Figure 1.--Here Armenian monks and altar boys pose with the historic and lovingly cared for throne of King Senekerim-Hovhannes of Vaspurakan some time in the 1880s. Thet are at the Varagavank Monastery in Van at the time the Ottoman Empire. King Senekerim-Hovhannes Artsruni (Սենեքերիմ-Հովհաննես Արծրունի) was the sixth and last King of Vaspurakan from the Artsruni dynasty. He surrendered his kingdom which was under attack from Turlish tribes to Byzantine Emperor Basil II (1021-22). He was compensated with karge land hildings within the Empire and the governorship of Cappadocia. Vaspurakan/Vasbouragan was the first and largest province of Greater Armenia which had become an independent kingdom during the Middle Ages. It was centered on Lake Van, now eastern Turkey and northwestern Iran, the cradle of Armenian civilization.

Armenia became the first state to establish Christianity as an official religion (301 AD). This was two decades before the Emperor Constantine declared Christianity the state religion of the Roman empire. A revived Persian Empire invaded Armenia (451 AD) and severly perecuted Armnian Chistians in an effort to stamp out Christianity. Armenia's small army was defeated at the Battle of Avarair. The conquest, however, proved so costly that the Persians decided to tolerate Armenian Christianity. The Eastern Empire known as the Byzantine Empire sought to control Armenia by underminining the authority of the native nobility and serious weakening Armenia's social structure. Armenia was less able to resist waves of foreign invaders (Arabs, the Seljuk Turks, the Mongols, various Turkmen tribes) which followed. These waves of foreign invaders grdually changed the ethnic makeup of the Armenian plain and the dillution of the Armenian presence. Armenian nobel families (the Hetumids and the Rubenids), established an Armenian kingdom in Cilicia, in the southern part of Asia Minor bordering on the Mediterranean. The ruling Bagratids maintained autonomy (885-1046). The Byzanines regained control of the Vaspurakan province (1021-22) and then reconquered the rest of Armenia (1046). As a result of the Crusades, small Crusader states were established in what is now Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. The European Crusader knights carved out small kingdomes in the Holy Land (12th century). They found prosperous Armenian Christian communities thriving among the Muslims. Armenian clerics maintained the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and other Christian sites. The Armenians established close relations with the fellow Christian Crusader kingdoms. The Byzantines were driven out by the Seljuk Turks. The Turks pushed the Armenians west and they estabkished Little Armeniain Cilica. The Armenians managed to negotiate arrangements with the Mongols. Tamerlane occupied Greater Armenia (1386-94). The defeat of the Crusader kingdoms by Saladin and the converion of the Mongols to Islam, the Armenian kingdom was conquered in the 14th century. The last Armenian king, Lusignan, fled to Rome seeking help but failed. Armenia was overun by despoiling by Turkmen tribes, Tamerlane, and the Persian Safavids during the 15th and 16th centuries.

Created: 4:02 AM 10/14/2017
Last updated: 4:02 AM 10/14/2017