Military history of Armenia

From the early 16th century, Eastern Armenia came under the rule of the successive dynasties of Iran, namely the Safavids, followed by the Afsharids and Qajars.

During the reign of Shuttarna II, in the early 14th century BC, the relationship was very amicable, and he sent his daughter Gilu-Hepa to Egypt for a marriage with Pharaoh Amenhotep III.

Eventually Tushratta, a son of Shuttarna, ascended the throne, but the kingdom had been weakened considerably and both the Hittite and Assyrian threats increased.

Finally a Hittite army conquered the capital Washukanni and installed Shattiwaza, the son of Tushratta, as their vassal king of Mitanni in the late 14th century BC.

For example, in the trilingual Behistun inscription, carved in 520 BC by the order of Darius the Great of Persia the country is referred to as Arminia in Old Persian, translated as Harminuia in Elamite and Urartu in Babylonian.

Furthermore, the kingdom was known as Armenia to the Greeks (and, subsequently, to the Roman Empire) living in western Anatolia, possibly due to the fact that the contacts they had with Urartu, were through the people of the tribe of Armen.

According to the author of Judith, his army included chariots and 12,000 cavalrymen, probably indicating heavy cavalry or cataphracts, commonly used by Seleucids and Parthians.

The Jewish historian Josephus talks of over 500,000 men in total on their march and conquest into Seleucia and Nabatea, including the camp followers.

These latter were the camels, donkeys, and mules for the baggage; innumerable sheep, cattle, and goats for the food supply which was abundant for each man, and much gold and silver.

[4] Note that the numbers given by Israelite historians of the time were probably exaggerated, considering the fact that the Hasmonean Jews lost the war against Tigranes.

In 619, due to his victory over the Turks who then resided in Central Asia, he was given gifts, such as lavishly decorated robes, and the command of a number of the king's royal guards.

The Armenian troops became more and more important towards the 7th century; 2000 formed an armoured cavalry elite on the Danube frontier against the Avars, a nomadic people who were invading Europe.

In this oral tale, the warrior wears a padded helmet, a mail shirt, and a lamellar cuirass plus metal leg defenses and a large shield.

In siege warfare, Armenians used iron hooks to help them climb fortification walls, and large leather shields to protect them from anything that would be dropped from above.

Most of these fleeing families settled in and around Cilicia where they established a kingdom,[12] while some moved further south, to Egypt, and others went to the Balkans, Crimea, and Poland.

Armenia became part of the feudal land of Kingdom of Georgia and noble Georgian-Armenian family of Mkhergrdzeli (Zakaryan) had a significant role in a country.

David Soslan sent a relatively small force to break through the gates of the city, while he led the main Georgian troops to raid deep in the enemy's rear.

The names and functions of regional leaders were Latinized, and many facets of the army structure were inspired or copied from the Crusader states, particularly from the nearby principality of Antioch.

[9] Most Armenian fortification in Cilicia are characterized by multiple bailey walls laid with irregular plans to follow the sinuosities of the outcrops, rounded and especially horseshoe-shaped towers, finely-cut often rusticated ashlar facing stones, a complex bent entrance with a slot machicolation, embrasured loopholes for archers, barrel or pointed vaults over undercrofts, gates and chapels, and cisterns with elaborate scarped drains.

[17] Some of the important castles in the Armenian Kingdom include: Sis, Anavarza, Vahka, Yılankale, Sarvandikar, Kuklak, T‛il Hamtun, Hadjin, Lampron, and Gaban (modern Geben).

[18] Armenian design ideas influenced castle building in nearby Crusader states, such as the Principality of Antioch, where fortifications ranged from tiny hilltop outposts to major garrison fortresses.

Antioch attracted few European settlers, and thus they relied heavily on military elites of Greek, Syrian, and Armenian origin, who probably influenced the design of local fortifications.

[20] The Ottoman Army at its earlier stage enjoyed the service of Armenian infantry archers who relied on an old-fashioned composite bow.

The eastern part of the traditional Armenian lands was conquered by Imperial Russia from Qajar Iran, as confirmed in 1828 by the Treaty of Turkmenchay.

Sergey Aganov became the fifth Marshal of the Engineering Troops[25] Six special military divisions were formed in Soviet Armenia in 1941–42, partly because so many draftees from the republic could not understand Russian.

Armenian communities in the Middle East and the West also donated considerable sums of money to the Soviet government to help construct a series of tanks for the Red Army.

He was captured and executed by the Nazis in 1944, together with over 20 members of FTP-MOI Paris region led by Manouchian, and remains a much respected figure in modern French history.

[27] Gevork Vartanian was an intelligence agent responsible for thwarting Operation Long Jump, and thus preventing the assassination of Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Tehran conference in 1943.

[34] On the Axis side, the Armenische Legion was created within the Wehrmacht, which consisted mainly of Soviet prisoners of war, who had opted to fight for German forces rather than be sent to the Nazi POW camps or killed.

The legion was led by former Defence Minister of Armenia General Drastamat Kanayan, who fought against the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front.