Armenia (Armenian: Õ€Õ¡ÕµÕ¡Õ½Õ¿Õ¡Õ¶ Hayastan), officially in English the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked mountainous country in Eurasia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the Southern Caucasus. It borders Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north, Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Nakhchivan exclave of Azerbaijan to the south. A transcontinental country at the juncture of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, Armenia has had and continues to have extensive sociopolitical and cultural connections with Europe.As a transcontinental country, Armenia may be considered to be in Asia and/or Europe. The UN classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , National Geographic, and Encyclopædia Britannica also place Armenia in Asia. Conversely, numerous sources place Armenia in Europe such as the BBC [2], Oxford Reference Online [3], Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (though it also places the historical Kingdom of Armenia in Asia), and www.worldatlas.com. Moreover, the Armenian government and the general population generally self-identify as European and a part of Europe [4]. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Vardan Oskanyan iterated recently that: "Armenia is in Europe. This is a fact, it's not a response to a question." [5]. Mr. Torben Holtze, head of the European Commission's representation in Armenia and Georgia and Ambassador of the European Union with residence in Tbilisi, stated recently: "As a matter of principle, Armenia is a European country..."