ARMENIA - Հայաստանի Հանրապետություն

Armenia  Armenian: Հայաստան, romanized: Hayastan, officially the Republic of Armenia (Armenian: Հայաստանի Հանրապետություն, romanized: Hayastani Hanrapetut'yun, is a landlocked country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located in Western Asia, on the Armenian Highlands, it is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north, the de facto independent Republic of Artsakh and Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and Azerbaijan's exclave of Nakhchivan to the south.

Armenia is a unitary, multi-party, democratic nation-state with an ancient cultural heritage. Urartu was established in 860 BC and by the 6th century BC it was replaced by the Satrapy of Armenia. The Kingdom of Armenia reached its height under Tigranes the Great in the 1st century BC and became the first state in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion in the late 3rd or early 4th century AD. The official date of state adoption of Christianity is 301.  The ancient Armenian kingdom was split between the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires around the early 5th century. Under the Bagratuni dynasty, the Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia was restored in the 9th century. Declining due to the wars against the Byzantines, the kingdom fell in 1045 and Armenia was soon after invaded by the Seljuk Turks. An Armenian principality and later a kingdom Cilician Armenia was located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea between the 11th and 14th centuries.

Between the 16th and 19th centuries, the traditional Armenian homeland composed of Eastern Armenia and Western Armenia came under the rule of the Ottoman and Iranian empires, repeatedly ruled by either of the two over the centuries. By the 19th century, Eastern Armenia had been conquered by the Russian Empire, while most of the western parts of the traditional Armenian homeland remained under Ottoman rule. During World War I, Armenians living in their ancestral lands in the Ottoman Empire were systematically exterminated in the Armenian Genocide. In 1918, following the Russian Revolution, all non-Russian countries declared their independence after the Russian Empire ceased to exist, leading to the establishment of the First Republic of Armenia. By 1920, the state was incorporated into the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, and in 1922 became a founding member of the Soviet Union. In 1936, the Transcaucasian state was dissolved, transforming its constituent states, including the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, into full Union republics. The modern Republic of Armenia became independent in 1991 during the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Armenia recognises the Armenian Apostolic Church, the world's oldest national church, as the country's primary religious establishment. The unique Armenian alphabet was invented by Mesrop Mashtots in 405 AD. Armenia is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union, the Council of Europe and the Collective Security Treaty Organization. Armenia supports the de facto independent Artsakh, which was proclaimed in 1991. 

The postage stamps and postal history of Armenia describes the history of postage stamps and postal systems in Armenia. Czarist Russian postmarks and stamps were in used in the territory of Armenia from 1858. From 1909 until 1918 a few Russian stamps were overprinted identifying the Armenian Post. The Armenian letters H & P are intertwined, representing the initials of hai post, the Armenian Post Office. The First Republic of Armenia was founded on May 28, 1918, but stamps were first issued in 1919 overprinted on Russia. In 1919 Arshak Fetvadjian was commissioned to design and supervise production of stamps for the new republic. Between 1922 and 1991 Armenia was initially part of the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic which officially became the Armenian SSR in 1936. From 1924, upon a decree from the central government of the USSR, only regular Soviet Union issued stamps were in use until November 1991.

Following the end of the Cold War and the breakup of the Soviet Union, Armenia became an independent state on September 21, 1991 though the first stamps, a se-tenant trio, were issued on April 28, 1992 to commemorate Independence Day. The first stamps to be issued in the new Armenian currency, the dram, that was introduced to replace the rouble used for the previous issues since independence, appeared on August 4, 1994 illustrating treasures of Etchmiadzin.

The covers postmarked on May 03, 2015. Armenia issues beautiful thematic stamps every year.

These beautiful covers sent by Haysep who live in  Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia. The covers posted on June 24, 2016 and I received July 12, 2016. The stamps of Armenia are beautiful and thematic.