Until the Sovietization of Armenia , Yerevan was a multicultural city , mainly with an Armenian and " Caucasian Tatar " ( modern-day Azerbaijani ) population . After the Armenian Genocide , many refugees from what Armenians call Western Armenia ( nowadays Turkey , then Ottoman Empire ) escaped to Eastern Armenia . In 1919 , about 75,000 Armenian refugees from the Ottoman Empire arrived in Yerevan , mostly from the Vaspurakan region ( city of Van and surroundings ) . A significant part of these refugees died of typhus and other diseases
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
Yerevan