A P M E H И Я
A R M E N I A
P I Ъ I к о I Ь

With an average elevation of 1800 m and the top of the Aragats Mount culminating at more than four thousand meters, Armenia is really a country of mountains. Its area is about that of Belgium for a population of three million inhabitants including more than one million in Yerevan the capital. It is necessary to add to that ten million Armenians who live outside of Armenia. Armenia knew rare periods of independence. The remainder of time, it knew the domination of various empires,

Armoiries and flag of
l'Arménia

in particular Romain, Byzanthin, Arab, Persan and Ottoman. It was finally incorporated in Russia in 1828 and in the Soviet Union in 1920. Armenia is officially independent since 1991.

Political instability and continuous wars, invasion of nomad tribes, devastations and discrimination during the centuries brought to mass migration of Armenians to the different countries of the world and creation of Armenian diasporas and many cultural centers in Venice, Madras, Calcutta, Constantinople, Vienna, Amsterdam, Moscow, St. Petersburg, etc.
Presently, Armenia always knows problems with its neighbor Azerbaijan because in particular of an Armenian population mainly Moslem authoritatively placed by the Soviets in Nagorno-Karabakh which was in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan.

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Armenia can be praised to be the first Christian country in the world and the Armenian Church is the oldest officially recognized state Christian institution, after King Trdat the Third has proclaimed Christianity as a state religion in 301. For this reason, the country is especially rich in old Christian monuments such churches and monasteries.

Armenian cooking.

Armenia is universally known for the exceptional longevity of its inhabitants. Some bind this longevity not only to the marvelously pure air of the Armenian mountains but also to the quality of a food and a cooking whose origins are more than two thousand years old.


One of the bases of the Armenian cooking is the bread called Lavash. Lavash is a general word to indicate a large variety of sweets or salted pastries which can be tasted such as they are or in the form of a lengthened pizza pie, of a filled sandwich or even of what the Indians call chapati. In its various forms, Lavash ideally accompanies a whole set of skewers called Basturma. Basturma is pressed and dried slices of lean beef or mutton, previously soaked in salt and coated with a spicy mash.

It is a viand which one finds in all Caucasus and even in the south of Russia. Most of the time, the marinade is salted but a receipt of Georgian origin advises to place spices in juice of grenade. We must also mention Tolma, a mix of ground meet, rice and greens wrapped in grape leaves, immersed in water or stock and boiled over low fire. Spas is an egg and flour pulp stirred into matsoun (Armenian yogurt) deluded with water and boiled together with stewed rice or crushed wheat.All these dishes are available in restaurants but also presented in take away by the inhabitants of the touristy areas. You can also prepare them yourself

  and roast them on Khorovats which is the Armenian name of the barbecue.

Armenia offers also a large variety of fruits. Among those the grape which was at the origin of the preparation of wine more than 5.000 years ago! It is however necessary to await the end of the XIXth century to assist at the development of a real wine industry reaching its top at the Soviet time. Among the good Armenian wines, we will mention Saperavi, a red dessert wine and Ijevan, a red table wine also. It is also necessary to say a word about the "Grenade" which, as its name indicates it, is made from juice of grenade.