“National Climate Vulnerability Assessment: Armenia”http://redcross.am/public/files/admin_upload/files/Climate%20ENG.pdf
The territory of the RA is 29.743 sq.km, geographically it is located in the Armenian highlands (the name Armenishe Hochlandes is given by German Abick in 1843) in the northeastern part and covers 8% of these highlands. The Armenian highlands are higher than their surrounding Asia Minor and Iranian plateaus by 600 to 800 meters and are a “Mountain Island” in comparison with them. This was noticed in 19th century [Edward Zyus] and it was named like that (Berginzel) because of its geological and geographical features [Հ.Կ.Գաբրիելյան, “Հայկական լեռնաշխարհ”, Երևան, 2000թ]. From the climatic characteristics viewpoint, the fact of being set so much higher above the sea level than the surrounding geographical areas is a very important one as it means 5 to 7 °C difference in air temperature and results in huge climatic differences and altering characteristics. Therefore, it can be called an “ecosystem island”.