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| - Armenia on Sunday holds snap parliamentary polls that reformist Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called to defuse a political crisis sparked by last year's military defeat to arch foe Azerbaijan. Here are five things to know about the troubled history and ancient culture of the landlocked country in the South Caucasus. Armenia last year fought a six-week war with Azerbaijan for control of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. The hostilities, which claimed more than 6,500 lives, ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire that saw Armenia cede swathes of territory in and around Karabakh to Azerbaijan. Russia deployed 2,000 peacekeepers to the mountainous region, cementing its influence over ex-Soviet Armenia, whose security largely depends on Moscow's military and diplomatic backing. Armenians saw the agreement as a humiliation and stormed the main government building in protest. Pashinyan called Sunday's polls to defuse the political crisis. When World War I broke out in 1914, Armenia, which for most of its history has been controlled by foreign powers, was divided between the Ottoman and Russian Empires. During the war, Ottomans massacred and deported more than 1.5 million Armenians, who dubbed the event Meds Yeghern, or the Great Crime. Armenia has long sought international recognition of the bloodletting as genocide -- a claim fiercely rejected by Turkey but supported by many other countries, most recently by the United States under President Joe Biden in April. The Armenian diaspora that spread across the world in the wake of the 1915 massacre is now vast -- estimated at eight to 10 million people -- and some are among the most famous in the world. Social media superstar Kim Kardashian, the late singer Charles Aznavour, Hollywood's Cher and France's football World Cup-winning striker Youri Djorkaeff all have Armenian roots. The politically influential diaspora is strongest in Russia (1.5 million), followed by the United States (1.3 million) and France (400,000). Some have appointed themselves unofficial ambassadors of Armenian causes, like Kardashian, who has been outspoken on the issue of the genocide. Armenia's economy has struggled since the Soviet collapse and money sent home by Armenians abroad has aided the construction of schools, churches and other infrastructure projects, including in Nagorno-Karabakh. In the fourth century, Armenia became the first country in the world to officially embrace Christianity -- two decades ahead of the Roman Empire. The Bible was translated into the Armenian language in the fifth century. Armenia's pre-eminent cultural institution, the Matenadaran museum, houses national treasures -- the vast collection of ancient manuscripts that cover almost every sphere of Armenia's ancient and medieval science and culture. Written in the distinctive Armenian alphabet created by Saint Mesrop Mashtots, the collection was added to UNESCO's list of protected documents in 1997. Armenia is an ancient biblical land where the Book of Genesis says Noah's Ark came to rest on Mount Ararat after the Great Deluge. Now inside Turkey, Mount Ararat is regarded by Armenians as a national symbol and features on the country's coat of arms and banknotes. Another national symbol is "Armenian cognac" -- a brandy distilled from the abundant vine varieties cultivated in the fertile Ararat valley. mkh-im/jbr-as/emg/bp
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