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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 1920 War between Turkey and Armenia

Thus the Young Turks assumed a victorious position for Turkey from the peace conference in Lausanne, albeit primarily as the result of the major powers' lack of interest and the secret treaties between various of them.

The Turkish Caucasian army, which at the start of 1919 had been driven back in Erzurum, was staged to perform an act of vengeance, under the supervision of its commander, General Kazim Gharabekir. General Gharabekir achieved for his country what General Van Ter Goltz, almost at the same time, had failed to do for Germany in the Baltic countries. The General created a new army, far away from the attention of the allied forces, in a foreign country from which they had not been forced to evacuate, sheikh became the centre for the battle to liberate their country.

Before long, General Mustafa Kemal, later Kemal Atatürk, joined him. The new movement found willing helpers and support circles among the old members of the Union and Progress Committee.

During a party congress in Erzurum (June 1919) and later in Sivas (September 1919), the Kemalian movement adopted the national fanatic and racially pure policy.

The followers of the Kemalian movement created the first dictatorial government in Ankara as a result of the war and in protest against the ruling government in Constantinople. Once this government had been organised, Mustafa Kemal acknowledged Russia as the liberator of the colonial people and wrote to the Foreign Commissioner Grigori Chicherin that, when Russia had gained control over Georgia and driven out the last British garrison from Batum, the Turkish nationalists would begin their military operations against "the imperialistic Armenian Government" and pressure Azerbaijan to join the Soviet Union. For quick and efficient cooperation, the Soviet Russia would supply them with weapons, provisions, technical and financial aid, including an initial consignment of five million Lira in gold. 99

A Draft Soviet-Turkish Treaty

Mustafa Kemal and other Nationalist leaders were gratified by the Soviet disposition to extend military and financial assistance but were wary of the political ramifications. While Chicherin's message praised the heroic Turkish struggle for independence and welcomed cooperation against the imperialist powers, they also implied that the fate of areas of mixed Armenian, Kurdish, Laz, and Turkish habitation in the eastern Ottoman provinces should be regulated on the basis of pre-war population and the principle of self-determination, taking into account all those people who had been forced to flee. The Soviet government was prepared to serve as mediator in attaining a just an equitable boundary settlement between Turkey, Armenia, and Persia. In May a Turkish Nationalist delegation headed by Foreign Affairs Commissar Bekir Sami Bey departed for Moscow to deal with such complications and, more important, to formalise relations and hasten the shipment of desperately needed arms and currency.