Yerkir is the official newspaper of the Supreme Body of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation

Armenian Revolutionary Federation

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation is an Armenian political party founded in Tiflis in 1890 by Christapor Mikaelian, Stepan Zorian, and Simon Zavarian...

 (ARF).

The first issue of Yerkir was published on August 27, 1991 in Yerevan. Since April 2002 it is also published in Beirut

Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

, Lebanon

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

, in traditional Armenian orthography

Armenian alphabet

The Armenian alphabet is an alphabet that has been used to write the Armenian language since the year 405 or 406. It was devised by Saint Mesrop Mashtots, an Armenian linguist and ecclesiastical leader, and contained originally 36 letters. Two more letters, օ and ֆ, were added in the Middle Ages...

.

The paper was published as an 8-page daily until the end of 2001. It reached its highest circulation (56,000 copies) in 1993-94, the largest circulation of the Armenian press of the last ten years. In January 2002 (circulation 2,500 copies) Yerkir became a 20-page weekly.

On December 28, 1994 then President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrossian

Levon Ter-Petrossian

Levon Ter-Petrossian , sometimes transliterated Levon Ter-Petrosyan or Ter-Petrosian , was the first President of Armenia from 1991 to 1998...

 banned the ARF by his decree. The Yerkir daily was also banned, as was Azatamart weekly (the official newspaper of ARF's Armenia Structure), the official newspaper of the ARF Bureau, and many other newspapers and magazines. Permission to relaunch Yerkir was given only in March, 1998.

Yerkir is distributed in the CIS countries, as well as to the diaspora. Many large libraries of the world carry the collections of the paper. The main objective of the paper is to cover the political, economic, educational, cultural and sport events on basis of impartiality and, when necessary, comment on these events.

The online edition carries articles in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

 and Armenian

Armenian language

The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora...

.

Editors in Chief

• Ashot Kerobian (1991)
• Abo Poghikian (1991)
• Aghvan Vardanian (1991-93)
• Eduard Harutiunian (1993)
• Hamlet Davtian (1994)
• Mushegh Mikaelian (1998-99)
• Shaghik Marukhian (1999-2000)
• Hamlet Davtian (2000-2001)
• Gegham Manukian (2002-2004)
• Spartak Seyranian (March 2004-)