THE ANCIENT ARMENIANS.

Historically the name 'Armenian' designate a group of people, and was use by neighboring countries of ancient Armenia. The earliest attestations of the name 'Armenia' date around the 6th BC.
The Behistun Inscription, in Old Persian 'Bagastana,' meaning "the place of God," authored by Darius the Great, is a multilingual inscription and a large rock relief on a cliff at Mount Behistun, in Western Iran. Darius made a referral to "Ur-Ash-Tu"(in Babylonian) as 'Ar-Mina' (in Old Persian) and Harminuta (in Elamite). The inscription was made sometime between his coronation as king of the Persian Empire in the summer of 522 BC and his death in autumn of 486 BC. It begins with a brief description of Darius, including his ancestry and lineage. Late, he provides a lengthy sequence of events stating in detail that the rebellions, which had resulted from the deaths of Cyrus the Great and his son Cambyses II, (Darius fought 19 battles in a period of one year) throughout the empire, were orchestrated by several impostors and their co-conspirators. Each of them falsely proclaimed king-hood during the upheaval. Darius proclaimed the victory attributing his success to the grace of the highest spirit of worship, The Mighty Lord.
In Greek, 'Armenians' is attested from about the same time, perhaps the earliest reference being a fragment attributed to Heca'Taeus of Miletus (476 BC). Xenophon, a Greek general serving in some of the Persian expeditions, describes many aspects of Armenian village life and hospitality in around 401 BC. He relates that the people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like the Persian's language.
Armenians call themselves 'Hay.' The name has traditionally been derived from 'Hayk,' the legendary patriarch of the Armenians and a great-great-grandson of Noah, who, according to Moses of Chorene, a prominent Armenian historian, defeated the Babylonian king Bel in 2,492 BC and established his nation in the Ar'Arat region. Moses also wrote that the Word 'Armenian' originated from the name 'Arm-Enak' or 'Aram (descendant of Hayk).
From 4,000 to 1,000 BC, tools and trinkets of copper, bronze and iron were commonly produced in the ancient regions of the Armenians and traded in neighboring lands where those metals were less found.
The Armenian Plateau has been called the "Epicenter of the Iron Age,"since it is the location of the first appearance of Iron metallurgy in the late 2nd millennium BC. Throughout Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the Armenian Highlands was a heavily contested territory of the Iranian Parthian Empire, Sassanid Persian Empire, Byzantine Empire, and the Arab Caliphate. From the early modern era and on, the region came directly under Safavid Iranian rule. Heavily contested for centuries between Iranian Safavids and its arch-rival the Ottoman Empire with numerous wars over the Highlands comprising Western Armenia. The area was conquered by the Ottomans in the first half of the 17th century, while Eastern Armenia, forming another major part of the Highlands, stayed in Iranian hands up to the course of the 19th century, when it was ceded to Imperial Russia. During the latter final half of the 19th CE, the Ottoman held parts of the Armenian Highlands comprising Western Armenia now formed the boundary of the Ottoman sphere of influence and the Russia sphere of influence. The Armenian extermination was executed by the Ottomans trying to erase most of the evidence that they ever lived on the great highland called Armenian Plateau, to which the perpetrators soon assigned a new name "Eastern Anatolia." The dissolution of the Ottomans after World War I, it has been the boundary region of Turkey, Iran, and Soviet Union. And, from 1991, since the dissolution of Soviet Union, it is a boundary region of Armenia, parts of Georgia, and Azeibajan.
In the Book of Genesis, the mountains of Ar'Arat is the place where Noah's Ark came to rest after the Great Flood (Genesis 8). Scholars refer it to a general region, corresponding to Ancient Assyrian Ur'Artu (Old Persian Ar'Mina) the name of the kingdom which at the time controlled the Lake Van region. The Lake Van is the largest one in Turkey, it lies in the far East in the provinces of Van and Bitlis. It is a saline and extremely alkaline body of water, with a pH value between 9-12, characterized by high concentration of sodium carbonate.  It the most productive aquatic environment in the area.
Marco Polo (1254-1324) wrote about Noah's ark in his book, 'The Travels of Marco Polo' as follows : "In the heart of the Armenian mountain range, the mountain's peak is shaped like a cup, on which Noah's arch is said to have rested. The mountain is so broad and long that it takes more than two days to go around it. On the summit the snow lies so deep all the year round that no one can ever climb it; this snow never entirely melts, but new snow is forever falling on the old, so that the level rises.
In Armenian tradition, the specific summit where the Ark rested, is identified as Mount Masis, now known as Mount Ar'Arat, the highest peak of Armenian Highland, located in present-day Turkey.
The Armenian Highlands total area is about 400,000 square kilometers and is the central-most and highest of three land-locked plateaus, that together form the Northern sector of the Middle East.
The Highlands are reach in Water resources and most of it is in Eastern Turkey, and also includes North Western Iran, all of Armenia, Southern Georgia, and Western Azerbaijan. Its North Eastern parts are also known as Lesser Caucasus, which is a center of Armenian culture.
The Armenian Highlands have been the scene of great volcanic activity. Geologically recent volcanism on the area has resulted in large volcanic formations.  A series of massifs and tectonic movement has formed the 3 largest Lakes in the Highland, Lake Sevan, Lake Van, and Lake Urmia.
Armenians have had its presence in the Armenian Highland for over 4,000 years since the time when Hayk, the legendary patriarch and founder of the first Armenian nation, led them to victory over Bel of Babylon. Today, with a population of 3.5 million, they not only constitute an overwhelming majority in Armenia, but also in the disputed region of Ar'Tsakh, under control of ethnic Armenians separatists.