(1901).
Prehistory From 4000 to 1000 BC, 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. It is also traditionally believed to be one of the possible locations of the
Garden of Eden.
Antiquity 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. In the
Early Iron Age, the Kingdom of Van controlled much of the region, until it was overthrown by the
Medes and
Orontid dynasty. In the
Epic of Gilgamesh, the land of
Aratta is placed in a geographic space that could be describing the Armenian plateau. In
Antiquity, the population living on the Highlands was ethnically diverse, but in the
Achaemenid period (550–330 BC),
Armenian-speakers came to prominence. The Seljuks' victory at the
Battle of Manzikert made them dominant in the region.
Ruben I, Prince of Armenia, led some Armenians out of the Highlands and escaped into the mountains of
Cilicia, where they founded the
Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. In the early 13th century, as various peoples fled from the advancing
Mongol onslaught, the Highlands saw the migrations of the
Karluk and
Kharizmian peoples. The Mongols, who did not distinguish between
Christianity and
Islam, reached the Highlands in 1235. With their arrival, Armenia became part of "the East" in its entirety for the first time since the territory was partitioned during the
Byzantine–Sasanian wars. Considered the successors of the
Abbasids,
Sassanids and Seljuks, the Mongols eventually converted to Islam and established their dynasty in modern day
Azerbaijan. In 1410 the area was ruled by the
Kara Koyunlu, who ruled until 1468. The
pastoral culture of the Kara Koyunlu Turks undermined agricultural practices in Armenia. In 1468, the
Ak Koyunlu Turks assumed power; their reign lasted until 1502 when the
Safavids brought Armenia under Iranian rule. The
Ottoman Turks did not take control of the highland region until 1514, several decades after Armenians in the
Ottoman Empire were given
millet status. The Highlands came under Ottoman control following the defeat of the Safavids at the
Battle of Chalderon; they appointed
Kurdish tribesman to rule over the highlands' local administrative affairs. By 1516, the Ottoman Empire had invaded all of the Armenian lands, including Cilicia.
Early modern period From the early modern era and on, the region came directly under
Safavid Iranian rule. Heavily contested for centuries between the Iranian
Safavids and its archrival the
Ottoman Empire, with numerous wars raging over the region, large parts of the Highlands comprising
Western Armenia were finally conquered by the Ottomans in the first half of the 17th century following the
Ottoman–Safavid War (1623–39) and the resulting
Treaty of Zuhab.
Eastern Armenia, the other major part of the Highlands, stayed in
Iranian hands up to the 1828
Treaty of Turkmenchay, when it was ceded to
Imperial Russia.
Late modern period During the first half of the 19th century, the Ottoman-held parts of the Armenian highlands comprising Western Armenia formed the boundary of the Ottoman and
Russian spheres of influence, after the latter had completed its conquest of the
Caucasus and Eastern Armenia at the expense of its suzerain,
Qajar Iran, after
four major wars spanning more than two centuries.
20th century The name "Armenia" was forbidden to be used in official documents by Ottoman authorities in the 1880s, and the region was officially renamed "Eastern Anatolia" by the Turkish successor state in the 1920s. The Armenian Highlands saw a massive demographic shift after the
Armenian genocide and fall of the Ottoman Empire, with
Western Armenia being relabeled "Eastern Anatolia". Since the Armenian genocide and
partitioning of the Ottoman Empire after
World War I, the Highlands have been the boundary region of Turkey,
Iran and the
Soviet Union and, since the 1991
dissolution of the Soviet Union,
Armenia, and parts of
Georgia and
Azerbaijan. == Partition and shifts in control ==