Armenians are an ethnic group and nation native to the Armenian highlands of West Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of the Republic of Armenia and constituted the main population of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh until the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh and the subsequent flight of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians. There is a wide-ranging diaspora of around five million people of full or partial Armenian ancestry living outside modern Armenia. The largest Armenian populations today exist in Russia, the United States, France, Georgia, Iran, Germany, Ukraine, Lebanon, Brazil, Argentina, Syria, and Turkey. The present-day Armenian diaspora was formed mainly as a result of the Armenian genocide with the exceptions of Iran, former Soviet states, and parts of the Levant.
The music of Armenia has its origins in the Armenian highlands, dating back to the 3rd millennium BCE, and is a long-standing musical tradition that encompasses diverse secular and religious, or sacred, music. Folk music was notably collected and transcribed by Komitas Vardapet, a prominent composer and musicologist, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, who is also considered the founder of the modern Armenian national school of music. Armenian music has been presented internationally by numerous artists, such as composers Aram Khachaturian, Alexander Arutiunian, Arno Babajanian, Haig Gudenian, and Karen Kavaleryan as well as by traditional performers such as duduk player Djivan Gasparyan.
The Armenian Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic particular churches sui iuris of the Catholic Church. It accepts the leadership of the bishop of Rome, and is therefore in full communion with the universal Catholic Church, including the Latin Church and the 22 other Eastern Catholic Churches. The Armenian Catholic Church is regulated by Eastern canon law, summed up in the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.
Yerevan State University, also simply University of Yerevan, is the oldest continuously operating public university in Armenia. Founded in 1919, it is the largest university in the country. It is thus informally known as Armenia's "mother university". Of its 3,150 employees, 1,190 comprise the teaching staff, which includes 25 academicians, 130 professors, 700 docents, and 360 assistant lecturers. The university has 400 researchers, 1,350 post-graduate students, and 8,500 undergraduates, including 300 students from abroad.
Turkish think tanks are relatively new, but such think tanks provide research and ideas, yet they play less important roles in policy-making when compared with American think tanks. Many of them are sister organizations of a political party or a company. There are very few university think tanks.
Armenians have lived in Lebanon for centuries. According to Minority Rights Group International, there are 156,000 Armenians in Lebanon, around 4% of the population. Prior to the Lebanese Civil War, the number was higher, but the community lost a portion of its population to emigration.
Armenians in Russia or Russian Armenians are one of the country's largest ethnic minorities and the largest Armenian diaspora community outside Armenia. The 2010 Russian census recorded 1,182,388 Armenians in the country. Various figures estimate that the ethnic Armenian population in Russia is actually more than 2 million. Armenians populate various regions, including Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Krasnodar Krai in the North Caucasus and as far as Vladivostok in the East.
The Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi, commonly known as Sameba, is the main cathedral of the Georgian Orthodox Church located in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. Constructed between 1995 and 2004, it is the third-tallest Eastern Orthodox cathedral in the world and one of the largest religious buildings in the world by total area. Sameba is a synthesis of traditional styles dominating the Georgian church architecture at various stages in history and has some Byzantine undertones.
Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan, also known as Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory (YKSC) or Yerevan State Conservatory (YSC), is a state-owned college of music located in Yerevan, Armenia. The institute was founded in 1921 as a music studio. In 1923, it was turned into a higher musical education institution. It is named after Komitas, the founder of the Armenian national school of music.
Armenian Argentines are ethnic Armenians who live in Argentina. Estimates vary, an 150,000 people of Armenian ancestry live in the country, forming one of the largest groups in the Armenian diaspora worldwide. The core of the population came from Cilicia, Syria and Lebanon.
Armenians in Germany are ethnic Armenians living within the modern republic of Germany. Like much of the Armenian diaspora, most Armenians immigrated to Germany after the Armenian genocide of 1915. Others came later, fleeing conflicts in places like Iran, Azerbaijan and Lebanon. Another influx came fleeing nationalist persecution in Turkey. After World War II, many Soviet Armenians, former POWs in particular, fled to the American occupied areas of Germany. While many traveled on, some settled in the country, providing a base for later asylum-seekers.
The Constitution provides for freedom of religion.
Armenian Brazilians are Brazilian persons who are fully, partially, or predominantly of Armenian descent, or Armenian immigrants in Brazil.
Armenian studies or Armenology is a field of humanities covering Armenian history, language and culture. The emergence of modern Armenian studies is associated with the foundation of the Catholic Mechitarist order in the early 18th century. Until the early 20th century, Armenian studies were largely conducted by individual scholars in the Armenian communities of the Russian Empire, Europe, Constantinople and Vagharshapat in Armenia. After the establishment of Soviet rule, Armenian studies, and sciences in general, were institutionalized in Armenia and put under direct control of the Academy of Sciences. Today, numerous research centers in many parts of the world specialize in Armenian studies.
Armenian Uruguayans number around 15,000–20,000 of the population, making Uruguay to have one of the largest Armenian populations around the world. The Armenian community in Uruguay is one of the oldest communities in South America, with most of them residing in the capital Montevideo. The majority of Armenians in Uruguay are either third or fourth-generation descendants of the first wave of immigrants coming from the Ottoman Empire between the end of the 19th century and the Armenian genocide.
Aravot is a leading liberal and politically independent daily newspaper based in Yerevan, Armenia. It was founded in 1994. Its editor-in-chief is Aram Abrahamyan.
The Armenian Theater dates to before Roman times and is one of the oldest Eurasian theatrical traditions. Alongside Greek and Roman theatres, it stands as one of the world's most ancient theatres. The ancient and beloved form of theatrical art is lyrical (profound) drama, which exerted its influence on the folklore of the Near East, Balkan, and Apennine peoples. Within this cultural context, Armenian folk and mystical drama, characterized by its dance elements, also took shape. Although the ancient theatre system hasn't been preserved, it has left its linguistic marks.
The first Armenian soap operas appeared in the mid-2000s. Most are produced by the three main TV channels Armenia TV, Shant TV and the Public Television of Armenia. Although they are highly popular, Armenian soap operas have been criticized by many intellectuals.
Talip Küçükcan is Ambassador of Turkey to the Republic of Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Asean. He is a Turkish professor of sociology and a former politician from the Justice and Development Party (AKP), who has served as a Member of Parliament for Adana since 7 June 2015 until 24 June 2018. He was head of the Turkish Delegation to and the Deputy President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and member of Foreign Relations Committee at the Turkish Parliament between 2015 and 2017. Küçükcan served as the deputy chairman of Political and Legal Affairs of the Justice and Development Party until July 2016. He also served as member of the OSCE PA of the Turkish delegation.
Mush dialect is a Western Armenian dialect formerly spoken in the city of Mush (Muş) and the historic region of Taron, in present-day eastern Turkey. As a result of the extermination of the native Armenian population during the genocide of 1915, the dialect is almost completely extinct today with only several thousand native speakers in a number of villages in Armenia and three Armenian-populated villages in the Samtskhe-Javakheti province of Georgia.
