Armenian Highland

Armenian Highland
The Armenian Mountain Range near the Turkey-Iran border
Country  Armenia
 Azerbaijan/ Nagorno-Karabakh
 Georgia
 Iran
 Turkey
Highest point Mount Ararat
 - elevation 5,165 m (16,946 ft)
 - coordinates
Area 400,000 km2 (154,441 sq mi)
Satellite image

The Armenian Highland (for names in other languages see below; also known as the Armenian Upland, Armenian plateau, Armenian tableland[1], simply Armenia[2]; erroneously referred to as "Eastern Anatolia" or "Eastern Asia Minor"[3]) is the central-most and highest of three land-locked plateaus that together form the northern sector of the Middle East.[2] To its west is the Anatolian plateau which rises slowly from the lowland coast of the Aegean Sea and rises to an average height of 3,000 feet (910 m).[2] In Armenia, the average height rises dramatically from 3,000 feet (910 m) to 7,000 feet (2,100 m).[2] To its southeast is the Iranian plateau, where the elevation drops rapidly to an average 2,000 feet (610 m) to 5,000 feet (1,500 m) feet above sea level.[2]

Contents

Name

Political aspect

When the Treaty of Lausanne was signed in 1923, the Republic of Turkey was established. It is claimed that in its attempts to Turkify the geographical and settlement names in Turkey, the authorities of the republic began a systematic campaign to alter non-Turkish placenames. These attempts included the name change of the geographical expression of "Armenia" or "Armenian plateau" to "Eastern Anatolia."[6] However, as can be seen in Turkish sources, the names Armenian plateau (Ermenistan Platosu) or Armenian Highland (Ermenistan Yaylası) are used to define the plateau. The term "Eastern Anatolia" is designated for the region and is mainly used for statistical and administrative purposes, while geographic expression Armenian plateau is continued to be used in contemporary Turkish sources.

Geography

Its total area is about 400,000 km².[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 Highland, Lake Sevan, Lake Van and Lake Urmia.[8]

Most of the Armenian Highland is in Turkey's Eastern Anatolia Region, and also includes northwestern Iran, all of Armenia, and western Azerbaijan.[7] Its eastern parts are also known as Lesser Caucasus, which is a birth place of Armenian people.[9]

History

Main articles: Prehistoric Armenia, History of Armenia, and History of Anatolia

From 4,000 B.C. to 1,000 B.C., 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.[10] It is also traditionally believed to be one of the possible locations of the Garden of Eden.[11] 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.[12] In the Early Iron Age, the kingdom of Ararat controlled much of the region.

Throughout Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the Armenian Highland was a heavily contested territory of the Byzantine, the Ottoman, the Persian, and Arab spheres of influence. It was finally conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, and during the 19th century, it was the boundary of the Ottoman and the Russian spheres of influence. Since the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, it has been the boundary region of Turkey, Iran and the Soviet Union and, since the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan.

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.[2]

Notable peaks

Rank Mountain Prominence Location
1 Mount Ararat 5,165 m Iğdır Province
2 Mount Aragats 4,095 m Aragatsotn Province
3 Mount Süphan 4,058 m Bitlis Province
4 Mount Kapudzhukh 3,906 m Syunik, Ordubad
5 Mount Azhdahak 3,597 m Gegharkunik Province
6 Mount Kezelboghaz 3,594 m Syunik Province
7 Mount Artos 3,515 m Van Province

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Google Books search - Armenian tableland
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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
  3. ^ Kouymjian, Dickran. "Armenia from the Fall of the Cilician Kingdom (1375) to the Forced Migration under Shah Abbas (1604)" in The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times, Volume II: Foreign Dominion to Statehood: The Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century. Richard G. Hovannisian (ed.) New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997, p. 1. ISBN 1-4039-6422-X.
  4. ^ Elburz dağlarının güneyden gelen dağlarla birleştiği yere Ermenistan yaylası denir, Hürriyet Ansiklopedik Yıllığı, Hürriyet, Istanbul, 1974, p. 323.
  5. ^ Güneye doğru Küçük Kafkas dağları ve yüksek Ermenistan Platosu başlar. Bu plato topografik açıdan Doğu Anadolu yüksek yaylası ve İran Azerbaycanı ile birlikte bir bütün meydana getirir., Aynur Özfırat, Doğu Anadolu Yayla Kültürleri: M.Ö. II. binyıl, Arkeoloji ve Sanat Yayınları, 2001, p. 13.
  6. ^ Hovannisian, Richard G. "Etiology and Sequelae of the Armenian Genocide" in Genocide: Conceptual and Historical Dimensions. George J. Andreopoulos (ed.) Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994, p. 127.
  7. ^ a b "Armenian Highland." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia
  8. ^ Emerald Network Pilot Project in Armenia, Council of Europe.
  9. ^ Barbara A. West (2009). Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. Infobase Publishing. p. 47. ISBN 978-0-8160-7109-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=pCiNqFj3MQsC&pg=PA47. Retrieved 20 September 2011. 
  10. ^ Samuelian, Thomas J. "Armenian Origins: An Overview of Ancient and Modern Sources and Theories1." Ararat-Center.
  11. ^ Mesopotamian Trade. Noah's Flood: The Garden of Eden, W. Willcocks, H. Rassam pp. 459-460
  12. ^ Lang, David M. Armenia: Cradle of Civilization. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1970, pp. 50-51, 58-59.

Further reading

External links