亚美尼亚(Armenia)
正式名称为亚美尼亚共和国（Republic of Armenia）
位於南亚的国家。面积29,800平方公里。人口约3,807,000（2001）。首都︰埃里温。全国人口约有9/10是亚美尼亚人，少数是亚塞拜然人、库尔德人、俄罗斯人以及乌克兰人。语言︰亚美尼亚语（官方语）和俄语。宗教：基督教（亚美尼亚使徒教会与亚美尼亚公教会）。货币︰德拉姆（dram）。亚美尼亚是一个山地国家，平均海拔1,800公尺。北部有小高加索山脉横越，东部中心则有塞凡湖。属乾燥的大陆性气候，气温随高度变化极大。虽然已高度工业化（在苏联统治时期大力发展水电的结果）和日渐都市化，农业仍占重要地位。
亚美尼亚是个南亚的历史古国，历史上的疆界变化极大，但古亚美尼亚的范围曾达至现在的土耳其东北部和亚美尼亚共和国。古代此区曾是凡城所在地，约从西元前1270～西元前850年治理该地。後来被米底亚人（参阅Media）和马其顿人所征服，之後与罗马帝国结盟。基督教在300年左右被奉为国教。接下来的几个世纪有拜占庭人、土耳其人、阿拉伯人和蒙古人争夺此地，1514年处於鄂图曼帝国的统治之下。接下来的数个世纪，部分领土曾转让给其他统治者，散布各地的亚美尼亚人民族主义情绪开始高涨，19世纪末期引起广泛的争论。1878年部分领土割让给俄国後，土耳其与俄国间的争斗逐渐扩大，整个第一次世界大战期间仍断断续续发生，一连串的大屠杀事件（参阅Armenian massacres）。土耳其战败後，1921年属俄国部分的亚美尼亚成为苏维埃共和国的一部分。1936年亚美尼亚成为苏联中的立宪共和国。随着1980年代末期苏联解体，1990年亚美尼亚宣布独立。接下来为了纳戈尔诺-加拉巴赫的归属问题与亚塞拜然发生冲突，直至1994年才停火。自1993年发生能源危机以来，约有1/5人口离开国家。政治上的紧张情绪升高，1999年发生了恐怖分子攻击立法院事件，杀死了总理和一些立法委员。
English version：
Armenia
Nation, South Asia. Area: 11,500 sq mi (29,800 sq km). Population (1997 est.): 3,773,000 (de jure); about 3,000,000 (de facto). Capital: Yerevan. Armenians constitute nine-tenths of its population; there are also small numbers of Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Russians, and Ukrainians. Languages: Armenian (official), Russian. Religion: Christianity (Armenian Apostolic, Armenian Catholic). Currency: dram. Armenia is a mountainous country with an average elevation of 5,900 ft (1,800 m). The Lesser Caucasus ranges lie across its northern portion, and Lake Sevan lies in the eastern central part. Armenia has a dry and continental climate that changes dramatically with elevation. Though it has become highly industrialized (as a result of the development of hydroelectric power during Soviet rule) and increasingly urbanized, agriculture is still important. Armenia is a successor state to a historical region in South Asia. Historical Armenia's boundaries have varied considerably, but old Armenia extended over what is now northeastern Turkey and the Republic of Armenia. The area was equivalent to the ancient kingdom of Van, which ruled c. 1270-850 BC. It was later conquered by the Medes (see Media) and Macedonia, and still later allied with the Roman empire. Armenia adopted Christianity as its national religion in AD 303. For centuries the scene of strife among Arabs, Seljuqs, Byzantines, and Mongols, it came under the rule of the Ottoman Turks in 1514. Over the next centuries, as parts were ceded to other rulers, nationalism arose among the scattered Armenians; by the late 19th century it was causing widespread disruption. Fighting between Turks and Russians escalated when part of Armenia was ceded to Russia in 1878, and it continued through World War I, leading to Armenian deaths on a genocidal scale (see Armenian massacres). With the Turkish defeat, the Russian part was set up as a Soviet republic in 1921. Armenia became a constituent republic of the U.S.S.R. in 1936. With the latter's dissolution in the late 1980s, Armenia declared its independence in 1990. In the years that followed, it fought Azerbaijan for control over Nagorno-Karabakh until a cease-fire in 1994. About one-fifth of the population has left the country since 1993 because of an energy crisis. Political tension escalated, and in 1999 the prime minister and some legislators were killed in a terrorist attack on the legislature.
