From 1828 with the Treaty of Turkmenchay to the October Revolution in 1917 , Eastern Armenia had been part of the Russian Empire and partly confined to the borders of the Erivan Governorate . After the October Revolution , Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin 's government announced that minorities in the empire could pursue a course of self-determination . Following the collapse of the empire , in May 1918 Armenia , and its neighbors Azerbaijan and Georgia , declared their independence from Russian rule and each established their respective republics . After the near-annihilation of the Armenians during the Armenian Genocide and the subsequent Turkish-Armenian War , the historic Armenian area in the Ottoman Empire was overrun with despair and devastation
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic