The National Assembly with 190 members is elected every four years by universal suffrage. The president is elected in the same way.
|RDefense:|N Conscription for 18 months and the strength is 20 000 men.
|RNational holiday:|N September 21.
|RNature and climate:|N Mountainous country of highland plateaus surrounded by mountain chains. Several extincted vulcanos. Longest river Arak and greatest lake Sevansea.
Average temperature in the valleys - 5°C in January and + 25°C i July. Percipitation in the valleys less than 500 mm. In the mountains somewhat lower temperature and more rain.
|RPeople:|N Armenians 88%, Azerbaijanians 6%.
|REducation:|N Compulsory between 6 and 15 years. There is one university and one polytechnic institute.
|REconomy:|N Extensive artificially irrigated farming and stockraising. Most important crops are cotton, sugar beets, wine, fruits, tobacco and corn.
Many minerals, most important copper.
Great resources of water power has led to the establishment of industries with high energy consumption, such as synthetic rubber and artificial fertilizer.
Armenia also has important textile and metal manufacturing.
|RHistory:|N The republic of Armenia covers barely one fourth of the old province of Armenia, which has parts in Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey. Close to three quarters of Armenia is in Turkey. Within that part of the province river Euphrat has its source and here lies the mountain Ararat, at which the Noah's Ark is supposed to have stranded.
The first known people in Armenia were the Kalders. Their nation Urartu had its first time of prosperity in the 9th century BC and was conquered by Indo-European tribes in the 7th century BC.
Two separate nations were founded 191 BC: Little Armenia and Great Armenia, and in 66 AD Little Armenia was made a Roman province.
The people of Armenia were christianized about 300 AD. By then Armenians created an alphabet of their own.
Later Armenia was divided between Byzantines, Iranians and Moors. From about 1500 the greater part of the province came under the Turks.
In the 19th century a fight for freedom engaged most Armenians but was brutally beaten during World War I. In 1918 there were plans on constituing an Armenian nation, but this was stopped by Turkey. Instead Turkey incorporated most of Armenia and one fourth of it was incorporated with the Transcaucausian Soviet Republic.
In 1936 Armenia was declared an autonomous Soviet republic.
When the Sovjetunion disbanded in 1991 Armenia became an independent nation.
The Christian Armenia has since long been fighting with the Muslim neighbour Azerbaijan about Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave in Azerbaijan, where the majority of the population are ethnic Armenians.
In 1988 an earthquake struck Armenia, killing over 50 000 and leaving several cities and towns in ruins.
