Joint stamp issue of Armenia and Iran

Armenians and Iranians are neighbouring peoples whose relations go back to the ancient world. Armenia was part of the Achaemenid, Parthian, Sasanian and Safavid empires, and in 331 BC Armenians fought in the army of Darius at the Battle of Gaugamela. In 301 Armenia adopted Christianity as its state religion. At the Battle of Avarayr in 451, 66,000 Armenians led by Vardan Mamikonyan defended their right to remain Christians against a Persian army of 220,000. In the early 19th century Eastern Armenia passed from Iran to the Russian Empire, and after Armenia’s independence in 1991 the two states established diplomatic relations.

The picture shows a souvenir sheet of a joint stamp issue of the Republic of Armenia and the Islamic Republic of Iran, with the flags of both countries. One stamp shows the Blue Mosque in Yerevan (1765), the other the Holy Saviour Cathedral of New Julfa (Isfahan) (1664).