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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 work of Khrimian Hayrik in strengthening the national sentiment of the Armenians was prominent in the awakening of the Armenian nation. Such is characteristic of great men like Khrimian Hayrik, that once they comprehend their higher ideals and thoughts, they try to pass them on, not only to their own people, but to the entire world.

Since his first stay as a young man at Etchmiadzin, the solitary haven for the survival of the Armenian nation, his enthusiastic spirit was set on lifting up the Armenian nation, and from that moment on he assumed the principles which would guide his life towards achieving this noble goal.

Khrimian Hayrik was a guide for the Armenian nation on its path towards freedom and liberation. His life was a noble example and his work united a nation. 175

It has been said that Henrik Ibsen's best quality 176 was his ability to broaden his people's horizon. The same thing can be said of Khrimian Hayrik. With faith in the future, he taught his people, peasants, craftsmen and merchants alike, to be farsighted and to envisage a better life than the one under the dominion and corrupt organisation of tent-living tribes.

The Influence of Armenia in the Orient

The regaining of consciousness of the Armenian nation during the 19th century not only involved the enlightenment of Armenians themselves, but also the direct influence over other nations in the Orient.

The Armenians, with their education and teaching, their customs and traditions, were indeed among the true working peoples in the Asiatic part of the Ottoman Empire and, together with the Greeks, were the first people to establish direct contact with the western world, adopting their mindset, and in this way always playing a leading and progressive role. Bertrand Bareilles thus writes: "It is really through the involvement of the Armenians that their Muslim countrymen, for the first time, came into contact with the thoughts, customs and traditions of the western world." 177

Lord Cromer, the famous English politician and director, who for a couple of decades was in charge of all administrative questions of the Egyptian government, having noted the leading roles and offices which Armenians fulfilled in the administration of the Egyptian government during the 19th century, wrote the following: "I can, with certainty, claim that the Armenians who I have had contact with, in my opinion, are amongst the highest intellects of the Orient." 178

Vicomte Dogüe in his turn comments: "This small Armenian nation has in support of its different masters, or in resistance against them, produced a number of first-class leaders of whom I have come to know two through the work: Bishop Azarian and Nubar Pasha. In my opinion, they are, if not higher, then on the same level as the greatest politicians in the highest offices." 180

The influence of the Armenians was spreading as of two great regents emerged on the political scene of the Orient, both of whom were very able and just: Mohammad Ali Pasha, the crown-prince and founder of modern Egypt, and Sultan Mahmoud II, the Ottoman ruler, who over many years essayed to drag Turkey from the Middle Ages into the modern era.