On May 28, Armenia is celebrating the 102nd anniversary of the foundation of the First Republic of Armenia, which played a decisive role in the further establishment of the country in decades that followed.

Defeating the Turkish army in Sardarapat on May 26, 1918, the Armenian troops managed to stop the Turkish invasion of Transcaucasia and save Armenia from complete destruction.

The Armenian National Committee proclaimed the Republic of Armenia on May 28, 1918 in Tiflis following the collapse of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic.

On May 29, Hovhannes Kajaznuni was appointed the first Prime Minister of independent Armenia, while Yerevan became the country’s capital.

The First Republic’s existence continued for two years when the Red Army units entered Yerevan on December 2, 1920, and the country joined the Soviet Union.

In 1991, the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic proclaimed independence, and the parliament declared May 28 a non-working day.

The Sardarapat memorial, authored by architect Rafael Israelyan, was built in 1968, on the 50th anniversary of the victory.