Travel Guides: Yerevan

Yerevan Opera (topvisit.net)

Yerevan is the largest city and capital of Armenia.

The city was built in 782 BC, being one of the oldest cities in the world. Geographical Location: The city is located west central, at the north-eastern extremity of the Ararat plain, on the river Hrazdan. The climate is continental, because the city is situated on a plain between the mountains. Temperatures in July reach between 34 degrees C and 17 degrees C and in winter the ambient temperature is between the values and -9 degrees C and 2 degrees C. Main attractions: Tavush Province (Marz), National Gallery of Armenia, Armenian Genocide Museum, Tsitsernakapert, Mesrop Machtots, Parajanov Museum. One of the most famous cultural centers in Yerevan is the collection of manuscripts of Matenadaran museum which houses the Persian miniatures and world history, religion and peoples. Yerevan Airport: The municipality is adapting to the changes and in 2010 opened a new airport. Until that time flights reached the old airport. Yerevan region is inhabited since the fourth century BC. Human settlements have been found in the regions Shengavit, Tsitsernakaberd, Karmir Blur, Arin Berd, Berd and Berdadzor Karmir during the Bronze Age. The city is first mentioned in 782 BC under the name of Erebuni.

It was founded by King Argišti here being constructed irrigation canals and construction for grain storage. In 585 BC Erebuni is destroyed by the Scythians and Medes. Between VI and VI centuries BC the city was the center of Armenia. The first church, St. Peter Paul is from the fifth century AC being destroyed in 1931. In 658 the city was conquered by the Arabs, and Yerevan became an important caravan crossing at the road that connects India and Europe. Between the ninth and twelfth centuries was part of the kingdom Armenian-Georgian dynasty following the invasion of Seljuk and will be conquered in 1387 by the troops of Timur Lenk.

By its geographical position it becomes a strategically important area between the Persians (Iran) and the Ottoman Empire. The conflict between the two empires peak is between 1513 and 1737 when Armenia was occupied by troops 14 times by the two empires. In 1604 during the Persian Shah Abbas I of the Armenian deportees were thousands in Persia as a result of this action in Yerevan khanate Armenians were only 20% and the remaining 80% were Muslim, made up of Persians, Turks and Kurds. In June 1679 an earthquake destroyed much of the city. Between 1747 and 1827, Yerevan khanate under Persian rule is a Muslim principality, after which it will be conquered in 1827 by Russian General Ivan Fyodorov Paskevici (1782-1856) being integrated into the Russian Empire.

Yerevan And The Mountain Ararat (planetware.com)

During the Russian rule was the assisted repatriation of Armenians from Iran and Turkey. Yerevan becomes the capital of the oblast (region) Armenia, will increase the economic and political role of the city, houses are built in European style. In 1837 Tsar Nicholas I of Russia after a city visit raises it to the level of “uezd”. In 1854, the city opened a high school for girls and in 1874 a printing company. The first stage occurs in 1879 and ended in the early twentieth century railway construction to link the Gyumri to Yerevan (Alexandropol), Tbilisi and Julfa. In 1913, the city is connected to a telephone network. Armenia was a short time between 1917 and 1920 independent before being incorporated into the USSR, and became the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. In this process takes place a period of intense Russification of Armenia.

In the city after World War II will work on building bridges and buildings with German prisoners. Anti-Soviet protests of Armenians were intensified in 1968 and Armenia with the capital at Yerevan becomes independent in 1991. The Yerevan Khanate is a principality, a state formation of Azerbaijanis from Armenia (1747-1828). Yerevan Khanate territories included today’s Armenia’s central province of Turkey regions Sədərək Şərur and autonomy of Nakhchivan of Azerbaijan. After the defeat in the Russo-state Qadjar Iran (1826-1828), under the Treaty of Turkmenciai (Türkmənçay), the Russian Empire was built alongside the other khanates of Northern Azerbaijan.

The Khanate’s population was composed of Azerbaijani and Kurdish as majority. Azeri were generally sedentary, but some of them still practice transhumance, while the Kurds were nomadic. Triunchil şiism faith of Islam was the main religion of the khanate, but the Kurds were Sunnis. Armenians made up less than 20% of the state. After the Russian conquest of the area’s 169,155 residents, 57,035 or 33.8% were Armenians, Azerbaijanis 84,089 or 49.7%, 16% Kurds and 26 911 or 850 or 0.5% other nationalities (Vartan Parsamian, History armianskogo naroda (1801-1900).

Irevan Khanate was founded by Mehdi Mir Khan and had borders with Naxçıvan, Karabakh and Maku, the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Kartli-Kahetia Georgia, Borca, Qazax. The capital of the Khanate was Irevan city. Turkish traveler Evliya Celebi writes in his book Seyahatname founder of the city were Hodjadjan Lahidjani trader and his family 1407 – 1408, being attracted by the fertility of the area. Later, in 1509, Azerbaijani chief Safevi Ismayîl I ordered his advisers to build a city here. The settlement was founded by Governor Revanqulu (Rəvanqulu XAN) in 7 years and shah named “Revan” in his honor. After Yerevan dialect of Azerbaijani language “Revan” got in voice ‘I’ in front.

This massive fortress with walls and defense systems, behind the Russian conquest (1827) was called in Russian “Erivan” and finally “Yerevan”. Before the Soviet regime in Yerevan there were 8 historical mosques. Today has just survived the Blue Mosque. The mosque was built in 1766 during the reign of Ali Khan Huseyn and therefore is also called Huseyn Ali Mosque.” Indigenous Azerbaijani population served the Mosque in Yerevan, deported in 1988. The Blue Mosque has 28 rooms, library, prayer hall and main yard, 7000 yards total. In the original it had four minarets with a height of 24 meters, which were demolished in 1952, when the mosque was transformed in a planetarium.11