Map Close  
Person info Close  
Information Close  
Source reference Close  
  Svenska
 
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

Previous page Page 316 Next page Smaller font Larger font Print friednly version  
The Armenian-Turkish War

As those in power in Constantinople, the son-in-law of Farid Pasha and later Marshal Izzet Pasha, had declared their readiness to hand over the areas of Basen and Van to the Republic of Armenia in the Caucasus, the Turks in Ankara refused to approve any surrender of territories at all, but threatened to reoccupy the provinces of Kars and Ardahan which according to the Brest-Litovsk Treaty had been given to Turkey, but which were in the possession of the Armenian forces following victory in the First World War. 40

The Greek occupation of Izmir provoked the national Turkish sentiment and strengthened their national movement. Some of the Greek leaders dreamed of the resurrection of the Byzantine Empire and laid claims to eastern Tracia and western Asia Minor and even Constantinople itself. Similar illogical and foolhardy claims which certain Armenians made, who dreamed of the resurrection of an Armenia which stretched from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sean, only incited the wrath of the Turks further.

If one adds the schemes of 1916-1920 to slice up the remains of the Ottoman Empire into areas of influence of the major powers, the strong national reaction of the Turks could not only be considered natural but expected. According to Driault, this was the last meaningless fight of a dying man, or maybe the terrified attempts of Turkey to liberate itself from the Ottoman Empire to escape dying with it.

Nevertheless, the events which followed cannot be excused, actions which no civilised nation has perpetrated under similar circumstances. Turkish nationalism displayed unparalleled mercilessness and heartlessness in its blind course. Turkey did not hesitate in the defence of its territorial integrity, despite the signed international treaties, and against Greece and the other major powers, to pursue the total annihilation of the Armenians and the Kurds in Turkey and the annexation of the Republics in Transcaucasia, only a short time after they had signed a peace treaty and been condemned for this very crime. In general, governments aim to outdo their neighbouring countries in strength and resources; Turkey, however, preferred to border with the Russian superpower than with the three Transcaucasian republics.

Turkey, with a modern army and sufficient weaponry and ammunition (following the imprudent decision by the allies not to demand her disarmament as a condition of the ceasefire treaty), strengthened three fronts, against the French in Cilicia, against the Greeks in the western part of Asia Minor, and finally against the Armenians in Transcaucasia.

In their plans, the Turkish government was granted foreign assistance. Aid from Italy, worried that the Greeks would occupy Izmir, for which they had their own plans; and assistance from some French actors who planned to invest in Asia Minor. Russia also backed her common interests with Turkey, all too aware of the threat of losing Constantinople, with the Dardanelles and the Bosporus, to the occupying forces of the other allies, a concern which completely overshadowed any qualms about the Armenian Question. 42