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 462 Next page Smaller font Larger font Print friednly version  
The Suppliants (June-October, 1918)

Until the conclusion of World War I in November, 1918, the feeble Republic of Armenia sought the benevolence of the Central Powers and Russia. Toiling for five months under difficult, often humiliating conditions, Armenian envoys, with statistics, logic, and petitions as their only weapons, tired to allay the suffering of their people and to guarantee the continued existence of the Republic, born after such a prolonged and agonising labour. Before the representative of Soviet Russia, these envoys urged that the Sovnarkom, unable to provide material assistance, should at least give Armenia moral support by condoning the creation of the Republic. Russian recognition would deter the Islamic plot to obliterate the Armenian nation. If Transcaucasia were transformed into a Moslem bastion, her natural bonds with Russia would be severed and future associations, possibly even federation, would be inconceivable. At the same time, in Berlin and in Vienna, the suppliants stood before the doors of German and Austrian officials to implore intercession. Seeking the same protection as Georgia had secured at Poti, they strove in entice the two European states by pointing to the potential resources of Armenia. They asserted that, unless the Turks were forced to retreat, the Armenian economy would be totally destroyed, thus depriving the Central Powers of a valuable source of raw materials. The situation would be considerably alleviated by the presence in Yerevan of one or two German or Austrian battalions. The humble petitioners also applied directly to the Ottoman government to permit the repatriation of several hundred thousand refugees, to foster good neighbourly relation by acceding to the boundary established at Brest-Litovsk, and to support Armenia in its territorial disputes with the other states of Transcaucasia. Furthermore, were the Sublime Porte to succeed in convincing Germany to recognise the Armenian Republic, as Turkey had done at Batum, Soviet Russia would be more likely to grant recognition. Meanwhile, other envoys established political relations with the White Armies of South Russia and with the Central Rada at Kiev. From these liaisons it was hoped that weapons and, in particular, grain would be procured for the exhausted Armenian nation. The suppliants, separated by distance and poor communication, worked with a singleness of purpose. The arguments employed varied from capital to capital and from week to week. The Logic of one memorandum contradicted that of another, but every move was aimed at strengthening the foundations of the Republic of Armenia.

Armenian Diplomats in Germany

Berlin was the epicentre of Armenian activities. Already in April, 1918, National Council delegates Arshak Djamalian, Gevork Melik Karageozian, and Liparit Nazariants had presented the German State Secretary for Foreign Affairs with an appeal for assistance. They had been received sympathetically and cordially. While still in Berlin, the trio had written their compatriots in Western Europe to cease the rampant anti-German agitation that pervaded every Armenian paper and periodical published on the Continent and in the Western Hemisphere. 1 Similar admonitions were permitted by Ohandjanian and Zohrabian soon after they arrived on June 3 with General von Lossow and the Georgian entourage. Having lived in Germany and being well acquainted with German governmental machinery, Hamo Ohandjanian and Arshak Zohrabian were qualified envoys of the Armenian Republic. That their reception was genial is evidenced by their having been granted an interview with Foreign Ministry officials only two days after reaching Berlin. They were allowed unlimited use of the German postal-Telegraph facilities and of the diplomatic pouch to Constantinople and Tiflis. At a time when the regular channels of communication were thoroughly unreliable or even nonexistent, the favour was no small consideration. They also obtained a German promise to coerce Turkey into honouring the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. 2 On June 9, von Kühlmann told Armenian and Georgian delegates in Berlin that steps were being taken to call a general conference to reconsider the Batum treaties. The State Secretary for Foreign Affairs made no attempt to conceal his irritation with the Ottoman rulers. 37217 In a sequel to this message, Count von Schulenburg in Tiflis notified the Armenian National Council that review of the Treaty of Batum would take place in Constantinople at the end of June and that Armenian delegates should leave immediately. 4 On June 14, with heightened hopes that German intervention would lead to the recovery of lands ceded by the treaty, the supreme Armenian administrative body dispatched Avetis Aharonian, Mikael Papadjanian, and Alexander Khatisian to the shore of the Bosporus. 5

Throughout the summer of 1918, Ohandjanian and Zohrabian, assisted by James Greenfield, subsequently the Armenian consul-general in Berlin, drew attention to the plight of the half-million Armenian refugees in the Caucasus and warned that, were they not allowed to repatriate before the onset of winter, few would be alive in the spring of 1919. Though mentioning Kars, Ardahan, or Batum would have been highly imprudent, the Armenian delegates could safely petition for the withdrawal of Turkish troops from the Yerevan and Tiflis guberniias and for German approbation of Armenia's claims to the entire province of Yerevan and the south-western and southern sectors of the Elisavetpol and Tiflis guberniias respectively. Only with the inclusion of these regions would there be a viable Armenia. The scheme of provincial repartition of Transcaucasia which had been proposed at the conferences sponsored by Vorontsov-Dashkov and Grand Duke Nicholas was now laid before the German Foreign Ministry. 6 However, the guarded optimism of the delegates at Berlin declined steadily during July and August. Reports of famine, epidemic, and violence in Armenia were thoroughly demoralising, and the promised Constantinople conference did not materialise, for the Central Powers were so much at odds that they could agree neither on the time nor on the agenda of the proposed meeting. In the Reichstag, von Kühlmann and others publicly censured the Turks for their violent acts and demanded respect for the Brest-Litovsk settlement. Ottoman leaders, on the other hand, satirised the German officials and, tenaciously clinging to the treaties of Batum, continued the drive toward Baku. 7