James Baquet History creates some paradoxical moments. Jesus, the founder of Christianity, was said to be a man of peace. So, presumably, were his followers, who are called “The Twelve Apostles.” Yet, this week’s story is about a “battle” (more of a siege, really) called “The Battle of Holy Apostles Monastery!” The country of Armenia today is one of the world’s oldest — and one of its newest. Its eponymous founder, Hayk (a near-homophone for the country’s name in its own language) supposedly lived around 2492 B.C., a time when in fact the Akkadian Empire was breaking up. But the founding of the first actual country seems to date to the late 6th century B.C. A crossroads country, it was often dominated by larger empires. From 1548 to 1915, it was under the sway of the Islamic rulers of the Ottoman Empire. Yet, one of Armenia’s “firsts” is that it was the first country to adopt Christianity as its state religion, in 301. A national movement arose in the early 1860s (a phenomenon not unique to the Armenians under the Ottomans). One impetus for change was the increasingly oppressive tributes exacted by Kurdish chieftains on the poor populace. As a result, thousands of farmers were displaced and either became day laborers or moved to cities and lived in squalor. A number of times, Armenians were massacred. Out of this horrid situation arose a leader, Andranik Ozanian, who had 38 villages under his command. On Nov. 20, 1901, Andranik and his men were being pursued by Turkish forces, and took refuge in the Holy Apostles Monastery. Some 1,200 Turks besieged the well-fortified monastery, but suffered greatly from the cold and from epidemics. During 19 days of negotiations, Andranik and his men were able to sneak out of the monastery, with Andranik disguised as a Turkish officer. Andranik became a folk hero. It was said that “Andranik is not a human being, he is a ghost,” and the people believed that when he removed his coat at night, bullets that had been fired at him fell out of it. After two years of independence, 1918-1920, Armenia became a satellite state of the USSR. It achieved independence again in 1991. Vocabulary: Which word or phrase above means: 1. money paid to ensure peace 2. giving one’s name to something 3. filthy, miserable conditions 4. cause of something, motivation 5. self-contradictory 6. safe place 7. words that sound the same 8. demanded, forced payment of 9. probably, able to be assumed 10. people who live in a place | 