First Republic of Armenia in the context of "Yerevan"

The Government of the Grand National Assembly (Turkish: Büyük Millet Meclisi Hükûmeti), self-identified as the State of Turkey (Türkiye Devleti) or Turkey (Türkiye), commonly known as the Ankara Government (Ankara Hükûmeti), or archaically the Angora Government, was the provisional and revolutionary Turkish government based in Ankara (then known as Angora) during the Turkish War of Independence (1919–1923) and during the final years of the Ottoman Empire. It was led by the Turkish National Movement, as opposed to the crumbling Istanbul government, which was led by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed VI Vahdeddin.

The provisional government was established on 23 April 1920, after the formal occupation of Istanbul in March 1920, a decision supported by Mehmed VI. A brief civil war between Ankara and Istanbul erupted. The Istanbul government went on to sign the Treaty of Sèvres with the Allied powers, which would have left the Ottoman Empire a colonial satellite of the European powers. During the War of Independence, the Government of the Grand National Assembly amalgamated militia of the Kuva-yi Milliye ("National Forces") into a regular army to fight Greece, Armenia, France, Britain, and Istanbul. After the war, the Ankara Government abolished the Sultanate in November 1922 and the next year proclaimed the Republic of Turkey in October 1923. The Grand National Assembly is today the parliamentary body of Turkey.

The Middle Eastern theatre of World War I saw action between 30 October 1914 and 30 October 1918. The combatants were, on one side, the Ottoman Empire (including the majority of Kurdish tribes and Circassians, and the relative majority of Arabs), with some assistance from the other Central Powers; and on the other side, the British (with the help of a small number of Jews, Greeks, Armenians, some Kurdish tribes and Arab states, along with Hindu, Sikh and Muslim colonial troops from India) as well as troops from the British Dominions of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, the Russians (with the help of Armenians, Assyrians, and occasionally some Kurdish tribes), and the French (with its North African and West African Muslim, Christian and other colonial troops) from among the Allied Powers. There were four main campaigns: the Sinai and Palestine, Mesopotamian, Caucasus, and Gallipoli campaigns. There were four more minor campaigns in Persia, South Arabia, the Arabian interior, and Libya.

Both sides used local asymmetrical forces in the region. On the Allied side were Arabs who participated in the Arab Revolt and the Armenian militia who participated in the Armenian resistance supported by Russia during the War; along with Armenian volunteer units, the Armenian militia formed the Armenian Corps of the First Republic of Armenia in 1918. In addition, the Assyrians joined the Allies and saw action in Southeastern Turkey, northern Mesopotamia (Iraq), northwestern Iran and northeastern Syria following the Assyrian genocide, instigating the Assyrian war of independence. Turks were persecuted by the invading Russian troops in the east and by Greek troops and Armenian fedayis in the west, east, and south of Anatolia. The theatre covered the largest territory of all theatres in the war.

Armenian genocide survivors were Armenians in the Ottoman Empire who survived the Armenian genocide. After the end of World War I, many tried to return home in Western Armenia but most were prevented by the Turkish nationalist movement which considered Armenian survivors to be a mortal threat to the Turkish state. Thousands of Armenians who tried to return were killed.

Roughly half of the survivors fled to neighboring countries in the Middle East with the other half fleeing to Eastern Armenia which later became the First Republic of Armenia. A further wave of Armenian refugees was created by the Turkey's invasion of the new Armenian Republic, and another 100,000 Armenians were uprooted from their homes in Cilicia following the French withdrawal in 1920. Between 1922 and 1929, the Turkish authorities eliminated surviving Armenians from southern Turkey, expelling thousands to French-mandate Syria. Fearing renewed persecution, the last Armenian communities of Cilicia fled after France ceded the territory to Turkey in 1939.

The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ArSSR), also known as Soviet Armenia, or simply Armenia, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union, located in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Soviet Armenia bordered the Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Georgia and the independent states of Iran and Turkey. The capital of the republic was Yerevan, and it contained 37 districts (raions). Other major cities in the Armenian SSR included Leninakan, Kirovakan, Hrazdan, Ejmiatsin, and Kapan. The republic was governed by Communist Party of Armenia, a branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Soviet Armenia was established on 29 November 1920, with the Sovietisation of the short-lived First Republic of Armenia. Consequently, historians refer to it as the Second Republic of Armenia. It became part of the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (TSFSR) along with neighboring Georgia and Azerbaijan, which comprised one of the four founding republics of the Soviet Union. When the TSFSR was dissolved in 1936, Armenia became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union.

In September 1920, remnants of the Ottoman Army's XV Corps under the command of Kâzım Karabekir attacked the First Republic of Armenia, specifically in the Kars. Karabekir had orders from the Ankara Government to "eliminate Armenia physically and politically". One estimate places the number of Armenians massacred by the Turkish army during the invasion at 100,000—this is evident in the marked decline (−25.1%) of the population of modern-day Armenia from 961,677 in 1919 to 720,000 in 1920. The Turkish military victory was followed by the Red Army invasion of Armenia and the establishment of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. The Turkish invasion and occupation had drastic humanitarian impacts to Armenia's population, triggering condemnation from German and USA officials. According to several historians, only Soviet intervention prevented the completion of the Armenian genocide.

The hostilities ended with the Treaty of Alexandropol and the effective partition of Armenia between Kemalist Turkey and the Soviet union: most of Western Armenia was transferred to Turkey and Eastern Armenia was incorporated into the Soviet Union as the Armenian Socialist Republic. This status was solidified by the annulment of the Treaty of Sevres, and the ratification of the Treaty of Moscow (March 1921) and Treaty of Kars (October 1921) between Soviet Russia and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

Artsakh (/ˈɑːrtsɑːx, -sæx/ ART-sa(h)kh), officially the Republic of Artsakh or the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh (/nəˌɡɔːrnoʊ kərəˈbɑːk/ nə-GOR-noh kər-ə-BAHK), was a breakaway state in the South Caucasus whose territory was internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan. Between 1991 and 2023, Artsakh controlled parts of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, including its capital Stepanakert. It had been an enclave within Azerbaijan from the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war until the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive, when the Azerbaijani military took control over the remaining territory controlled by Artsakh. Its only overland access route to Armenia after the 2020 war was via the five-kilometre-wide (3.1 mi) Lachin corridor, which was placed under the supervision of Russian peacekeeping forces.

The predominantly Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh was claimed by both the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and the First Republic of Armenia when both countries became independent in 1918 after the fall of the Russian Empire. A brief war over the region broke out in 1920. The dispute was largely shelved after the Soviet Union established control over the area, and created the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) within the Azerbaijan SSR in 1923; however, throughout the Soviet period, Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast were heavily discriminated against. The Soviet Azerbaijani authorities worked to suppress Armenian culture and identity in Nagorno-Karabakh, pressured Armenians to leave the region and encouraged Azerbaijanis to settle within it, although Armenians remained the majority population.

United Armenia (Armenian: Միացեալ Հայաստան, romanized: Miats'eal Hayastan), also known as Greater Armenia or Great Armenia, is an Armenian ethno-nationalist irredentist concept referring to areas within the traditional Armenian homeland—the Armenian Highlands—which are currently or have historically been mostly populated by Armenians. The idea of what Armenians see as unification of their historical lands was prevalent throughout the 20th century and has been advocated by individuals, various organizations and institutions, including the nationalist parties Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF or Dashnaktsutyun) and Heritage, the ASALA and others. The Republic of Armenia comprises 10%-15% of the Armenian homeland.

The ARF idea of "United Armenia" incorporates claims to Western Armenia (eastern Turkey), Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), the landlocked exclave Nakhchivan (Nakhichevan) of Azerbaijan and the Javakheti (Javakhk) region of Georgia. Javakheti is overwhelmingly inhabited by Armenians. Western Armenia and Nakhchivan had significant Armenian populations until the early 20th century, and Nagorno-Karabakh until 2023, but no longer do. The Armenian population of Western Armenia was almost completely exterminated during the 1915 Armenian genocide, when the millennia-long Armenian presence in this region largely ended and Armenian cultural heritage was mainly destroyed by the Ottoman government. In 1919, the ARF-dominated government of the First Republic of Armenia declared the formal unification of Armenian lands.