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FACTBOX: Key facts about Armenia

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  • FACTBOX: Key facts about Armenia

    FACTBOX: Key facts about Armenia

    Reuters, UK
    March 1 2008

    Sat Mar 1, 2008 1:54pm EST

    (Reuters) - Armenian President Robert Kocharyan declared a state of
    emergency in the capital on Saturday as he sought to end protests
    over a presidential election which the opposition says was rigged.

    A statement from the presidential press service said Kocharyan had
    signed a decree declaring the state of emergency until March 20
    "to prevent a threat to constitutional order".

    Here are some key facts about the ex-Soviet republic in the Caucasus
    mountains.

    POPULATION - 3.22 million as of January 2007, according to the National
    Statistics Service.

    ETHNIC COMPOSITION - More than 97 percent of the population is
    Armenian. There are small minorities of Russians, Kurds and Greeks.

    GEOGRAPHY - Landlocked, bordering Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran and Turkey,
    and with a total area of 29,800 square km.

    CAPITAL - Yerevan.

    LANGUAGE - Armenian is the official language. Russian and Kurdish
    are also spoken. Armenian belongs to a branch of the Indo-European
    family of languages with a unique 39-character script.

    RELIGION - Most Armenians belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church,
    an ancient independent branch of Christianity. Armenia was the first
    state in the world to adopt Christianity as its state religion, in 301.

    ECONOMY - Armenia's Gross Domestic Product grew 13.7 percent in 2007,
    and annual inflation was 6.6 percent. Armenia joined the World Trade
    Organisation (WTO) in January 2003. Its national currency is the dram.

    KEY INDUSTRIES - Agriculture, textiles, food processing, construction
    materials, diamond cutting, mining and chemicals are all major
    industries. Gold and molybdenum, a metal used to toughen steel,
    are mined, mainly for export.

    HISTORY - Armenia says 1.5 million ethnic Armenians were killed in
    what it says was a genocide by Ottoman Turks in 1915-1923. Turkey
    denies the killings were a genocide. It says the Armenians were
    victims of a partisan war that also claimed many Muslim Turkish lives.

    An independent Armenian state existed from 1918 to 1921 but was
    swallowed up by Communist Russia in 1921, later becoming a republic
    of the Soviet Union until independence in 1991.

    As the Soviet Union disintegrated, Armenia was involved in a conflict
    with a neighboring Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. About
    35,000 people died in the conflict. Hundreds of thousands fled. Most
    have been unable to return to the territory, which is part of
    Azerbaijan but has been controlled by Armenian forces since the
    fighting.

    (Reporting by Hasmik Lazarian; Writing by Margarita Antidze; Editing
    by Jon Boyle)
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