symptoms of his Parkinson’s disease.
His visit coincided with celebrations marking the 1,700 anniversary of
Christianity as the state’s religion.
(SFC, 9/26/01, p.C2)
2002 Oct 9, In Armenia Aram
Petrosian and Akop Khachatrian were sentenced to death for leading an
armed band that terrorized Vanadzor, killing 5 people, robbing homes
and racketeering. The government prepared to ask parliament to abolish
the moratorium on the death penalty.
(AP, 10/9/02)
2002 Oct, Mark Grigorian,
deputy head of the Caucasus Institute for Mass Media, suffered lung and
head injuries in a grenade attack.
(AP, 12/29/02)
2002 Nov 23, Azerbaijan Pres.
Geidar Aliev said that he and Armenian Pres. Robert Kocharian have
agreed to seek a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
(AP, 11/23/02)
2002 Dec 28, In Yerevan, Armenia,
Tigran Nagdalian, chief of the leading TV station was shot and killed.
(AP, 12/29/02)
2003 Feb 19, Armenia held
national elections. Pres. Kocharian was being challenged by 8
contenders who criticized his failure to secure a final deal with
Azerbaijan over the Armenian-populated enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. He
also faced accusations over about 30 unresolved political killings in
recent years and the widening gap between rich and poor in this nation
of 3.3 million people. Kocharian failed to win the necessary 50 % of
votes for re-election, forcing a runoff in balloting that the
opposition complained was rigged.
(AP, 2/19/03)(AP, 2/20/03)
2003 Mar 5, In Armenia
Pres. Robert Kocharian won Armenia’s presidential runoff. The
opposition claimed he was trying to fix the outcome. Kocharian had 67.5
percent and challenger Stepan Demirchian had 32.5 percent,
(AP, 3/6/03)
2003 May 25, Armenians went to the
polls to select a parliament.
(AP, 5/25/03)
2004 Dec 24, Armenia’s parliament
voted to send 46 noncombat troops to Iraq.
(SFC, 12/25/04, p.A10)
2005 Jun 15, Armenia said
Azerbaijan was stockpiling more arms than permitted by treaty.
(WSJ, 6/16/05, p.A1)
2005 Sep 24, Turkish scholars at a
twice-canceled conference on the massacre of Armenians in the early
20th century cautiously discussed the politically charged topic,
avoiding inflammatory language as protesters denounced the gathering as
traitorous.
(AP, 9/24/05)
2005 Oct 10, Election officials
said Armen Keshishian, the mayor of Nor-Achin a small Armenian town
jailed on murder charges, was re-elected to his post. Keshishian has
been charged in the Sept. 24 shooting death of Ashot Mkhitarian, the
head of a local electric utility. The pistol that allegedly killed the
utility chief had been presented to Keshishian by PM Andranik
Markarian. Keshishian will govern his town from behind bars pending
trial.
(AP, 10/10/05)
2006 Jan 22, Explosions hit
pipelines running through southern Russia, cutting the natural gas
supply to Georgia and Armenia during a cold snap.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Feb 10, The presidents of
Armenia and Azerbaijan negotiated one-on-one on ways to end the 18-year
conflict over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, but reached no
conclusion and planned more talks.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 11, The presidents of
Armenia and Azerbaijan failed to reach agreement after two days of
talks on how to end the bloody conflict over the enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh.
(AP, 2/11/06)
2006 Mar 6-2006 Mar 7, Armenian
and Azerbaijani forces exchanged heavy gunfire and mortars at several
points along their border in the most serious fighting in months.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 May 3, An Armenian Airbus
A-320 crashed in stormy weather off Russia's Black Sea coast while
readying to land at the Sochi resort, killing all 113 people on board,
most of them Armenians.
(AP, 5/3/06)(WSJ, 5/3/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 14, Azerbaijan and
Armenia promised to continue talks over Nagorno-Karabakh despite two
failed efforts this year by the Caucasus nations' presidents to resolve
the status of the disputed enclave.
(AP, 6/14/06)
2006 Oct 3, Russia suspended all
transport and postal links with Georgia until further notice, sharply
escalating their dispute. The blockade caused economic problems for
Armenia, Georgia's landlocked southern neighbor, since Russia is its
main trading partner.
(AP, 10/3/06)(AP, 10/7/06)
2006 Oct 12, French lawmakers
approved a bill making it a crime to deny that the 1915-1919 mass
killings of Armenians in Turkey amounted to genocide. It was thought
unlikely that Jacques Chirac’s government would forward the bill to the
Senate.
(AP, 10/12/06)(SFC, 10/13/06, p.A21)
2006 Nov 10, Asian nations reached
their first international agreement to implement what has been dubbed
the "Iron Silk Road." Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia,
Iran, Kazakhstan, Laos, Russia, South Korea, Turkey and seven other
nations agreed to meet at least every two years to identify vital rail
routes, coordinate standards and financing and plan upgrades and
expansions, among other measures. The UN first conceived the
Trans-Asian Railway Network in 1960.
(AP, 11/10/06)
2006 Dec 7, In Armenia 3 teenagers
and their grandmother set themselves on fire in Yerevan to protest what
they said was authorities' inaction on investigating a relative's
death, a family member said. Two of them were injured. They argued that
the case was not being investigated because of discrimination against
the Yazidi, a Kurdish ethnic group. About 50,000 Yazidi live in Armenia.
(AP, 12/8/06)
2007 Mar 25, Armenia’s PM Andranik
Margarian (55) died of heart failure. Serzh Sarkisian, defense
minister, was appointed prime minister.
(AP,
3/25/07)(www.eurasianet.org/armenia/parties/serzh.html)
2007 May 12, Armenia held a
general election. Acting PM Serzh Sarkisian was elected prime minister.
(Econ, 5/19/07, p.58)
2007 Jul 19, The
Armenian-controlled breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh held a
presidential election amid a rumbling dispute with Azerbaijan over the
mountainous enclave's unrecognized independence.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 20, An election committee
said Bako Saakian, Nagorno-Karabakh's former security chief, won the
presidency of the Armenian-controlled breakaway region with 85% of the
vote.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Sep 4, A skirmish near the
disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh killed two Azerbaijani soldiers
and three Armenian troops.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 7, Bako Saakian, the
former security chief of Nagorno-Karabakh, was sworn as the new
president of the Armenian-controlled breakaway region.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Oct 10, The US House Foreign
Affairs Committee voted 27-21 to label as genocide the deaths of
Armenians a century ago at the end of the Ottoman Empire. The Bush
administration planned to pressure Democratic leaders not to schedule a
vote, though it is expected to pass.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 11, Turkey swiftly
condemned a US House panel's approval of a bill describing the World
War I-era mass killings of Armenians as genocide, and newspapers
blasted the measure on their front pages. Turkey also recalled its
ambassador to Washington and warned of serious repercussions if
Congress labels the killing of Armenians by Turks a century ago as
genocide.
(AP, 10/11/07)(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Nov 29, Armenia approved a
plan to shut down its lone nuclear power plant, following years of
pressure from foreign nations concerned about its Soviet-era design and
safety.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2008 Feb 19, Armenians voted for a
new president. PM Serzh Sarkisian (Sargsyan), given credit for rising
living standards, won with 53% of the vote, enough to avert a runoff
with rival Levon Ter-Petrosian (21%).
(Reuters, 2/19/08)(Econ, 2/23/08, p.70)(Econ,
10/18/08, p.38)
2008 Feb 20, Thousands of
opposition supporters marched through Armenia’s capital after an
election official said complete results showed that the prime minister
had won the presidential election.
(AP, 2/20/08)
2008 Mar 1, Armenian police
forcefully dispersed a demonstration by several hundred opposition
supporters who had camped out in the capital for more than a week to
protest the results of presidential elections. The violent protests
left eight dead and more than 100 injured and prompted Armenian
President Robert Kocharian to declare a sweeping, 20-day state of
emergency.
(AP, 3/1/08)(AP, 3/2/08)
2008 Mar 4, Ethnic Armenian and
Azerbaijani forces exchanged fire for hours near the disputed territory
of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan warned it could try to reclaim the
disputed region. Soldiers were killed and wounded on both sides. Radio
Free Europe/Radio Liberty said in a statement that its two Armenian
affiliates halted the broadcasts to comply with an emergency decree
that allows media to only report news that is sanctioned by the
government.
(AP, 3/5/08)(WSJ, 3/5/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 14, The UN General
Assembly adopted a resolution demanding the "immediate, complete and
unconditional" withdrawal of all Armenian forces from Azerbaijan's
territory in a vote in which more than 100 countries abstained.
(AFP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, Azerbaijan warned it
would review relations with France, Russia and the US after they voted
against a UN resolution calling on Armenia to pull out of Azerbaijani
territory.
(AFP, 3/15/08)
2008 Sep 6, Thousands of Armenians
lined the streets of the Yerevan to protest the first-ever visit by a
Turkish leader and to demand that Turkey acknowledge the World War I
massacres of Armenian civilians as genocide.
(www.interfax.com/3/425662/news.aspx)
2008 Nov 2, The leaders of Armenia
and Azerbaijan agreed to intensify talks to end a 20-year conflict over
the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 25 Armenia won its second
straight gold medal at the Chess Olympiad in Germany by defeating China
2.5-1.5 in the 11th and final round.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2008 Dec 15, A group of about 200
Turkish intellectuals issued an apology on the Internet for the World
War I-era massacres of Armenians in Turkey.
(AP, 12/16/08)
2009 Feb 4, Russia sought to
bolster its security alliance with six other ex-Soviet nations
(Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan)
by forming a joint rapid reaction force in a continuing effort to curb
US influence in energy-rich Central Asia.
(AP, 2/4/09)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Armenia
End of file.