Duchy of Armenia

The Duchy of Armenia is a country located east of the Ottoman Sultanate, Southeast of the Grand Duchy of Georgia and west of the Indo-Persian Empire. Armenia is a Puppet State of Germany since it's liberation from Soviet Rus and the Ottoman Empire (who were committing Genocide against the Armenians).

## History

### Origin

During the 1230s, the Mongol Empire conquered Zakarid Armenia and then the remainder of Armenia. The Mongolian invasions were soon followed by those of other Central Asian tribes, such as the Kara Koyunlu, Timurid dynasty and Ağ Qoyunlu, which continued from the 13th century until the 15th century. After incessant invasions, each bringing destruction to the country, with time Armenia became weakened.

In the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid dynasty of Iran divided Armenia. From the early 16th century, both Western Armenia and Eastern Armenia fell to the Safavid Empire. Owing to the century long Turco-Iranian geopolitical rivalry that would last in Western Asia, significant parts of the region were frequently fought over between the two rivalling empires during the Ottoman–Persian Wars. From the mid 16th century with the Peace of Amasya, and decisively from the first half of the 17th century with the Treaty of Zuhab until the first half of the 19th century, Eastern Armenia was ruled by the successive Safavid, Afsharid and Qajar empires, while Western Armenia remained under Ottoman rule.

From 1604, Abbas I of Iran implemented a "scorched earth" policy in the region to protect his north-western frontier against any invading Ottoman forces, a policy that involved a forced resettlement of masses of Armenians outside of their homelands.

In the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan and the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay, following the Russo-Persian War (1804–13) and the Russo-Persian War (1826–28), respectively, the Qajar dynasty of Iran was forced to irrevocably cede Eastern Armenia, consisting of the Erivan and Karabakh Khanates, to Imperial Russia. This period is known as Russian Armenia.

While Western Armenia still remained under Ottoman rule, the Armenians were granted considerable autonomy within their own enclaves and lived in relative harmony with other groups in the empire (including the ruling Turks). However, as Christians under a strict Muslim social structure, Armenians faced pervasive discrimination. When they began pushing for more rights within the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Abdul Hamid II, in response, organised state-sponsored massacres against the Armenians between 1894 and 1896, resulting in an estimated death toll of 80,000 to 300,000 people. The Hamidian massacres, as they came to be known, gave Hamid international infamy as the "Red Sultan" or "Bloody Sultan".

During the 1890s, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, commonly known as *Dashnaktsutyun*, became active within the Ottoman Empire with the aim of unifying the various small groups in the empire that were advocating for reform and defending Armenian villages from massacres that were widespread in some of the Armenian-populated areas of the empire. Dashnaktsutyun members also formed Armenian fedayi groups that defended Armenian civilians through armed resistance. The Dashnaks also worked for the wider goal of creating a "free, independent and unified" Armenia, although they sometimes set aside this goal in favour of a more realistic approach, such as advocating autonomy.

The Ottoman Empire began to collapse, and in 1908, the Young Turk Revolution overthrew the government of Sultan Hamid. In April 1909, the Adana massacre occurred in the Adana Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire resulting in the deaths of as many as 20,000–30,000 Armenians. The Armenians living in the empire hoped that the Committee of Union and Progress would change their second-class status. The Armenian reform package (1914) was presented as a solution by appointing an inspector general over Armenian issues.

### World War I

The new government in Istanbul began to look on the Armenians with distrust and suspicion, because the Germans contained a contingent of Armenian volunteers as a resistance movement. On 24 April 1915, Armenian intellectuals were arrested by Ottoman authorities and, with the Tehcir Law (29 May 1915), eventually a large proportion of Armenians living in Anatolia perished in what has become known as the Armenian Genocide.

The genocide was implemented in two phases: the wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population through massacre and subjection of army conscripts to forced labour, followed by the deportation of women, children, the elderly and infirm on death marches leading to the Syrian desert. Driven forward by military escorts, the deportees were deprived of food and water and subjected to periodic robbery, torture, and massacre. There was local Armenian resistance in the region, developed against the activities of the Ottoman Empire. The events of 1915 to 1917 are regarded by Armenians and the vast majority of Western historians to have been state-sponsored mass killings, or genocide.

After the Russian Revolution the Germans conquered the Caucasus during their conquest of the Eastern Front. The Duchy of Armenia was created and the ruler who was elected as Duke was Prince John Konstantinovich of Russia.

### After World War I

After the end of World War I, The Duchy of Armenia was declared a German Puppet State as Prince John Konstantinovich of Russia and his wife Princess Helen of Serbia were crowned Duke John I and Duchess Helen of the Armenian Duchy. The two monarchs converted to the Armenian Apostolic Church before their coronation as Duke and Duchess.

## Government

The Government of Armenia is an Absolute Monarchy in which the Duke rules as an Absolute Monarch and has direct authority over all facilities of the economy including Schools, Religious Institutions, the Military and the Police. The person incharge of the Duke is the Reichkommissar who is appointed by the Germans to control the Duke as the monarch of Armenia.

#### **Administrative Cabinet of Armenia**

* **Reichkommissar:** Franz Halder
* **Prime Minister:** Garegin Ter-Harutyunyan
* **Speaker of the House:** Hovhannes Kajaznuni
* **Foreign Minister:** Alexander Khatisian
* **Minister of Defense:** Ruben Ter Minasian
* **Chief of Staff:** Drastamat Kanayan
* **Chief of Army:** Christophor Araratov

## Military

Armenia's Military only consists of the army due to the fact the country is a landlocked country and a small country. The Army consists of 2 Infantry Divisions, 2 Calvary Divisions and 200 Artillery Pieces.

## Foreign Relations

* Colonial Relations with the German Empire
* Great Relations with the Grand Duchy of Georgia and the Duchy of Abkhazia
* Bad Relations with the Ottoman Sultanate