Yerevan Celebrates 2800 Years
YEREVAN—On the 21st of October, Armenia’s capital celebrated the 2800th anniversary of its founding. A popular legend propagated by early Christian scholars attributes the founding of the city to the biblical figure Noah who, after coming down from the ark (inexplicably fluent in Armenian) exclaimed: “Yerevats” – (“it appeared”). The more probable origin, backed by a cuneiform inscription excavated near the city, states that Yerevan was founded as the Erebuni fortress by King Argishti I of Urartu in 782 BC. The same pink-tinted tuff stones which were used in the ancient palace construction remain a staple of the city’s vernacular architecture to this day.
The word “Erebuni” which probably meant “conquered” in Urartian was a reference to the Urartian people’s taming of the Ararat valley. As Urartian was gradually incorporated into Armenian, the pronunciation of the city’s name experienced a phenomenon known to linguists as ‘betacism,’ where the sound [b] morphed into a [v] while the [u] sound underwent a form of open syllable lengthening. Thus Erebuni became Yerevan.
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It really seemed like the whole entire population of Yerevan had come out to celebrate on the 21st of October. They were all cheerful, and full of hope.
As exciting as the celebrations were, I was nevertheless a bit disappointed in the music that was being played during those celebrations. Heavy metal music, certainly did not suit the occasion; how can you possibly dance to the sound of heavy metal music? Appropriate music for this particular occasion would have been party songs like: “Celebration” by Kool & The Gang; “Party Train” by The Gap Band; “Disco Inferno” by The Trammps.
“The day was capped off with a massive fireworks display.”
Yes, the thunderous fireworks began at 9:48 in the evening, and ended after two minutes. What a noise that was!
Happy birthday again to Armenia’s capital city!
Actually, the author’s attempt to provide a brief description of Yerevan’s history (in the article above) was very deficient. Here are some of the important details that were not included:
Yerevan happens to be one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities.
“One theory regarding the origin of Yerevan’s name is that the city was named after the Armenian king, Yervand IV, the last leader of the Orontid Dynasty, and founder of the city of Yervandashat.”
The territory of Yerevan was settled since the 4th millennium B.C. Archaeological evidence shows that the Urartian military fortress of Erebuni was founded in 782 B.C. by the orders of King Argishti 1 at the site of current-day Yerevan, to serve as a fort guarding against attacks from the north Caucasus.
During the height of the Arab invasions, Yerevan was taken in 658 A.D.
“It’s been called Yerevan since at least the 7th century A.D.”
Due to its strategic importance, Yerevan was continuously fought over and passed back and forth between Persia and the Ottomans for centuries. At the height of the Turkish-Persian wars, the city changed hands 14 times between 1513-1737.
Following the second Russian-Persian war, Yerevan was formally ceded by Persia to the Russian Empire in 1828. The city began to grow economically and politically. Old buildings were torn down and new buildings of European style were built.
Following the 1917 Revolution, which brought the Russian Empire to an end, Yerevan became the capital of the independent First Republic of Armenia on May 28th, 1918.
As a result of the Soviet regime being established in Armenia, Yerevan became the capital of Soviet Armenia in December of 1920.
“The Soviet era transformed the city (Yerevan), which was originally intended for a few thousand residents into a modern metropolis with over a million people, developed according to the prominent Armenian architect, Alexander Tamanian’s design. Tamanian successfully incorporated national traditions with contemporary urban construction. Tamanian’s new radical-circular layout for the city was imposed over the existing old city, which led to the destruction of a large number of buildings of historic importance. The city was transformed into a large industrial, cultural and scientific center.”
During the Armenian Genocide’s 50th anniversary commemoration in 1965, Yerevan was the center of a mass anti-Soviet protest to demand recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the Soviet authorities; this was the first demonstration of its kind in the Soviet Union.
Following the dismantling of the Soviet Union, Yerevan became the capital of the independent Republic of Armenia on September 21st, 1991.