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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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Armenia and the Allies

When Germany and its allies, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey, surrendered in the autumn of 1918, it seemed indubitable that the great victorious powers would repay the debt owed to Armenia and rebuild the country. The foremost politicians in the allied countries, such as A. Bulfor, G. Clemenceau, Lloyd-George, P. Pnelvo, R. Poache, A. Brian and President Woodrow Wilson, during 1917 and 1918, put the Armenian Question regarding Azals, Lorn, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia as the first matters to be addressed.

As on previous occasions, however, it transpired that these promises were false. Winston Churchill described the general atmosphere at that time and the tragic helplessness in this question when he wrote: "It seems that the moment has come for the Armenians to find the justice and the right to existence in peace and safety in their ethnical cradle. They who were their oppressors have been defeated by revolution and war. The victorious major powers were their allies and it was they who were supposed to see that justice is done. It seemed completely impossible that five great allied powers would not be able to carry out their will. Nonetheless, it is exactly what happened, since when the victorious powers in the Paris Conference came to the Armenian Question, their cooperation and consent were already shattered, their armies were dispersed and they had put down their weapons, and the decision of these powers no longer had any weight or respect, but was only empty words." 27

The inaction arose from the passivity of some of the major powers, and the absence of a great allied power, Russia, from the negotiating table at the Paris Conference.

The ceasefire treaty with Turkey, which England had signed in Mudros, on October 30, 1918, directly for itself and indirectly on behalf of the other allies, was the first sign that Armenia, once more, would be left to its own destiny. The treaty did compel Turkey to free all Armenian prisoners of war and political prisoners, and evacuate Transcaucasia. However, the ceasefire treaty, unlike the treaty with Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria, did not disarm Turkey. Neither the evacuation of Western Armenia by Turkey nor the conferment of Turkish war criminals to the allies were mentioned. As observed by an Arab historian, the ceasefire treaty was in reality the first sign of the allied retreat on the Armenian Question. 28

Far more ominous was the fact that, at the opening of the peace conference in Paris, there were representatives from Panama and Liberia, but not a single delegate from Armenia, which had bled for the cause of the allies.

For their questions on reform, the Armenians sent two delegations to Paris, one delegation from the Republic of Armenia, led by A. Aharonian, and one Armenian national delegation representing Western Armenia and the refugees, led by Poghos Nubar Pasha. It became apparent early on that the major powers were intent on saving the remaining shreds of the Ottoman Empire, which had always been a gold mine for European countries. One European representative, who was shot for collaboration during the Second World war, remarked: "Turkey is not only defended by its own forces, but also by the union of powers which have their eyes on it."