...and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat ...   Bible, Genesis 8:4

...On his descent from Ararat, Noah first stepped onto the land now known to the world as the country of Armenia, the country of talking stones...
Armenia attained the summit of its development in the reign of Tigranes the Great who created a large state bounded by the Caspian Sea, Black Sea and the Mediterranean during the first century B.C. Armenia was the first nation to adopt Christianity as official religion in 301 A.D.
Throughout its history, Armenia has been a battlefield for powerful nations like the Roman and the Byzantine Empire and Persia. The use of foreign languages in the young Christian, but still illiterate Armenian Church threatened the very identity of the new Christian nation. Mesrop Mashtots created the Armenian alphabet in 405 - 406 AD, which was decisive in preserving the Christian Armenian culture through the turbulent times ahead.
In the following centuries Armenia became the battle field for the pre-eminence between the Roman Empire and Persia, and from 7th c. other Eastern invaders - Arabs, superseded the country. From the 11th c. onwards Armenia was dominated by Seljuks, who in the 13th c. were replaced by Tatar-Mongolian tribes. In the 17th c. Armenia was divided between the Ottoman Empire (Western Armenia) and Safawid Persia (Eastern Armenia).
After the First World War Armenia enjoyed a short independence until the Red Army arrived at Armenian capital Yerevan in1920, and the Soviet Republic of Armenia came into being. On May 28, 1991 Armenia became the first of Soviet Republics to break free, and announced its independence as Republic of Armenia.