Western Armenia

Western Armenia (Western Armenian: Արեւմտեան Հայաստան, Arevmdian Hayasdan) is a term to refer to the western parts of the Armenian highlands located within Turkey (formerly the Ottoman Empire) that comprise the historical homeland of the Armenians. Western Armenia, also referred to as Byzantine Armenia, emerged following the division of Greater Armenia between the Byzantine Empire (Western Armenia) and Sassanid Persia (Eastern Armenia) in AD 387.

The area was contested during the Ottoman–Persian Wars and was conquered by the Ottoman Empire during the wars of 1532–1555 and 1623–1639. The area then became known also as "Turkish Armenia" or "Ottoman Armenia", and included six vilayets. During the 19th century, the Russian Empire conquered sections of Western Armenia, including Kars.

The region's Armenian population was subjected to widespread massacres in the 1890s, as well as extermination and deportation during the 1915 Armenian genocide and over the following years. In addition to physical erasure, the systematic destruction of Armenian cultural heritage, which had endured over 4000 years, is an example of cultural genocide. In 1920 the Treaty of Sèvres – signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies Powers of World War I – called for borders where Western Armenia was included the Republic of Armenia; however, this was never implemented and the Turkish invasion of Armenia resulted in the annexation of Kars and Surmalu. These annexations were formalized by the Treaty of Alexandropol (1920), Treaty of Moscow (1920), and Treaty of Kars (1921).

Since the Armenian genocide and Turkey's invasion, Armenian—both in the diaspora and indigenous to modern Turkey—have pursued political representation or reunification with the Republic of Armenia, with a congress of genocide survivors' descendants active in the diaspora. In 2020, the three traditional Armenian parties—the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaks), Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (Hunchaks) and the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party (Ramgavars)—issued a joint statement on the centenary of the Sèvres Treaty, stating that it is the only internationally legal document that demarcates the border between Armenia and Turkey. Transit between Western Armenia and Eastern Armenia has remained barred since 1993 due to the ongoing Turkish–Azeri blockade of Republic of Armenia.