Armenians in the context of "List of kings of Babylon"

This is a list of peoples who inhabited Anatolia in antiquity. The essential purpose of the list is to identify prehistoric cultures in the region but many of the peoples continued to inhabit Anatolia into and through classical and late antiquity, so the actual scope of the list encompasses the history of Anatolia from prehistory to the Eastern Roman Empire (4th to 7th centuries AD), during which transition to the early medieval occurred.

Anatolia was inhabited by numerous peoples and its history is characterised by different waves of population movement. The earliest recorded inhabitants of Anatolia were the Hattians and Hurrians, non-Indo-European peoples who lived in Anatolia as early as c. 2300 BC. Indo-European Hittites came to Anatolia and gradually absorbed the Hattians and Hurrians c. 2000 – c. 1700 BC. Besides Hittites, Anatolian peoples included Luwians, Palaic peoples and Lydians. They spoke Anatolian languages. Other incoming people include Armenians, Greeks, Phrygians and Thracians.

The Armenian highlands (Armenian: Հայկական լեռնաշխարհ, romanized: Haykakan leṙnašxarh; also known as the Eastern Anatolian highlands, Armenian upland, Armenian plateau, or Armenian tableland) comprise the most central and the highest of the three plateaus that together form the northern sector of West Asia. Clockwise starting from the west, the Armenian highlands are bounded by the Anatolian plateau, the Caucasus, the Kura-Aras lowlands, the Iranian Plateau, and Mesopotamia. The highlands are divided into western and eastern regions, defined by the Ararat Valley where Mount Ararat is located. Since the turn of the 20th century, Western Armenia has been relabeled as "Eastern Anatolia" by Ottoman and Turkish authorities. Eastern Armenia is part of Lesser Caucasus, which was historically known by some as the Anti-Caucasus, meaning "opposite of the Caucasus".

During the Iron Age, the region was known by variations of the name Ararat (Urartu, Uruatri, Urashtu). Later, the Highlands were known as Armenia Major, a central region to the history of Armenians, and one of the four geopolitical regions associated with Armenians, the other three being Armenia Minor, Sophene, and Commagene. The highlands are primarily defined by the geographical dispersal of its native inhabitants, the Armenians. Prior to the appearance of nominally Armenian people in historical records, historians have hypothesized that the region must have been home to various ethnic groups who became homogenous when the Armenian language came to prominence. The population of the Armenian highlands has had a high level of regional genetic continuity for over 6,000 years. Recent studies indicate that the Armenian people descend from the indigenous people of the Armenian highlands and form a distinct genetic isolate in the region. The region was also inhabited during Antiquity by minorities such as Assyrians, Georgians, Greeks, Jews, and Iranians. During the Middle Ages, Arabs and particularly Turkmens and Kurds settled in large numbers in the Armenian highlands.

Media (Old Persian: 𐎶𐎠𐎭 Māda; Greek: Μηδία Mēdía; Akkadian: Mādāya) was a political entity centered in Ecbatana that existed from the 7th century BCE until the mid-6th century BCE and is believed to have dominated a significant portion of the Iranian plateau, preceding the powerful Achaemenid Empire. The frequent interference of the Assyrians in the Zagros region led to the process of unifying the Median tribes. By 612 BCE, the Medes became strong enough to overthrow the declining Assyrian empire in alliance with the Babylonians. However, contemporary scholarship tends to be skeptical about the existence of a united Median kingdom or state, at least for most of the 7th century BCE.

According to classical historiography, Media emerged as one major power of the ancient Near East after the collapse of Assyria. Under Cyaxares (r. 625–585 BCE), the kingdom's borders were expanded to the east and west through the subjugation of neighboring peoples, such as the Persians and Armenians. Media's territorial expansion led to the formation of the first Iranian empire, which at its height would have exercised authority over more than two million square kilometers, stretching from the eastern banks of the Halys River in Anatolia to Central Asia. In this period, the Median empire was one of the great powers in the ancient Near East alongside Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt. During his reign, Astyages (r. 585–550 BCE) worked to strengthen and centralize the Median state, going against the will of tribal nobility, which may have contributed to the kingdom's downfall. In 550 BCE, the Median capital, Ecbatana, was conquered by the Persian king Cyrus II, marking the beginning of the Achaemenid empire.

As of 2011, most Armenians in Armenia are Christians (97%) and are members of the Armenian Apostolic Church, which is a member of the family of Oriental Orthodox Churches. It was founded in the 1st century AD, and in 301 AD became the first branch of Christianity to become a state religion.

Christianity in Turkey has a long history, dating back to the early origins of Christianity in Asia Minor and the Middle East during the 1st century AD. In modern times the percentage of Christians in Turkey has declined from 20 to 25% in 1914, to about 2% in 1927, to 0.2–0.4% today. Sources estimate that the Christian population in Turkey ranges between 203,500 and more than 370,000. However, the exact number remains unclear due to the absence of a religious census in the country. The percentage of Christians in Turkey fell mainly as a result of the late Ottoman genocides: the Armenian genocide, Greek genocide, and Assyrian genocide, the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, the emigration of Christians that began in the late 19th century and gained pace in the first quarter of the 20th century, and due to events such as the 1942 Varlık Vergisi tax levied on non-Muslim citizens in Turkey and the 1955 Istanbul pogrom against Greek and Armenian Christians. Exact numbers are difficult to estimate, as many Turkish former Muslim converts to Christianity often hide their Christian faith for fear of familial pressure, religious discrimination, and persecution.

This was due to events which had a significant impact on the country's demographic structure, such as the First World War, the anti-Christian genocides of Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians perpetrated by Turkish Muslims, and the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, and the emigration of persecuted Christians (such as Assyrians, Greeks, Armenians, etc.) to foreign countries (mostly in Europe and the Americas) that began in the late 19th century and gained pace in the first quarter of the 20th century, especially during World War I. Signed after the First World War, the Treaty of Lausanne explicitly guarantees the security and protection of both Greek and Armenian Orthodox Christian minorities. Their religious institutions are recognized officially by the Republic of Turkey.

Armenian Cypriots (Armenian: Կիպրահայեր, romanized: Gibrahayer; Greek: Αρμένιοι της Κύπρου, romanized: Arménioi tis Kýprou; Turkish: Kıbrıs Ermenileri) are the ethnic Armenian population native to Cyprus. The Armenian-Cypriot community has had a significant impact upon the Armenian people as a whole despite its low numbers. During the Middle Ages, Cyprus had an extensive connection with the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, while the Ganchvor monastery had an important presence in Famagusta. During the Ottoman Era, the Virgin Mary church and the Magaravank were very prominent. Certain Armenian Cypriots were or are very prominent on a Panarmenian or international level and the survivors of the Armenian genocide have co-operated and co-existed peacefully with the Turkish Cypriots.

Currently, Armenian-Cypriots maintain a notable presence of about 4,000 on the island (including about 1,500 non-Cypriot Armenians), mostly centred on the capital Nicosia, but also with communities in Larnaca, Limassol and Paphos. The Armenian Prelature of Cyprus is located in Nicosia. According to the 1960 Constitution of Cyprus, together with the Maronites and the Latins, they are recognised as a "religious group" and have opted to belong to the Greek-Cypriot community and Armenian-Cypriots are represented by an elected Representative in the House of Representatives. Since May 2006, the Representative is Vartkes Mahdessian. The religious leader of the community, since July 2024, is Catholicosal Vicar Archbishop Gomidas Ohanian, accountable to the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia.

The Christianization of Iberia (Georgian: ქართლის გაქრისტიანება, romanized: kartlis gakrist'ianeba) refers to the spread of Christianity in the early 4th century as a result of the preaching of Saint Nino in the ancient Georgian kingdom of Kartli, known as Iberia in classical antiquity. The then-pagan king of Iberia Mirian III declared Christianity to be the kingdom's state religion. According to Roman historian Sozomen, this led the king's "large and warlike barbarian nation to confess Christ and renounce the religion of their fathers", as the polytheistic Georgians had long-established anthropomorphic idols, known as the "Gods of Kartli". The king would become the main sponsor, architect, initiator and an organizing power of all building processes.

Per Socrates of Constantinople, the "Iberians first embraced the Christian faith" alongside the Abyssinians, present day Ethiopians but the exact date of the event is still debated. The kings of Georgia and Armenia were among the first monarchs anywhere in the world to convert to the Christian faith. Prior to the escalation of the Armeno-Georgian ecclesiastical rivalry and the Christological controversies, their Caucasian Christianity was extraordinarily inclusive, pluralistic and flexible that only saw the rigid ecclesiological hierarchies established much later, particularly as "national" churches crystallised from the 6th century. Despite the tremendous diversity of the region, the Christianization process was a pan-regional and a cross-cultural phenomenon in the Caucasus, Eurasia's most energetic and cosmopolitan zones throughout the late antiquity, hard enough to place Georgians and Armenians unequivocally within any one major civilization.

The Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (Azerbaijani: Naxçıvan Muxtar Respublikası, pronounced [nɑxtʃɯˈvɑn muxˈtɑɾ ɾesˈpublikɑsɯ]) is a landlocked exclave of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The region covers 5,502.75 km (2,124.62 sq mi) with a population of 459,600. It is bordered by Armenia to the east and north, Iran to the southwest, and Turkey to the west. It is the sole autonomous republic of Azerbaijan, governed by its own elected legislature.

The republic, especially the capital city of Nakhchivan, has a long history dating back to about 1500 BC. Nakhijevan was one the cantons of the historical Armenian province of Vaspurakan in the Kingdom of Armenia. Historically, the Persians, Armenians, Mongols, and Turks all competed for the region. The area that is now Nakhchivan became part of Safavid Iran in the 16th century. The semi-autonomous Nakhchivan Khanate was established there in the mid-18th century. In 1828, after the last Russo-Persian War and the Treaty of Turkmenchay, the Nakhchivan Khanate passed from Iranian into Imperial Russian possession.

Hayasa-Azzi or Azzi-Hayasa (Hittite: Ḫaiaša-, Armenian: Հայասա) was a Late Bronze Age confederation in the Armenian Highlands and/or Pontic region of Asia Minor. The Hayasa-Azzi confederation was in conflict with the Hittite Empire in the 14th century BCE, leading up to the collapse of Hatti around 1190 BCE. It has long been thought that Hayasa-Azzi may have played a significant role in the ethnogenesis of Armenians.