In world history, civilizations have changed, entire peoples and languages have appeared and disappeared without a trace. Most modern nations and nationalities were formed after the first millennium AD. However, along with the Persians, Jews, and Greeks, there is still another ancient, distinctive people, whose representatives witnessed the construction of the Egyptian pyramids, the birth of Christianity and many other legendary events of ancient times. Armenians - what are they like? How are they different from neighboring Caucasian peoples and what is their contribution to world history and culture?
The appearance of the Armenians
Like any people whose origins go back far into the past, the history of the appearance of the Armenians is closely intertwined with myths and legends, and sometimes it is the oral tales transmitted over thousands of years that provide clearer and clearer answers than numerous scientific hypotheses.
According to folk legends, the founder of the Armenian statehood and, in fact, the entire Armenian people is the ancient king Hayk. In the distant third millennium BC, he and his army came to the shores of Lake Van. August 11, 2107 BC e. A battle took place between the ancestors of modern Armenians and the troops of the Sumerian king Utuhengal, in which Hayk won. This day is considered the starting point of the national calendar and is a national holiday.
The name of the king gave the name to the people (the self-name of the Armenians is hai).
Historians prefer to operate with more boring and vague arguments, in which much remains unclear about the origin of such a people as the Armenians. What race they are is also a subject of debate among different researchers.
The fact is that in the highlands in the first millennium BC. e. there was a state with a highly developed civilization - Urartu. Representatives of this Khurarti people mixed with the local population, gradually adopted the language, and such a nation as the Armenians was formed. What they have become over two millennia, what they had to face is a separate drama.
History of the struggle for identity
Every nation in its history is faced with foreign invasion, with attempts to change the very essence of the nation. The whole history of the Armenians is a struggle against numerous invaders. Persians, Greeks, Arabs, Turks - they all left their mark on the history of the Armenians. However, the ancient people with their own writing, language and stable tribal ties were not so easy to assimilate and dissolve among foreign-language settlers. All this was resisted by what they had and what their neighbors had - these issues also became a subject of friction.
In response to this, measures were repeatedly taken to forcibly evict this people to the territory of Iran and Turkey, and genocide was carried out. The result of this was the mass migration of Armenians around the world, which is why the national diasporas are very large and one of the most united communities in the whole world.
In the 18th century, for example, Caucasians were resettled to the banks of the Don, where the city of Nakhichevan-on-Don was founded. Hence the large number of Armenians in southern Russia.
Religion
Unlike many other nations, it is possible to accurately determine in what year the Armenians adopted Christianity. The national church is one of the oldest in the world and gained independence a very long time ago. Popular tradition clearly gives the names of the first preachers of the young faith at that time - Thaddeus and Bartholomew. In 301, King Trdat III finally decided on Christianity as the state religion.
Many people are often lost in answer to the question of what faith the Armenians have. Which movement should they belong to - Catholics, Orthodox? In fact, back in the middle of the fourth century AD, a decision was made to independently elect clergy and primates. Soon the Armenian Apostolic Church finally separated from the Byzantine Church and became completely autonomous.
451 defined the basic dogmas of the local church, which in certain issues differed significantly from the norms of neighboring Eastern Orthodox churches.
Language
Language determines the age of a people and distinguishes it from other ethnic groups. The Armenian language began its formation in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. on the territory of Urartu. The newcomer Khurarti conquerors assimilated with the local population and adopted their dialect as a base. Armenian is considered one of the most ancient languages of the Indo-European family. It is the Indo-European family that includes the languages of almost all the peoples of modern Europe, India, and Iran.
Some researchers even put forward a bold hypothesis that it was the ancient Armenian dialect that became the very Proto-Indo-European language from which modern English, French, Russian, Persian and other languages of a significant part of today's population of the globe subsequently emerged.
Writing
The first rudiments of our own alphabet appeared even before the beginning of our era. The priests of Armenian temples invented their own secret writing, on which they created their sacred books. However, after the establishment of Christianity, all written monuments were destroyed as pagan. Christianity also played a major role in the emergence of the national alphabet.
After the Armenian Apostolic Church gained independence, the question arose of translating the Bible and other sacred books into its own language. It was decided to create our own recording tools. In 405-406, the enlightener Mesrop Mashtots developed the Armenian alphabet. The first book in Armenian script came out of the printing press in 1512 in Venice.
Culture
The culture of the proud people goes back to the 1st millennium BC. e. Even after the loss of independence, the Armenians retained their identity and a high level of development of art and science. After the restoration of the independent Armenian kingdom in the 9th century, a kind of cultural renaissance began.
The invention of our own writing was a powerful impetus for the emergence of literary works. In the 8th-10th centuries, the majestic epic “David of Sassoun” took shape about the struggle that the Armenians waged against the Arab conquerors. What other literary monuments they created is the subject of a separate extensive discussion.
The music of the peoples of the Caucasus is a rich topic for discussion. The Armenian one stands out for its particular diversity.
Among the original people, the original people were even included in the UNESCO lists as one of the intangible objects of the cultural heritage of humanity.
However, among the traditional elements of culture, Armenian cuisine is most familiar to ordinary people. Thin flatbreads - lavash, dairy products - matsun, tan. No self-respecting Armenian family will sit at a table that does not have a bottle of wine, often home-made.
Black pages of history
Any original people that fiercely resists absorption and assimilation becomes a strong object of hatred for the invaders. The territory of Western and Eastern Armenia, divided between the Persians and Turks, was repeatedly subjected to ethnic cleansing. The most famous is the Armenian genocide, which has never happened in history.
During the First World War, the Turks organized a real extermination of the Armenians living in the territory of Western Armenia, which was then part of Turkey. Those who survived the massacre were forcibly removed to barren deserts and doomed to death.
As a result of this unprecedented barbaric act, between 1.5 and 2 million people died. The terrible tragedy is one of the factors that further unites Armenians around the world with a sense of involvement in the events of those years.
The dishonesty of the Turkish authorities lies in the fact that they still refuse to acknowledge the obvious facts of the deliberate extermination of people based on nationality, citing the inevitable wartime losses. The fear of losing face by admitting guilt still prevails over the sense of conscience and shame of Turkish politicians.
Armenians. What are they like today?
As they often joke now, Armenia is not a country, but an office, since most of the nation’s representatives live outside the mountainous republic. Many people were scattered throughout the world as a result of wars of conquest and invasions of the country. The Armenian diasporas, along with the Jewish ones, are today the most united and friendly in many countries of the world - the USA, France, Germany, Russia, Lebanon.
Armenia itself regained its independence not so long ago, along with the collapse of the USSR. This process was accompanied by a bloody war in which the Armenians call Artsakh. By the will of politicians cutting the borders of the Transcaucasian republics, the territory with a predominant Armenian population became part of Azerbaijan.
During the collapse of the Soviet empire, Karabakh Armenians demanded the legal right to independently determine their destiny. This resulted in armed struggle and the subsequent war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Despite the support of Turkey and some other powers, an overwhelming advantage in numbers, the Azerbaijani army suffered a crushing defeat and abandoned the disputed territories.
Armenians have been living in Russia for many years, especially in the south of the country. During this time, they ceased to be foreigners in the eyes of local residents and became part of the cultural community.
Armenians are one of the most ancient peoples on Earth. This is well known. It is all the more interesting to find out how the formation of the ethnic group took place, and also to recall several theories.
The theory about the connection between modern Armenians and the inhabitants of the ancient state of Urartu first appeared in the 19th century, when historians discovered traces of an ancient civilization in the Armenian Highlands. Controversy on this issue continues in scientific and pseudo-scientific circles to this day.
However, Urartu as a state came to a decline already in the 6th century BC, at which time the ethnogenesis of the Armenians was only in the final stage of development. Even in the 5th century BC, the population of the Armenian Highlands was heterogeneous and consisted of remnants of the Urartians, Proto-Armenians, Hurrians, Semites, Hittites and Luwians. Modern scientists recognize that the genetic component of the Urartians is present in the genetic code of the Armenians, but no more than the genetic component of the same Hurrians and Luwians, not to mention the proto-Armenians. The connection between the Armenians and the Urartians can be evidenced by the borrowings taken by the Armenian language from the Urartian and Hurrian dialects. It can also be recognized that the Armenians also experienced the cultural influence of the once powerful ancient state.
Ancient sources
The “Greek version” of the ethnogenesis of the Armenians traces this people back to Armenos of Thessalos, one of the participants in the Argonaut expedition. This legendary ancestor received his name from the Greek city of Armeninon. After traveling with Jason, he settled in the territory of future Armenia. This legend is known to us thanks to the Greek historian Strabo, who wrote, in turn, that he learned it from the records of the military leaders of Alexander the Great.
Apparently, given the lack of earlier sources, it was during the years of the campaigns of the “king of the world” that this legend arose. In principle, this is not surprising. At that time, there was even a widespread version about the Greek origin of the Persians and Medes.
Later historians - Eudoxus and Herodotus spoke about the Phrygian origin of the Armenians, finding similarities between the two tribes in clothing and language. Today's scientists recognize that the Armenians and the Phrygians are related nations that developed in parallel, but no scientific evidence of the origin of the Armenians from the Phrygians has yet been found, therefore both Greek versions of the ethnogenesis of the Armenians can be considered pseudo-scientific.
Armenian sources
The main version of the origin of the Armenians until the 19th century was considered to be the legend left by the “father of Armenian historiography” and the author of the work “History of Armenia” Movses Khorenatsi.
Khorenatsi traced the Armenian people to the legendary progenitor Hayk, who, according to the pre-Christian version of the myth, was a titan, according to the Christian version - a descendant of Japheth and the son of the ancestor of the Armenians, Togarm. According to myth, Hayk entered into battle with the tyrant of Mesopotamia Bel and defeated him. After Hayk, his son Aram ruled, then his son Arai. In this version of Armenian ethnogenesis, it is believed that numerous names of the Armenian Highlands received their names from Hayk and other Armenian ancestors.
Hayasian hypotheses
In the middle of the last century, the so-called “Hayas hypotheses” became popular in Armenian historiography, in which Hayas, the territory east of the Hittite kingdom, became the homeland of the Armenians. Actually, Hayas is mentioned in Hittite sources. Armenian scholars such as academician Yakov Manandyan (a former adherent of migration theory), professor Yeremyan and academician Babken Arakelyan have written scientific works on the topic of the new “cradle of Armenians.”
The main migration theory up to this time was recognized as “bourgeois”.
The presentation of the Hayasian theory began to be published in Soviet encyclopedias. However, already in the 60s of the 20th century it was criticized. First of all, on the part of the honored orientalist Igor Dyakonov, who published the book “The Origin of the Armenian People” in 1968. In it, he insists on the migration-mixed hypothesis of Armenian ethnogenesis, and calls the “Hayas theories” unscientific, since there are too few sources and evidence base for them.
Numbers
According to one of the hypotheses (Ivanov-Gamkrelidze), the center of formation of the Indo-European language was eastern Anatolia, located on the Armenian Highlands. This is the so-called glottal theory, that is, based on language. However, the formation of Indo-European languages already occurred in the 4th millennium BC, and the time of the alleged settlement of the Armenian Highlands is the 1st millennium BC. The first mention of Armenians is in the records of Darius (520 BC), the first texts are in the 5th century AD.
With the collapse of the empire called the USSR in the twentieth century, many stereotypes and false concepts in world history were refuted.
During the years of Soviet power, the history of the territory of modern Armenia, as a rule, was written by pro-Armenian and Armenian researchers, putting forward the theory of the existence of “Ancient, or Great Armenia.” At the same time, consistent work was carried out to falsify facts that took place in the history of such peoples living in this area as Jews, Greeks, Urartians, Aysors (Assyrians), Persians, Georgians, Albanians and, especially, the ancient Turks, whose direct descendants are the Azerbaijanis. Let us note that in world history it is difficult to find a more complicated and falsified history than the history of the Hays, the so-called modern Armenians. The same can be said about their ethnogenesis. Many Armenian scientists and European researchers noted this in their studies.
Thus, the famous Armenian linguist Manuk Abeghyan confirmed that the Armenian language, like the Armenian tribe, is hybrid.
According to primary sources, in order to establish Christianity as the state religion, the Hays first arrived on the territory of modern Armenia (Hayastan) as missionaries. During the period of the Arab Caliphate, they took possession of the places of worship of the Turkic tribes, who at that time had converted to Islam, turned these temples into churches and began to falsify historical facts and events for their own benefit. The alphabet, presented today as Armenian and which served missionaries to spread Christianity, was in fact the alphabet of the peoples who lived in Western Asia and eventually disappeared from the historical scene. Let us note that the so-called creator of the Armenian alphabet Mesrop Mashtots was also a Christian missionary and never lived in the territory of modern Armenia.
The history of the Hays was attached to world history, in particular to the Christian Gospels and mythological traditions of different peoples, the main characters of which served as prototypes for fictional Armenian characters, and the localities were used in falsified history. The work of the “father of history” of the Hays, the 5th century chronicler Movses Khorenatsi, “History of the Hays” (despite the fact that in Armenian it is called “Hayos patmutyun”, i.e. “History of the Armenians”, was translated into Russian as “History of Armenia”) Many Armenian scholars consider scribbles to be of a compilative nature, consisting from beginning to end of anachronisms. Surprising is the statement of Armenian historians about the existence of the Etchmiadzin monastery from the beginning of the 4th century and the appearance of the Hay alphabet from the beginning of the 5th century, while the oldest manuscript of the “History of the Hays” by M. Khorenatsi dates back no earlier than the 14th century.
This is explained by the fact that in these manuscripts, Armenian religious figures from time to time adjusted all periods of their history in accordance with the periods of the history of the peoples and states of the region. In Europe, “History” by M. Khorentsai was first translated and published in 1695 in Amsterdam. Western scientists La Croza, A. Carriere, S. Martin, A. Gutschmidt, as well as Armenian researchers N. Emin, K. Patkanov, G. Khalatyants, M. Garagashyan came to the conclusion that, having rewritten historical facts about the Urartians, the Assyrians and the Medes, reflected in the Bible and the works of such ancient Greek scientists as Strabo, Herodotus, Ctesias, Xenophon, M. Khorenatsi presented in his “History” the commanders and historical figures of these peoples as Hayastan, and the territories as Hayastan.
The famous Armenian historian Leo (Arakel Babakhanyan) pointed out that in the “History” of M. Khorenatsi, over the 1800-year history of the descendants of Hayk (from the Haykazyan dynasty), 59 names of sovereigns were mentioned, of which 32 names were simply mentioned without indicating the time of their reign. Leo argued that M. Khorenatsi, considered the “father of Armenian history,” by adjusting history to the Gospel, thereby rendered an artificial service to Christianity. This also proved once again that he was not a devoted chronicler of the Haikazian dynasty. Thus, Leo comes to the conclusion that the story written by M. Khorenatsi is a fictional story.
Another Armenian historian Bakhshi Ishkhanyan pointed out that the territory of “Great Armenia” extended beyond Russia to Lesser Armenia.
Russian researcher Alexander Anninsky wrote that the works of the authors (Mar Abas Katina, Agafangel, Zenob, Favstos Buzand), to which M. Khorenatsi referred, were questioned and denied as historical sources by European Armenian scholars.
Another Russian Caucasian scholar, Ivan Chopin, while studying the works of ancient authors, came to the conclusion that the Hays and Armenians are of different origins. In the 12th century BC. The Hays, together with their related tribes of Franco-Phrygians, moved from the Balkans to Asia Minor, namely, to the territory between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. According to mythological legends, the descendants of Hayk, the Hays, who defeated the Assyrian king Belin, settled in the area of the Lake Van basin, which was then called Hayasa (Hayastan). Living on the territory of the Ermeniyya plateau (Armenia) in Anadolu, in the area of the Lake Urmia basin and in the Caucasus, the Hays, mixed with the Hurrians, appropriated the heritage and history of the Ermen tribe, which had disappeared by that time, who were Subar Turkic (or Mitans) by origin. As a result, currently the same nation has two names - it calls itself Hayi, and others call it Armenians. It should be noted that the ethnonym Ermen is widespread not only in Anadolu and the Caucasus, but also in Central Asia and Transbaikalia (Erman Mountains).
Modern Armenian, European, Russian and even some Azerbaijani historians, describing the history of the South Caucasus and Western Asia and referring to the falsified history of M. Khorenatsi and other falsified historical books of the Armenian church, thereby agree that the modern territory of Armenia is an ancient Armenian land. However, the partial resettlement of Armenians in the territory of present-day Armenia began in 1441, when, during the reign of the emirs of Gara Goyunlu, the Catholicosate was moved from Cilicia to the church of the village of Vagharshapat, near the city of Iravan. Thanks to funding from European states, the lands around these churches were acquired and the first Armenian settlements began to appear there. Of particular interest are the documents on the purchase and sale of lands by the Echmiadzin Church from the Azerbaijanis, presented in the work “Jambr” by the Etchmiadzin Catholicos Simeon Yerevantsi (1763-1782) and the book of the historian A. Papazyan , compiled by him on the basis of purchase and sale documents stored in the Matenadaran, which indicate from whom, when and for how much the lands belonging to Azerbaijanis were acquired.
In fact, the Armenian ethnic group settled in the southern Caucasus later than the others. At the time when the ancient Turks (Sakas, Scythians, Cimmerians, Huns, Barsils, Oguzes, Kipchaks) ruled here, there was no Armenian trace at all in the Caucasus. This is evidenced by the Armenian historian Karen Yuzbashyan, who noted that the Turks are not alien tribes, but lived in the Caucasus region long before the Seljuks arrived here. The settlement of the Turks in Asia Minor and the Balkans was observed in the 4th-7th centuries, and by the 8th-10th centuries this process had become widespread. The Armenian historian also noted that during the period of the Arab Caliphate, the leaders of the Turkic tribes, as a rule, were elected as emirs of the border regions.
After the occupation of the Iravan Khanate by Tsarist Russia and the signing of the Turkmanchay (1828) and Adrianople (1829) treaties, the mass resettlement of Armenians from Iran and Turkey to the territory of modern Armenia began.
Thus, the studies of many scientists and researchers prove that the modern Republic of Armenia and its capital Yerevan (Irevan) are not originally Armenian territory, but have belonged to the Oghuz Turks since ancient times.
Origins and formation of the Armenian people
The most common question in the history of Armenian studies has been and continues to be the question of the origin and formation of the Armenian people, which is controversial in some issues. Where do the Armenian people come from, where is their cradle located, when did it form as a separate ethnic unit, and since when has it been mentioned in ancient written sources. The controversy of these issues or their individual points is due not only to the diversity of information from primary sources, but also to the frequent political or other interests of those involved in these issues. However, the available facts, as well as the level of modern research, fully allow us to answer the question about the origin of the Armenian people and its formation. We will touch, first of all, on the legends about the origin of the Armenian people, recorded in the ancient and Middle Ages, in a general line we will present the most widespread theories in historiography, then the current state of the issue being studied and the most preserved ancient facts about Armenia and the Armenians.
In the ancient and Middle Ages, a number of legends were recorded about the origin of the Armenians, the most interesting of which, from the point of view of Armenian studies, (as primary sources) are the Armenian, Greek, Hebrew, Georgian and Arabic versions.
a) Armenian legend
It was created from time immemorial and came to us from the recording of Movses Khorenatsi. Certain fragments of the legend are also mentioned in the works of other Armenian medieval bibliographers. In this legend, two layers can be distinguished, the first - the most ancient layer, was created and existed in pre-Christian times. According to ancient legend, Armenians descended from a god-like ancestor 
Aika, who was one of the titanic sons of the gods. This is how Movses Khorenatsi presents its origin: “The first of the gods were formidable and prominent, the cause of the virtues of the world, and the beginning of the multitude and the whole earth. Before them came a generation of titans, and one of them was Hayk Apestostyan.”
In Christian times, the Armenian legend was modified, adapting to the Biblical ideas, according to which, after the Flood, all humanity descended from the three sons of Noah - Ham, Shem and Japheth. According to the new Christian version, Hayk is considered a descendant of Japheth, the son of the ancestor Torgom, hence the name “Torgom’s House” and “Torgom’s Nation” given to Armenia by medieval written sources.
The legend says that Hayk fought with the tyrant of Mesopotamia Bel, defeated him, and as a sign of this, the Armenians began to celebrate the original Armenian date (according to the famous Armenian scholar Ghevond Alishan it was August 1, 2492).
According to the Armenian version, after the name of the ancestor Hayk, the Armenian people are called “Ay”, and the country “Ayastan”, and after the name of his descendant Aram, the names “Armenia” and “Armenians” appeared. Also, numerous names of the Armenian Highlands received their names from the names of Hayk and other Armenian ancestors (from Hayk - Haykashen, Aramanyak - Mount Aragats and the Aragatsotn region, from Aramais - Armavir, from Erast - Yeraskh (Araks), from Shara - Shirak, from Amasia - Masis, from Gegham - Lake Gegharkunik and Gegharkuni region, from Sisak - Syunik, from Ara the Beautiful - Airarat, etc.).
b) Greek legend
The Greek legend telling about the origin of the Armenians is related to the beloved and widespread legend of the Argonauts in Ancient Greece. According to which, the ancestor of the Armenians, who gave them the name Armenos of Tesal, who with Jason and other Argonauts participated in the journey to find the Golden Fleece, settled in Armenia, which was named after him Armenia. Tradition says that he originally lived in the Thessalian (region in Greece) city of Armenion. This legend is told in more detail by a Greek bibliographer of the 1st century BC. Strabo, who says that the source of his information was the stories of the military leaders of Alexander the Great. Judging by the facts, the legend about the Armenians was created and associated with the Argonauts during the Macedonian campaigns, since there are no earlier sources telling about this. In all likelihood, this had the same political orientation as the legends about the Greek origin of the Persians and Medians. There are quite a few cases in history when some conqueror, in order to present his goals in a “legal” form, comes up with false reasons in advance. Thus, the axial information about the Thessalian (Greek) origin of the Armenians cannot be considered reliable. The Greek authors Herodotus (5th century) and Eudoxus (4th century) also had incoherent information about the Western (Phrygian) origin. These 
the information relates to the similarity in clothing of Armenian and Phrygian warriors and the presence of numerous Phrygian words in the Armenian language. This, of course, cannot explain the origin of one people from another. Phrygians and Armenians are related nations (they have the same Indo-European origin), therefore, the presence of cognate words in the Armenian and Phrygian languages can be considered a pattern.
c) Georgian legend.
The Georgian legend was written under the influence and was recorded in the 9th - 11th centuries. Georgian authors (Unnamed historian, Leonti Mroveli, etc.). According to Georgian legend, numerous nations descended from the eight sons of Targamos (Torgom), from the eldest son Ayos - the Armenians, from Kartlos - the Georgians, from other sons many peoples of the Caucasus. Judging by the endings of proper names, this legend had some kind of Georgian primary source that has not reached us. It partially bears traces of the political situation of that era, when the influence of the Bagratids was widespread throughout the Caucasus. This should explain the fact that the founder of the Armenians, Ayos, was the eldest of the brothers.
d) Arabic legend.
Connects the origin of the Armenians with the idea of the emergence of nations from the sons of Noah after the flood. It is presented in most detail in the works of the Arab bibliographers of the 12th-13th centuries, Yakut and Dimashki. According to this legend, from the son of Noah Yaphis (Japheth) came Avmar, then his grandson Lantan (Torgom), whose son was Armini (the ancestor of the Armenians), from the sons of his brother came the Agvans (Caucasian Albanians) and Georgians. This legend considers the Armenians, Greeks, Slavs, Franks and Iranian tribes to be related. It is interesting that this legend preserves a memory coming from the period of kinship unity of the Indo-European peoples.
e) Hebrew tradition.
It was recorded on the pages of “Jewish Antiquities” by Josephus Flafius (1st century BC - 1st century AD). According to the source, “Uros founded Armenia.” In Armenian studies there is no single point of view regarding the primary source of this information and its reliability. There is an opinion that it talks about the son of the ancestor Aram Ara the Beautiful. According to other opinions, Uros could be the “son of Rus Erimena” - a king mentioned in the cuneiform writings of the Kingdom of Van. In Assyrian written sources, the name "Rusa" is also mentioned under the name "Ursa", and the name "Erimena" can be interpreted as an anthroponym and as a genus name.
In addition to those noted, there are other legends telling about the origin of the Armenians, which, however, to one degree or another repeat the above-mentioned ones and are not of interest.
f) The question of the ethnogenesis of Armenians in historiography.
From the 5th century to the 19th century, the Armenian version was unquestioningly accepted on the issue of the ethnogenesis of the Armenians, formed on the pages of the “History of Armenia” by Movses Khorenatsi, which for many centuries was a textbook and evidence of genealogy for the Armenian people. However, news that appeared in science in the 19th century cast doubt on the reliability of the historian’s information, and the veracity of the national version about the origin of the Armenians was called into question.
In the 19th century, comparative linguistics arose, according to which the Armenians are of Indo-European origin, along with other peoples in prehistoric times they formed one ethnic unity and occupied one territory, which in science is conventionally called the “Indo-European ancestral home”. The question of the origin of these peoples within the framework of this theory is related to the location of the Indo-European ancestral home. At different times, different versions of the location of the ancestral home prevailed in science (Southeastern Europe, southern Russian plains, northern Western Asia, etc.).
In the 19th century, the version of the location of the Indo-European ancestral home in South-Eastern Europe became widespread in comparative linguistics. On the other hand, Greek sources regarding the Balkan origin of the Armenians put forward a theory about the resettlement of Armenians. An opinion was formed according to which the Armenians, having left the Balkan Peninsula in the 8th-6th centuries, invaded Urartu, conquered it and, after the fall of the latter in the 6th century, created their own state (the Kingdom of Ervandi). This theory is not based on a set of facts and cannot be considered true for several reasons; it became and still continues to be the subject of political manipulation (in particular by Turkish falsifiers of history).
The next theory about the origin of the Armenian people is the Abetian or Asinic theory, according to which the Armenian language is a mixed non-Indo-European language, therefore, the Armenians did not take part in the Indo-European migration and descended from local Asian tribes. This theory could not withstand serious scientific criticism and is still denied, since there cannot be mixed languages: from mixing two languages a third does not appear.
In the early 1980s, the view that the Indo-European ancestral home in the 5-4 millennium BC was revised. was located in the north of Western Asia, more precisely on the territory of the Armenian Highlands, in the regions of Asia Minor, in the northern Mesopotamia and in the north-west of the Iranian Plain. This point of view is still supported by many facts and is accepted by most specialists. The question of the ethnogenesis of the Armenians received a new explanation. In itself, the thesis about the resettlement of the Armenians was rejected, since the Indo-European ancestral home was located precisely on the territory where the Armenian people were formed and went through their entire formation.
Now we can say for sure that the Armenians in the 5th-4th millennium BC. formed part of the Indo-European people and at the end of the 4th millennium and at the beginning of the 3rd millennium they separated from the Indo-European community. It was from this time that the formation of the Armenian people began, which occurred in two stages. The first stage, which can be described as the period of clan associations and early state formations, took place in the 3-2 millennia BC. At the second stage, in the 5th-6th centuries BC. The stage of formation of the Armenian people through the creation of a unified statehood ended.
Summarizing all that has been said, it can be argued that the Armenian language and all those who spoke it separated from the Indo-European community and became independent in the 4th-3rd millennium BC. It was from these times that the Armenian people are mentioned in the territory of the Armenian Highlands, where they carried out their activities , existed and created their own history.
Movsisyan A.
