Mer Hayrenik

"Our Fatherland" is the national anthem of Armenia. It was arranged by Parsegh Ganatchian; the lyrics were written by Mikayel Nalbandian. First adopted in 1918 as the anthem of the short-lived First Republic of Armenia, it was subsequently banned after the country was invaded by then incorporated into the Soviet Union. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the restoration of sovereignty in 1991, the song was re-adopted as the national anthem, albeit with slightly modified lyrics.

History

Composition

The lyrics of "Our Fatherland" were derived from "The Song of an Italian Girl" (Armenian: Իտալացի աղջկա երգը Italatsi aghjka yergė), a poem written by Mikael Nalbandian in 1859 and published in 1861. In the early 20th century, the music was composed by Parsegh Ganatchian. Subsequently, both the lyrics (with changes) and music were adopted as the national anthem of the First Republic of Armenia, which briefly existed from 1918 to 1920.

Soviet era

In November 1920, the Red Army invaded Armenia, in spite of the Treaty of Sèvres – which granted the country international recognition as a sovereign state – having been signed only three months earlier. In 1922, it was absorbed into the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (TSFSR), together with Azerbaijan and Georgia, and the TSFSR subsequently became part of the Soviet Union at the end of that same year. As a symbol of Armenian nationalism, the song "Our Fatherland" was outlawed by the Bolshevik authorities.