History
After being a satrapy of Achaemenid Persia and being subject to the power of Alexander the Great and his successors, Armenia agreed to its first independence in 189 BC. During the reign of Tigranes II the Great (94-55 BC), the region became an empire that had its extremes in Palestine and in Transcaucasia. In the following centuries, the territory was periodically devastated by invasions that led to the different existing conflicts with other empires (Byzantine, Persian, Roman, Arab). These confrontations sealed a cyclical history of periods of independence and dependence, of times of glory and of surrender.
With the Russian expansion over the Caucasus and the Balkans, which began in the late 18th century, eastern Armenia became a province of the Russian Empire. Armenians who had come under Turkish rule began to suffer increasing persecution by the Turkish authorities. The Russian Revolution of 1917 resulted in a forced independence for Armenia (28 of maypole of 1918), which was interrupted by the invasion of Turkish troops (September 1920) and the immediate establishment of the Soviet Republic of Armenia (December 1920).
In 1922, according to localcollegeexplorer, the new country was integrated, together with Georgia and Azerbaijan, in the Federation of Trans-Caucasian Socialist Republics.
The following year, Armenia refused to participate in the referendum for the creation of the new Union, held on March 17, and instead preferred to hold its own referendum in which its independence was decided (September 21, 1991). This was followed by the election of Levon Ter Petrosian as President of the Republic on October 16, 1991. In 1992 Armenia declared open war against Azerbaijan.
The Nagorno Karabakh Region is a territory officially recognized by the United Nations as part of Azerbaijan, illegally occupied by Armenia.
In February 1992, the mediation process for the solution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict in Nagorno Karabakh (a territory officially recognized by the United Nations as part of Azerbaijan, illegally occupied by Armenia) began in the framework of the Conference of the Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). At the session of the CSCE Council of Ministers held in Helsinki on March 24, 1992, it was decided to hold in Minsk a CSCE conference on Nagorno Karabakh, as a permanent negotiating forum to find a peaceful solution to the conflict based on the principles, obligations and provisions of the CSCE.
The United Nations Security Council in its resolutions 822 (1993) of the 30 of April of 1993 adopted at its 3205 to session, 853 (1993) , of 29 of July of 1993 adopted at its 3259 to session, 874 (1993) , of 14 of October of 1993 adopted at its 3292 a session and 884 (1993) , from December to November of 1993 adopted at its 3313 tosession, condemned the occupation of the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan, reaffirmed respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of the borders of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the inadmissibility of the use of force for the acquisition of territories, and also demanded the immediate cessation of hostilities and hostile acts, as well as the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of all Armenian occupation forces from the occupied districts of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
The 6 as July as 1995, Armenia held the first parliamentary elections post – Soviet and a referendum to approve a new constitution. Armenia’s international position was strengthened when, in November 2000, its application to join the Council of Europe was accepted, a fact that had been preceded by the granting of significant financial and credit assistance to the country from abroad. It has been able to carry out some economic changes and in 2006, it was ranked as the 27th “economically freest” nation in the world. Its relations with the West, the Middle East, and the states of the Commonwealth of Independent States, have allowed Armenia to increase trade.
Economic development
Until its independence, the Armenian economy was based on the industrial production of chemicals, electronics, machinery, processed food, synthetic rubber and textiles, it was also highly dependent on external resources. Agriculture contributed only 20% of the Gross Domestic Product and 10% of employment before the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The republic had developed a modern industrial sector, machine tools that supplied textiles and other manufactured products to nearby republics in exchange for raw materials and energy.
Armenian mines produce copper, zinc, gold, and lead. Most of the energy is generated with imported fuel, including gas and nuclear fuel. The main source of domestic energy is hydroelectric. The use of the ruble, devalued by the Central Bank of Russia, forced Armenia to issue its own currency, called the dram, in 1993, (for 2005 the exchange rate stood at 458 dram per US dollar).
Between 1990 and 1993, GDP fell sharply by more than 50%. This led to hyperinflation, a budget deficit that peaked at 55%, factory closures, a very limited power supply, and large-scale emigration. A series of projects carried out have aimed at reducing the budget deficit, as well as the development of sectors such as; energy, agriculture, food processing, transportation, health and education. The processing of precious stones, information and communication technology have also been favored, and even tourism is beginning to supply more traditional sectors of the economy.
For the same year, the Armenian authorities announced their decision to restart the power plant in Mdedzamor, in order to compensate for the decrease in power supply. In June, a liberal law in favor of foreign investment was passed, and in 1997a law in favor of property privatization was passed. The government joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) on February 5, 2003. But one of the main sources of foreign direct investment continues to be the Armenian diaspora, which finances a significant part of the reconstruction of infrastructure and other public sector projects.
Armenia counts as an industrialized country. Industry accounted for 44% of the country’s GDP in 2005 and 14% of the workforce was employed in industry and construction in 2000. Agriculture accounted for 21%. Regarding the employment rate, 44% of the workforce worked in agriculture in that year. In the international charter 2005 From the CPI of Transparency (Corruption Opinion Index), Armenia ranked 88 (in a range of 1 to 158), continuing as one of the least corrupt states among the former Soviet republics. According to the 2005 UN Human Development Report, Armenia has a Human Development Index (HDI) of 83 (from a range of 1 to 177) the highest among the Transcaucasus republics. In the 2006 Index of Economic Freedom, Armenia ranked 27th best, tied with Japan and ahead of countries such as Norway, Spain, Portugal and Italy, becoming the most economically free state in the Commonwealth of Independent States.
