A country of Asia Minor east of Turkey and north of Iran. Acquired by Russia from Persia in 1828, it became a Soviet republic in 1921 and was a constituent republic of the USSR, known as the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, from 1936 to 1991. Yerevan is the capital. Population: 2,970,000.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.