Ararat Province
Ararat Province exhibits territorial loss effects: the biblical mountain defining Armenian identity lies across a closed Turkish border while the fertile plain below provides 39% of agricultural employment.
Ararat Province derives its identity from a mountain it cannot reach. Biblical Mount Ararat (5,137 meters), where Noah's Ark supposedly landed, lies visible across the Turkish border but has been inaccessible since 1993 when Turkey closed the frontier in solidarity with Azerbaijan. This creates a unique psychological geography: Armenia's national symbol dominates the horizon yet belongs to a hostile neighbor.
The Ararat Plain beneath the mountain is Armenia's most productive agricultural zone, with 39.2% of the employed population working in agriculture. Fertile soils irrigated by the Araks River produce fruits, vegetables, and grapes for the Ararat Brandy Company—Armenian cognac that Stalin famously gifted Churchill. The province functions as Armenia's breadbasket, but shares the closed Turkish border's constraints: agricultural exports that could flow naturally westward must instead route circuitously through Georgia or Iran.