YEREVAN, DECEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS: The Russkaya Semyorka website classified Armenia to 6 most ancient countries of the world. Armenpress reports that the website writes that the Armenian statehood has a history of about 2500 years, though its roots should be found even deeper, in the Arme-Shupria Kingdom (XII BC), which, according to the historian Boris Piotrowski, turned into the Scythian-Armenian Union in VII and VI centuries BC.

Ancient Armenia was a motley conglomeration of states and kingdoms that existed at the same time or succeeded one another. The website writes that the term "Armenia" was first mentioned in the Behistun inscription (521 BC) of the king of Persia Darius I, who this way called the Persian satrapy in the territory of the disappeared Urartu. Later, in the valley of the river Araks, the Ararat kingdom emerges, on the basis of which Sofena, Lesser Armenia and Great Armenia were founded. Since the 3^rd century BC the political and cultural center of the Armenian people was moved to the Ararat Valley.

Besides Armenia, Russkaya Semyorka mentions Iran, China, Greece, Egypt and Japan as the other 5 most ancient countries.