Armenian Highlands

The Armenian Highlands (Armenian: Հայկական լեռնաշխարհ, romanized: Haykakan leṙnašxarh; also known as the Armenian Upland, Armenian plateau, Armenian tableland[1] or simply Armenia) is the most central and the highest of the three plateaus[1] that together form the northern sector of Western Asia. To its west is the Anatolian plateau, which rises slowly from the lowland coast of the Aegean Sea and converges with the Armenian Highlands to the east of Cappadocia. To its southeast is the Iranian plateau, where the elevation drops rapidly by about 600 metres (2,000 ft) to 1,500 metres (5,000 ft) above sea level.[1] The Caucasus extends to the northeast of the Armenian Highlands. To the southwest of the Armenian Highlands is Upper Mesopotamia.

Armenian Highlands
The Armenian Mountain Range near the Iran–Turkey border
Highest point
PeakMount Ararat
39°43′N 44°16′E
Elevation5,137 m (16,854 ft)
Listing
Dimensions
Area400,000 km2 (150,000 sq mi)
Geography
Satellite image
Countries
RegionWestern Asia

During the Iron Age, the region was known by variations of the name Ararat (Urartu, Uruatri, Urashtu). In Antiquity, the population living on the Highlands was ethnically diverse, but in the Achaemenid period (550–330 BC), Armenian-speakers came to prominence.[2] Recent studies have shown that Armenians are indigenous to the Armenian Highlands and form a distinct genetic isolate in the region.[3]

Later, the Highlands were known as "Armenia Major," a central region to the history of Armenians, and one of the four geo-political regions associated with Armenians, the other three being Armenia Minor, Sophene, and Commagene.[4][5]

Since the 1040s, the highlands have been under the rule of various Turkic peoples and the Safavid dynasty. Much of Eastern Armenia, which had been ruled by the Safavids from the 16th century, became part of the Russian Empire in 1828 and was later incorporated into the Soviet Union, while much of Western Armenia was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and later incorporated into Turkey. The highlands are divided into western and eastern regions, defined by the Ararat Valley where Mount Ararat is located. Western Armenia is often referred to as eastern Anatolia, and Eastern Armenia as the Lesser Caucasus or Caucasus Minor.

The region was historically mainly inhabited by Armenians, and minorities of Assyrians, Georgians, Greeks, Jews, and Iranians. During the Middle Ages, Arabs and particularly Turkmens and Kurds settled in large numbers in the Armenian Highlands. The Christian population of the western half of the region was exterminated during the Armenian Genocide of 1915, and on a smaller scale, the Assyrian and Greek Genocides.

Today, the eastern half is mainly inhabited by Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and Georgians, while the western half is mainly inhabited by Azerbaijanis, Kurds (including Yazidis), Turks, and Zazas, with a minority of Assyrians.

Geography

The Armenian Highlands is part of the Alpide belt, forming part of the Asian range that stretches from the Pontic Mountains to the Malay Peninsula. Its total area is about 400,000 km2.[6] Historically, the Armenian Highlands have been the scene of great volcanic activity.[7] Geologically recent volcanism on the area has resulted in large volcanic formations and a series of massifs and tectonic movement has formed the three largest lakes in the Highlands; Lake Sevan, Lake Van and Lake Urmia.[8] The Armenian Highlands are rich in water resources.[9]

The central, axial chain of Armenian highland ridges, running from west to east across Western Armenia, is called the Anti-Taurus.[10] In the west, the Anti-Taurus departs to the north from the Central (Cilician) Taurus, and, passing right in the middle of the Armenian plateau, parallel to the Eastern (Armenian) Taurus, ends in the east at the Ararat peaks.

Armenian highlands and Caucasus mountains

Most of the Armenian Highlands is in present-day eastern Anatolia, and also includes northwestern Iran, all of Armenia, southern Georgia, and western Azerbaijan.[6] Its northeastern parts are also known as Lesser Caucasus, which is a center of Armenian culture.[11]

False color height map emphasizing the natural shape of the Armenian Highlands.

History
Main articles: Prehistoric Armenia, History of Armenia, and History of Anatolia
The natural borders of the Armenian plateau and its peripheral regions according to H. F. B. Lynch (1901).

From 4000 to 1000 BC, tools and trinkets of copper, bronze and iron were commonly produced in this region and traded in neighboring lands where those metals were less abundant. It is also traditionally believed to be one of the possible locations of the Garden of Eden.[12]

The Armenian Plateau has been called the "epicenter of the Iron Age", since it appears to be the location of the first appearance of Iron Age metallurgy in the late 2nd millennium BC.[13] In the Early Iron Age, the Kingdom of Van controlled much of the region, until it was overthrown by the Medes and Orontid dynasty.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the land of Aratta is placed in a geographic space that could be describing the Armenian plateau.[14] In Antiquity, the population living on the Highlands was ethnically diverse, but in the Achaemenid period (550–330 BC), Armenian-speakers came to prominence.[2] Recent studies have shown that Armenians are indigenous to the Armenian Highlands and form a distinct genetic isolate in the region. There are signs of considerable genetic admixture in Armenians between 3000 BC and 2000 BC, these mixture dates also coincide with the legendary establishment of Armenia in 2492 BCE,[3] but they subside to insignificant levels since 1200 BC, remaining stable until today.

The Armenian Highlands

Throughout Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages, during various centuries, the Armenian Highlands was fought over between the Iranian Parthian Empire, Sassanid Persian Empire, Byzantine Empire, and the Arab Caliphate.[15] From the early modern era and on, the region came directly under Safavid Iranian rule. Heavily contested for centuries between the Iranian Safavids and its archrival the Ottoman Empire, with numerous wars raging over the region, large parts of the Highlands comprising Western Armenia were finally conquered by the Ottomans in the first half of the 17th century following the Ottoman–Safavid War (1623–39) and the resulting Treaty of Zuhab.[16] Eastern Armenia, the other major part of the Highlands, stayed in Iranian hands up to the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay, when it was ceded to Imperial Russia. During the first half of the 19th century, the Ottoman-held parts of the Armenian Highlands comprising Western Armenia formed the boundary of the Ottoman and Russian spheres of influence, after the latter had completed its conquest of the Caucasus and Eastern Armenia at the expense of its suzerain, Qajar Iran, after four major wars spanning more than two centuries.[17]

Political map of the region, CIA, 2002

The Armenian Genocide was the "physical elimination of the Armenian people and most of the evidence of their ever having lived on the great highland called the Armenian Plateau, to which the perpetrator side soon assigned the new name of Eastern Anatolia".[18] Since the Armenian Genocide and partitioning of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, the Highlands have been the boundary region of Turkey, Iran and the Soviet Union and, since the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, Armenia, and parts of Georgia and Azerbaijan.[14]

Middle Ages: Turkish and Persian conquests
Further information: Seljuk Empire and Safavid Empire

Seljuk Turks first arrived in the Armenian highlands in the 1040s and expanded westward conquering territories and populating the peninsula until finally the Ottoman Empire was declared in 1299.[19] The Seljuks victory at the Battle of Manzikert ushered in the most catastrophic four and a half centuries in Armenia's history. Most of the Armenian population suffered an unrelenting devastation, but Ruben I, Prince of Armenia led some of the Armenians out of the highlands and escaped into the mountains of Cilicia where they founded a new principality that was not in the Turkish line of fire.[20]

Armenia's troubles began with the Seljuks but there was more to come. In the early 13th century, as various peoples fled from the advancing Mongol onslaught, the highlands were once again disturbed by the migrations of the Karluk and Kharizmian peoples. The Mongols, who did not distinguish between Christianity and Islam, reached the highlands in 1235. With their arrival, Armenia became part of "the East" in its entirety for the first time since the territory was partitioned during the Byzantine–Sasanian wars. Considered the successors of the Abbasids, Sassanidss and Seljuks, the Mongols eventually converted to Islam and established their dynasty in Azerbaijan.[20]

In 1410 the area was ruled by Kara Koyunlu who ruled until 1468. The pastoral culture of the Kara Koyunlu Turks undermined agricultural practices in Armenia. In 1468, the Ak Koyunlu Turks assumed power; their reign lasted until 1502 when the Safavids place Armenia under Iranian rule. The Ottoman Turks don't take control of the highland region until 1514, several decades after Armenians in the Ottoman Empire are given millet status. The highlands come under Ottoman control following the defeat of the Safavids at the Battle of Chalderon; they appointed Kurdish tribesman to rule over the highlands' local administrative affairs. By 1516, the Ottoman Empire has conquered all of the formerly Armenian lands, including Cilicia.[21]

Flora and fauna

The apricot was known by the Romans as the prunus armenicus (the Armenian plum) and was brought to Europe from the Armenian plateau.[1]

Notable peaks
Mount Artos, Lake Van from Akhtamar Island
Rank Mountain Elevation Location
1Mount Ararat5,137 m Ağrı Province
2Mount Aragats4,095 m Aragatsotn Province
3Mount Süphan4,058 m Bitlis Province
4Mount Kapudzhukh3,906 m Syunik Province / Ordubad
5Mount Avrin3,650 m West Azerbaijan province
6Mount Azhdahak3,597 m Gegharkunik Province
7Mount Kezelboghaz3,594 m Syunik Province
8 Mount Artos3,515 m Van Province

See also

References
  1. Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiquity to the Fourteenth Century. Richard G. Hovannisian (ed.) New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997, pp. 1-17
  2. La Porta, Sergio (2018). "Armenia". In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Among the diversity of ethnicities residing on the Armenian plateau in Antiquity, the Armenian-speakers came to prominence during the Achaemenid period.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  3. Haber, Marc; Mezzavilla, Massimo; Xue, Yali; Comas, David; Gasparini, Paolo; Zalloua, Pierre; Tyler-Smith, Chris (21 October 2015). "Genetic evidence for an origin of the Armenians from Bronze Age mixing of multiple populations". European Journal of Human Genetics. 24 (6): 931–936. doi:10.1038/ejhg.2015.206. PMID 26486470. Our tests suggest that Armenians had no significant mixture with other populations in their recent history and have thus been genetically isolated since the end of the Bronze Age, 3000 years ago.
  4. Adalian, Rouben Paul (2010). Historical dictionary of Armenia (2nd ed.). Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. pp. 336–8. ISBN 978-0810874503.
  5. Grierson, Otto Mørkholm; edited by Philip; Westermark, Ulla (1991). Early Hellenistic coinage : from the accession of Alexander to the Peace of Apamea (336-188 B.C.) (Repr. ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 175. ISBN 0521395046.
  6. "Armenian Highland." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia
  7. Volcanoes, their structure and significance Thomas George Bonney - 1912 - Page 243
  8. Emerald Network Pilot Project in Armenia Archived May 28, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, Council of Europe.
  9. Der Völkermord an den Armeniern, Nikolaĭ Oganesovich Oganesian - 2005- Page 6
  10. Strabo (1856). The geography of Strabo. H. G. Bohn. p. 260.
  11. Barbara A. West (2009). Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. Infobase Publishing. p. 47. ISBN 978-0-8160-7109-8. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
  12. Mesopotamian Trade. Noah's Flood: The Garden of Eden, W. Willcocks, H. Rassam pp. 459-460
  13. Lang, David M. Armenia: Cradle of Civilization. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1970, pp. 50-51, 58-59.
  14. Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania, By Barbara A. West, 2009, p. 47
  15. Peimani, Hooman (2009). Conflict and Security in Central Asia and the Caucasus. ISBN 9781598840544. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  16. Holding, Deirdre (September 2014). Armenia: with Nagorno Karabagh. ISBN 9781841625553. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  17. Dowling, Timothy C. (2014-12-02). Russia at War: From the Mongol Conquest to Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Beyond ... ISBN 9781598849486. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  18. The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies - Page 3, by Richard G. Hovannisian - 2011
  19. Ghaplanyan, Irina (2017-11-01). Post-Soviet Armenia: The New National Elite and the New National Narrative. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-315-28267-1.
  20. Bryce (Viscount), James Bryce; Toynbee, Arnold (2000). The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, 1915-1916: Documents Presented to Viscount Grey of Falloden by Viscount Bryce. Gomidas Institute. ISBN 978-0-9535191-5-6.
  21. Adalian, Rouben Paul (2010-05-13). Historical Dictionary of Armenia. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-7450-3.

Further reading

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