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Index

Armenia

The Urartu Civilisation

Victory for Independence

Artashisian Dynasty on the Armenian Throne

Armenia caught between Rome and the Arsacids

The Acceptance of Christianity

Defending Christianity

Armenia Under the Bagratouni Dynasty

Cilicia - the New Armenia

Armenia Under Turanian Rule

The Renaissance or the Resurrection of Armenia

The Eastern Question

Russia in the Caucasus

The Armenian Question

Battle on Two Fronts

Tsarist Russia Against the Armenians

The Revolution of the Young Turks and the Armenian People on the Eve of World War I

The First World War

The Resurrection of Armenia

Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

- Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

Eastern Armenia

Western Armenia

"The Fateful Years" (1914-1917)

"Hopes and Emotions" (March-October, 1917)

The Bolshevik Revolution and Armenia

Transcaucasia Adrift (November, 1917

Dilemmas (March-April, 1918)

War and Independence (April-May, 1918)

The Republics of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia

The Suppliants (June-October, 1918)

In conclusion

Soviet Armenia

The Second Independent Republic of Armenia

Epilogue

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The monstrous crime, which according to a French author cannot be comprehended at first glance, was so beneficial for its perpetrator that it became an historical model for a later more renowned crime Evidence for this link was found among the documents which were presented in the trial against Hermann Göring at the crime commission in Nuremberg. The document in question contains the text of the orders which Adolf Hitler delivered in his speech, on August 22, 1939, in Obersalzberg to his commanders prior to the attack on Poland. His speech included the statement: "Our might must be in our swiftness and mercilessness. I have ordered our special forces within the SS to cross the Polish border and murder their men, women and children without any discrimination. After all, who remembers today the genocide of the Armenians?" 9

Within the misery and terror of such atrocities, lie important grains of wisdom. The Armenian Genocide is the predecessor to the events which occurred in Nazi Germany; and until such a massacre fails to bring profit to the perpetrator, it will undoubtedly occur again

The Participation of the Armenians in the First World War

At the same time as this catastrophe was underway in the Ottoman Empire, Armenians were fighting heroically in the First World War. In this war, approximately 50 000 Armenians were killed, soldiers who fought under the banners of the allies and of Armenia. Thus, in relation to the total number of mobilised Armenians, Armenia joins France and Serbia as the countries who made the greatest sacrifice for the allies.

In the beginning of the war 60,000 Armenians were called to active duty in the Ottoman Empire and 120,000 in Russia. 13 In France, where Armenian refugees numbered a couple of thousand, several hundred Armenians voluntarily enlisted during the first days of the war.

We have discussed above the sad fate that awaited the Armenian soldiers in the Ottoman army. In Russia, in addition to the 120 000 enlisted Armenians who were mobilised in 1914, 60 000 were called to active duty, bringing the total number of Armenian soldiers in the Russian army to 180 000.

The Russian Empire, unlike the British, did not create units based on nationality. Therefore, the 180 000 Armenians did not form separate Armenian units; but the majority were placed in the three units which constituted the Caucasian army, which consisted mainly of Armenians, Georgians and Russians.

Of the three Caucasian units only the first fought on the Caucasian front and participated in the great battles of 1914, 1915 and 1916. These Caucasian units, together with the Serbian units, displayed the greatest courage during battle in remote places; indeed it was mostly on the Caucasian front that the outcome of the war was decided. The successes of the Russian army at the Prussian front in 1914 resulted in the allied victory at Marne, and the great offensive in Broussilof, in 1916, in conjunction with the allied advancement in the Somme, resulted in the victory in Verdun.