The national emblem of a country can often reflect the country's customs, history and culture or ideology. However, Armenia's coat of arms is more special, with elements in the coat of arms showing "foreign" mountains.
Armenia places a mountain in the middle of the coat of arms, Mount Ararat (Mount Ararat, Mount Aare). Since it is placed in the center of the national emblem, the status of Mount Ararat in Armenians is self-evident. It has been considered a "holy mountain" by Armenians since ancient times.
▲ The national emblem of Armenia with the national flag in the background
However, the mountain is now not in Armenian territory, but belongs to Turkey, about 30 kilometers from the Armenian capital, and only "one step away" from the armenian border.
Although Armenia and Turkey are neighbors, the relationship between the two countries can be described as bitter and bitter. In 1915-1917, the Ottoman Turks committed genocide against Armenians in their territory. After Armenia's independence, the Turkish government has refused to recognize the massacre, and relations between the two countries have not yet been normalized.
▲The location of Mount Ararat
More particularly, Mount Ararat was allocated to Turkey in the 20th century. Armenia's inclusion of Mount Ararat in the national emblem provoked protests from Turkey, arguing that Armenia's move was territorial claims against Turkey. Armenia simply declared that it would not recognize Mount Ararat as owned by Turkey.
The ownership of the mountain has long been one of the focal points that has plagued relations between the two countries. So, what did Mount Ararat mean to Armenia, and why did the mountain fall into Turkey?
▲ See Mount Ararat in Turkey at the viewing point in Armenia
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The motif on the coat of arms of Armenia is mainly an eagle and a lion holding a shield. The motifs of the four quadrants around the shield represent the four kingdoms in the history of Armenia.
Mount Ararat, in the center of the shield, is a cone-shaped volcano formed by the accumulation of volcanic ejections such as lava and volcanic ash. The main peak is 5137 meters above sea level and is the highest peak in Turkey. Mount Ararat is an extinct volcano that was most recently active in 1840. Because Christian legend is that noah's ark docked, it is worshipped by Armenians as a "holy mountain".
▲ From the monasteries in Armenia
The reason why Armenians regard Mount Ararat as a "holy mountain" is closely related to Christianity. The Armenians are an ancient people. As early as the 16th century BC, they were active in the Caucasus.
The Caucasus and its surroundings have always been coveted by the surrounding powers because of their mountainous terrain, which can be used as a geographical barrier, and because it is located near the transition zone between Asia and Europe.
Caucasus region
However, the Armenian nation, although ancient, lived in the mountains for a long time, and therefore had a small population, and they had to submit to the powerful regimes around them.
In the 4th century BC, the Macedonian Empire occupied Armenia. With the decline of Macedonia's successor, the Seleucid Empire, in 190 BC the Armenians established the first independent state in history, the Artash Dynasty.
For more than a hundred years, the Armenians not only occupied mount Ararat through the southern conquest of the northern war, but also extended their territory to the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
Armenia at its peak
In the 1st century AD, as the Roman and Persian Empires expanded into the Caucasus, Armenia became a sphere of influence contested by the two great empires. In 1 AD, Rome occupied western Armenia. The "Arshaq Dynasty" was established in eastern Armenia, attached to the Persian Empire (Parthian Empire).
Rome and Persia compete for Armenia
The time when Rome and Persia were fighting in the Caucasus was also the time when Christianity was born. In order to maintain their rule, the Persians imposed Zoroastrianism in Armenia.
In order not to assimilate the Persians, in 301 AD, King Teridates III of Armenia announced his conversion to Christianity, becoming the first christian country in the history of the world. The Roman Empire did not proclaim the legitimacy of Christianity until 312 AD, and it was not established as the state religion until 392 AD.
In 395 AD, with the Division of the Roman Empire into East and West, Armenia and the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) were bordered. As two Christian states, Armenia and Eastern Rome both valueDara as very important.
The Bible records that Noah built an ark at God's behest, carrying Noah's family and some terrestrial creatures, to escape a flood of God's punishment. After 220 days on the Ark, the flood waters receded and Noah and his family docked near Mount Ararat.
▲ Noah's Ark legend stops at Mount Ararat
Mount Ararat is believed to be the first place where human activity occurred after the floods receded. The Armenians who owned the mountain regarded it as a "holy mountain".
Armenia in the 4th century AD
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="254" > second, the mountain range becomes a "boundary mountain"</h1>
In the 7th century, another powerful regime emerged around Armenia, the Arab Empire. In 632 AD, the Arab Empire destroyed Persia and occupied parts of Armenia.
The Arab Empire ruled an area that included persians and other peoples converted to Islam, but the Armenians were the exception. In order to defend the Christian faith, armenians have repeatedly launched uprisings.
By this time, Armenia was dominated by the Arab Empire to the east and the Christian Byzantine Empire to the west.
In 884 AD, with the support of the Byzantine Empire, the Armenians established the "Bagratid Dynasty". But Armenia remained caught between the two empires.
Map of Armenia around 1000 AD
In the 13th century, the Mongol Empire was ushered in to the east of Armenia. The Mongols destroyed the Arab Empire. To the west of Armenia, the Seljuk Turks established the Ottoman Empire. In 1453, the Ottoman Empire destroyed the Byzantine Empire.
In the 16th century, the Persians, who had been ruled by Arabs and Mongols for centuries, finally established the "Safi Dynasty". The Armenians once again had two different powers in the east-west direction: Persia and the Ottomans, and both were Islamic countries. Armenia became the focus of the struggle between the two Islamic regimes.
The Armenians repeatedly resisted the invasion of two "pagan" empires. However, because of its weakness, it eventually lost its independent status. The Ottomans and Persia fought for Armenia, and neither won the other.
Persia and the Ottoman Empire competed for spheres of influence around Armenia
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In 1555, the two sides signed the Treaty of Amasya, and Mount Ararat became the border between the Ottomans and Persia. Eastern Armenia east of mount Ararat was occupied by Persia, and western Armenia west of mount Ararat was occupied by the Ottomans.
▲ In 1566, the approximate border between The Ottomans and Persia
From BC to the 16th century AD, from Rome vs Persia, to Byzantium vs. Arabia, to Ottoman vs Persia, Armenia was always faced with a grip of power from both the East and the West.
The north, because of the obstruction of the Caucasus Mountains, was not disturbed by the northern powers.
In the 17th century, a new player was ushered in the northern direction of Armenia , Russia. In search of warm sea outlets and geographical barriers, Russia targeted its expansion in the Mediterranean, Black Sea, and Caspian Sea regions.
To go south, Russia must take Ottoman and Persian
To find access to the sea, Russia had to fight two Islamic states (Persia and the Ottoman Empire) in separate wars.
Russia defeated the Ottomans by launching the Fifth (1768-1774) and Sixth (1787-1792) Russo-Turkish Wars. The Ottomans signed the Treaty of Iasi with Russia, which recognized Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and parts of the Caucasus.
The Russo-Polish War also broke out between Russia and Persia. Due to the decline of Persia's national power, it signed the Treaty of Gulistan (1813) and the Treaty of Turkmenchai (1825) with Russia, and Russia occupied eastern Armenia.
Russia occupies Yerevan (the capital of Armenia) through the Russo-Polish War
The Russian-occupied region of Eastern Armenia, including all of modern Armenia, as well as the area near Mount Ararat. Both Russia and Armenia are Christian, so the two peoples have a natural affinity. Mount Ararat served as the border mountain between the Ottoman Empire and Russia, and Armenians could access it from one side of the mountain.
▲ Armenia occupied by Russia (within the red line), the Ararat Mountains belong to the boundary mountains
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="299" > third, Turkey occupies mount Ararat</h1>
After the Russo-Turkish and Russo-Polish Wars, about 1 million Armenians lived in Eastern Armenia (within Russia) and as many as 1.75 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
The situation in Armenia before World War I
In the mid-19th century, the Ottoman Empire was also inhabited by a number of Christian peoples, including Serbs, Greeks, and Bulgarians. In order to collect more taxes and prevent interference from Western Christian states, the Ottomans introduced a "millet" system, in which non-Muslims had to pay more taxes in exchange for autonomy.
The Ottoman Armenians initially became a wealthier class under the Millat system by doing business. With the advent of the Balkan national independence wave in the middle of the 19th century, Greece, Serbia and other countries gained independence with the help of Russia, which greatly encouraged the idea of independence of the Armenians in the Ottoman territory.
▲ Greek War of Independence
At the same time, in order to further divide the Ottoman Empire, Russia had been encouraging the independence of the Ottoman Armenians, who regarded Russia as a "protector". The contradictions between the Ottoman Empire and Armenia deepened.
At the beginning of the 20th century, with the independence of the Christian peoples in the Ottoman Empire, the majority ethnic group, the Turks, accounted for an increasing proportion of the population. In order to highlight the superiority of the Turks, the Ottoman Empire used cruel means to suppress the Armenians.
In 1914, World War I broke out. The Ottoman Allies fought fiercely with russia's Allies in the Caucasus. Russia fully supports armenian independence.
As the Ottoman Empire was in a passive position in the war, the Ottoman rulers blamed the Armenians for their defeat, believing that they had "colluded" with external forces. In 1915, the Ottoman Empire passed the Tersi Act, which allowed the army to expel "persons endangering national security" and to carry out a systematic genocide of Armenians within its borders. In just two years, some 1.5 million Armenians were killed.
▲ The killing point from 1915 to 1917
In 1917, the October Revolution broke out in Russia. Faced with the joint strangulation of domestic reactionary forces and the West, Soviet Russia had to announce its withdrawal from World War I. Russia and the Allies signed the Treaty of Brest, which included allowing Armenia and other transcaucasian countries to become independent.
World War I ended in the defeat of the Allies. In 1920, the Allies signed the Treaty of Sèvres with the Ottomans, which recognized the independence of the Western Armenian region, which had originally belonged to the Ottomans. Two Armenias emerged in the Caucasus: Russian-controlled Eastern Armenia and soon-to-be-independent Western Armenia.
▲Light yellow is Armenia that originally became independent from the Ottoman Empire, and orange is Armenia in Russia
However, in 1921, turkey broke out with a national salvation movement, reoccupied Western Armenia and took control of Mount Ararat, and the Treaty of Sèvres became a dead letter. Soviet Russia (USSR) took control of the three Transcaucasian states and helped the three countries establish Soviet power.
However, the soon-to-be-established Soviet Union was in danger of interference by Western powers. In order to stabilize the southern frontier and Turkey, a large neighbor, in 1921, under the auspices of Soviet Russia (the Soviet Union), the three Transcaucasian countries that were about to join the Soviet Union and Turkey signed the Treaty of Kars, delineated a new border, and assigned all the Ararat Mountains to Turkey, and the Ararat Mountains were no longer used as border mountains in exchange for batumi (georgia, controlled by Turkey during World War I), a black sea port and oil powerhouse.
In 1922, Armenia joined the Soviet Union as one of the republics of the Soviet Union. Mount Ararat, the sacred mountain of Armenian hearts, fell prey to the political exchange between the Soviet Union and Turkey.
Treaty of Kars, batumi in exchange for Mount Ararat
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="336" >4. Disputes after Armenia's independence</h1>
The act of Soviet Russia (USSR) assigning the sacred mountain in the hearts of Armenians to Turkey in disregard of the feelings of the Armenians caused strong dissatisfaction among the Armenians. In order to express its yearning for the holy mountain, the Armenian Soviet Republic placed the mountain in its coat of arms.
▲ The coat of arms of the Armenian Soviet period, the mountain range is Ararat Mountain
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenia became independent from the Soviet Union. Relations between Turkey and Armenia have been strained. Both the Ottoman Empire of the past and Turkey today refuse to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. The two countries have not yet established diplomatic relations.
The border between Turkey and Armenia, separated by barbed wire and fences
In addition to the massacre, the attribution of Mount Ararat is also one of the focal points affecting relations between the two countries. After Armenia's independence, it was declared that the Treaty of Kars, against the will of the Armenians, refused to recognize the Ararat Mountains as belonging to Turkey. Armenia's new coat of arms after independence also includes the Holy Mountain as an oath of sovereignty.
Weak Armenia wanted to reclaim Mount Ararat, but it was even more difficult. Because of the tensions between the two countries, the border has been closed, and Armenians can only overlook the holy mountain from the capital Yerevan, and cannot reach it directly by land.
▲The capital of Armenia overlooks the "Holy Mountain"
Longtime author | Eagle
Live bar sports authors | football and history lovers
Responsible editor| Thomas
Graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science| Editor-in-Chief of the Global Intelligence Officer
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