The Republic of Armenia is situated in the north-east of the Armenian Upland, in Trans-Caucasus, within the geographical region of the Middle Eastern Crescent, in particularly in South-western Asia, East of Turkey. It referred to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) of the former soviet countries. Armenia is also referred to the group of countries of Eastern and Central Europe and parts of Asia "with economies in transition". The Capital of Armenia is the City of Yerevan, which celebrated its 2780 anniversary in 1998. 

The Armenian language, with a unique 39-letter alphabet created in the V century AD, played a decisive role in the nation’s preservation when there was no independent state. The same is also can be said for religion, which is an important facet of national unity. Christianity was adopted officially as the state religion in 301 AD and is institutionalised in the Armenian Apostolic Church. The majority of Armenian’s considered themselves to be the Christians by culture.

The first Republic of Armenia was established as independent state in May 1918, however in 1920, it joined the Soviet Union, as a Soviet Armenia. In September 1991 the country regained its independence and established a third Republic of Armenia as a socially oriented democratic presidential republic.

By the end of 1920, after the tragedy of great massacre, only 720 thousands inhabitants remained in Armenia. Due to the national conflicts in the region in 1888, and later in 1915-1918 many thousands of Armenians field their native land. They have been settled all over the world and established their families abroad. Armenia is a nation that has a prosperous and well-organised Diaspora that participates actively in Armenia’s life. The succeeding decades were marked by increasing fertility rates and general population increased in size. According to the official estimates that reflect the results of the 1989 population census, by January 1990 general population increased more than twice, as compared to 1960th  (see chart).

It should be noted that presented figures for the years 1998-1999 are not accurate, because they do not reflect the continuous labour outflow during the last decade. According to the World Factbook 1999, population of Armenia counted 3,409,234 inhabitants, as estimated for July 1999.  There is also another independent experts’ opinion, saying that actually, population of Armenia in present is about 3.1 million[1]. While official migration figures report that 61.700 people left Armenia between 1992 and 1996, more accurate data collected by the Ministry of Transport revealed that this figure is, in fact, closer to 600.000. The main reasons for emigration are low incomes, unemployment, unstable geopolitical situation and difficult living conditions[2]. The predominant majority of Armenian emigrants seek for their fortune in Russia. From the other hand, during 1988-1993, about 260,000 refugees of Armenian ethnicity exited Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh, Abkhazia, and other CIS countries and have settled in Armenia. Some of these refugees have since migrated to Russia and other places due to economic reasons, but most of them (about 220,000) still continue living in Armenia, in the communal or the rest houses and hotels. Besides, there are about 400,000 of ecological migrants that were displaced within the country, because of the 1988 earthquake, which took place in Northern Armenia.