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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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Beacons of Hope

Although the dilemmas of the small, landlocked republic were to persist for many months, there was cause for guarded optimism by the end of summer, 1918. The tide of success in was had turned in favour of Britain, France, and the United States. The final victory of these nations would sweep the enemy out of the Caucasus and break the bonds that cut deeply into the flesh of the Republic. Locally, the Turkish intruders were moved periodically to grant minor favours. On August 16, for the first time in months, a train was permitted to pass from Yerevan to Tiflis. On occasion, Mehmed Ali, the Ottoman representative in Yerevan, would agree to sell Finance Minister Karjikian a carload or two of grain harvested from the Turkish-controlled outskirts of Yerevan and Etchmiadzin. In Tiflis, when Djamalian visited Abdul Kerim Pasha, the Ottoman envoy to Georgia, to offer felicitations on the Moslem holiday of Bairum, assurances were given the Armenian diplomat that everything possible was being done to permit the return of the refugees and to effect a Turkish withdrawal from the Pombak—Lori region. 101 The German government had been coxing Enver to make these concessions for some time, but invariably the response had been, "We can't permit a half-million armed enemies to pass to the rear of our army." Enver chose to ignore the German argument that these "armed enemies" were destitute women, children, and aged. 102

Abdul Kerim was not the only Ottoman officer to encourage the Armenians. Halil Pasha, Commander of the Army Group of the East, also promised to intercede. On August 30, accompanied by von Frankenstein, von Kress, and Djamalian, he paid his first official visit to Yerevan. He announced to Kachaznouni that, in accordance with instructions from Constantinople, refugees would be permitted to return up to a line 20 kilometres east of the Alexandropol-Joulfa railway. Though the area concerned was small indeed, Halil hoped that, upon his appeal to General Essad Pasha, the officer in charge of these provinces, refugees from Akhalkalak would also be allowed home. Von Frankenstein interjected that there was some inconsistency in this remark. He had already dispatched an aid, Captain Pawals, to discuss the question with Essad in Batum; however, the Third Army Commander had sent Pawals away, explaining that the matter was entirely in the hands of Halil. Branding Essad a liar, Halil angrily shouted that he had always favoured friendly relations with the Armenians and that, if he had failed in that endeavour, much of the blame rested with Essad, Vehib, Ali Ihsan, and Shevki pashas, who flooded Constantinople with unfavourable, provocative reports. Enver's sly uncle assured Kachaznouni that, on his return to Constantinople, he would strive to dispel the Armenophobe disposition that pervaded the political and military circles of the capital. 103

Turning to other Transcaucasian affairs, Halil complained that Armenian belligerence in the Baku and Elisavetpol guberniias did not at all facilitate his efforts to build friendly relations. In Baku, the Armenians had taken up arms against the advancing Turkish divisions, while in Zangezour and Karabakh they were slaughtering the Moslem populace. Kachaznouni attempted to prove that the Republic was not implicated in either problem. In compliance with the Treaty of Batum, his government had sent messengers toward Baku to arrange for the withdrawal of the Armenian forces, but the roads were blocked and the couriers were unable to reach the city. As for Andranik's activity in Zangezour, this, too, was out of the government's hands. The hero of the Western Armenians was persona non grata and would be disarmed if he entered the bounds of the Republic. Nuri Bey, whose Islamic Army headquarters were in Ganja, had refused to permit any regular Armenian units into Zangezour or Karabakh on the grounds that these were Azerbaijani territories. It was therefore unreasonable to hold the Armenian Republic responsible for events beyond its borders. 104 Halil Pasha would have been very naïve had he not doubted Kachaznouni's sincerity.

The question of Elisavetpol guberniia was broached again in a private interview between Aram, Kachaznouni, and Halil. The Premier pointed out that the population of Zangezour and Mountainous Karabakh was predominantly Armenian and that it was unjust for Azerbaijan to claim the area. Kachaznouni requested that Turkey refrain from supporting the Azerbaijani pretensions and that the final disposition 0f the territory be postponed until conclusion of the extraordinary conference between Transcaucasian republics and all four Central Powers. 105 The meeting to which he referred was the Constantinople conference, which had been called to reconsider the treaties signed at Batum. Armenia, vested with the least enviable position of the three Transcaucasian states, hoped that, with German support, the Republic would be permitted to expand. At present it encompassed only those lands not seriously disputed by its neighbours. The Republic's leaders were fully aware that expansion was much more dependent on events evolving in Berlin, Vienna, and Constantinople than in Tiflis, Ganja, and Yerevan. The most competent diplomats of Armenia were at work not in Transcaucasia, but in Europe.