• The Diaspora World Cup operates in some of the major cities and metro areas in United States and Canada. Our network of register players includes 20 cities, 200 countries, 400 teams, and 10,000 players. Join our movement to solve the world's most pressing challenges: Illiteracy
  • Who We are text will be here Who We are text will be here Who We are text will be here Who We are text will be here Who We are text will be here Who We are text will be here Who We are text will be here Who We are text will be here Who We are text will be here
  • What We Do text will be here What We Do text will be here What We Do text will be here What We Do text will be here What We Do text will be here What We Do text will be here What We Do text will be here What We Do text will be here What We Do text will be here What We Do text will be here What We Do text will be here What We Do text will be here
  • Get Involved text will be here Get Involved text will be here Get Involved text will be here Get Involved text will be here Get Involved text will be here Get Involved text will be here Get Involved text will be here Get Involved text will be here Get Involved text will be here Get Involved text will be here
  • Education is a basic Human Right and the Diaspora World Cup global school program focuses its energy in some the poorest countries around the world. We build schools in some of the poorest countries around the worldthat historically had no adequate school structure. Any member of the World Diaspora has the power to end illiteracy around the world through the power of soccer.
  • High-profile sport figures, global leaders, business leaders, political figure, journalists, activists, philanthropists, actors, and entrepreneurs united by their commitment to the Diaspora World Cup mission to eradicate illiteracy around the world through the power of soccer. They serve as role models and spread the Diaspora World Cup vision and commitment of a world mobilized through soccer.
  •  
  •  

Armenia

Kansas City – Overland Park


Profile
Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north, the de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan to the south.

Armenia lies in the highlands surrounding the Biblical mountains of Ararat, upon which Noah's Ark is said to have come to rest after the flood. Recent archeological studies have found the earliest leather shoe, skirt, and wine-producing facility, in Armenia, dated to about 4000 B.C. This points to an advanced early civilization in the Bronze Age; several states flourished in the area of Greater Armenia, including the Hittite Empire (at the height of its power), Mitanni (South-Western historical Armenia), and Hayasa-Azzi (1500–1200 BC). The Nairi people (12th to 9th centuries BC) and the Kingdom of Urartu (1000–600 BC) successively established their sovereignty over the Armenian Highland. Each of the aforementioned nations and tribes participated in the ethnogenesis of the Armenian people. Yerevan, the modern capital of Armenia, was founded in 782 BC by king Argishti I.

When World War I broke out leading to confrontation of the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire in the Caucasus and Persian Campaigns, the new government in Constantinople began to look on the Armenians with distrust and suspicion. This was due to the fact that the Russian army contained a contingent of Armenian volunteers. 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.

Politics of Armenia takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic. According to the Constitution of Armenia, the President is the head of government and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament. The unicameral parliament (also called the Azgayin Zhoghov or National Assembly) is controlled by a coalition of four political parties: the conservative Republican party, the Prosperous Armenia party, the Rule of Law party and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. The main opposition party is Raffi Hovannisian's Heritage party, which favors eventual Armenian membership in the European Union and NATO.

Armenia has a relatively large Diaspora (8 million by some estimates, greatly exceeding the 3 million population of Armenia itself), with communities existing across the globe. The largest Armenian communities outside of Armenia can be found in Russia, France, Iran, the United States, Georgia, Syria, Lebanon, Argentina, Australia, Canada, Greece, Cyprus, Israel, Poland and Ukraine. 40,000 to 70,000 Armenians still live in Turkey (mostly in and around Istanbul). Also, about 1,000 Armenians reside in the Armenian Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem in Israel, a remnant of a once-larger community. Italy is home to the San Lazzaro degli Armeni, an island located in the Venetian Lagoon, which is completely occupied by a monastery run by the Mechitarists, an Armenian Catholic congregation. In addition, approximately 139,000 Armenians live in the de facto country of Nagorno-Karabakh where they form a majority.


GET OUR EMAIL NEWSLETTER