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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 British in Transcaucasia

To implement Article XV of the Mudros Armistice, British troops moved into Transcaucasia, supplanting Russians, Germans, and Ottomans as the dominant power. On November 14, 1918, General William M. Thomson, Commander of British forces in North Persia, ordered the last Turkish contingents our of Baku, and, three days later, with several companies of the 39th Infantry Brigade, disembarked on the wharves abandoned by Dunsterville two months earlier. Initially, Thomson withheld recognition of the Azerbaijani government and announced that his troops were there to secure the area in the name of democratic Russia. Soon, however, the British tactic changed, and in December the general acknowledged Khan Khoisky's government as the only legally constituted local administrative body. 87 Later that month, the British 27th Division landed at Batum, where, much to the chagrin of Zhordania's cabinet, Brigadier General Cooke-Collis established a British military governorship. On December 25, after a series of strained and hostile exchanges between Zhordania and British officials, English troops under General G. T. Forestier-Walker entered Tiflis to supersede the Germans. Now the Union Jack waved above the Georgian capital. 88

The coming of the British to Transcaucasia was welcomed by most Armenians but was to have a definite negative effect on Yerevan's claims to the mountainous sector of the Elisavetpol guberniia. Throughout the summer of 1918 the Armenians of Mountainous Karabakh had resisted the Turks. Even after Shushi, the administrative centre, was finally occupied in the last days of September, the rural areas continued to hold out. 89 When the Ottomans were forced to withdraw in November, the partisans of Karabakh implored Andranik in neighbouring Zangezour to march on Shushi, the district's major centre of Moslem strength. This would assure Mountainous Karabakh's inclusion within Armenia. Andranik accepted the challenge and had, on December 1, just broken through the Tatar-Kurdish vale of Zabukh separating Zangezour from Karabakh, when a telegram from Thomson was delivered by special courier. The British general informed Andranik of the Armistice and the forthcoming conference of peace and warned that, in order not to jeopardise Armenian interests, all hostilities must cease immediately. The Allies would arrange a lasting settlement. The Armenians were thrown into a new dilemma. Ahead lay the unobstructed road to Shushi; they could be there in a day. But Andranik, as many other Armenians, had not yet learned that a British command could be flouted. Faith in the Allies still burned strongly, and Andranik, yielding to Thomson's personal envoys who arrived the following day, withdrew to Zangezour to await justice. 90 Yet, even before the Paris Conference had assembled, Thomson announced from his Baku headquarters that jurisdiction not only over Karabakh but also over Zangezour belonged to Azerbaijan. The Armenian blunder had been so monumental that it could never be rectified. 91

The history of the Armenian Republic entered a new phase with the conclusion of World War I. from despair rose hope, from tragedy rose the possibility of existing as modern nation state. The final miles on the road to independence had been the most agonizing. Most of historic Armenia had been depopulated and the reminder denied the protection it had found as part of the Romanov Empire. Events from November, 1917, through May, 1918, had drawn the Armenians progressively deeper into the abyss. And when independence finally arrived at the end of May, few recognised it as the desirable culmination of the path begun a century before. The humiliations and ordeals of the Republic of Armenia during its first five months were many and severe. Internally, chaos prevailed and death and destruction were the rule; externally, supplication and political exigency were the tactics espoused. It is difficult to judge the role played by the suppliants in Moscow, Berlin, and Constantinople during those months. Perhaps in some small way they helped the Republic to survive, and from May to November survival was the maximum that could have expected.

When the Central Powers sued for peace, there was in existence an Armenian Republic. Around this small state Armenian aspirations were to be concentrated for the next two years. This was the core onto which it was hoped Western Armenia would be added, and this was the organism that cold most logically request admission to the family of independent nations. The realisation of both aspirations was dependent on the benevolence of the victors in the war. Would they fulfil their pledges? 92 Would they be willing to use force if necessary to assure the Armenians the justice they had been promised? These were the troublesome questions that weighted upon the leaders in Yerevan, the suppliants as they returned home, and the Republic's representatives in Western Europe. There was cause for both optimism and for pessimism. In November, 1918, there were hopes for a brilliant future and there were fears of continued torment and oppression. Independence had been attained. The key to determining the course of that independence was in the hands of the nations of Europe and America. Would they turn the key or would the door to fulfilment remain locked?