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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 Resurrection of Armenia

At the beginning of June, 1918, the first Armenian government since the time of the Bagratouni dynasty, was established on the Armenian highland, in Yerevan. Thus, Armenia assuredly reinstated its interrupted historical course. Parallel to the events in the fatherlands of John Hoss 17 and Sobieski 18, the country of Grigor Lousavoritch was taking shape in 1918. The creation of an independent Armenia, despite the 1915 Genocide, the unfavourable prevailing situation, was remarkable, like the contemporary founding of the Polish and Irish states.

Over one million Armenians had lost their lives so that one million could live freely. Which other people have bought their independence at such a high price? Not even Greece, which lost 300 000 souls in the struggle to ensure the existence of its small country of 700 000 inhabitants.

In this corner of the world, in an area which spanned 10 000 km 2, and a population which, with the intake of hundreds of thousands of refugees, had exploded from 300 000 in 1914 to over a million, the new Armenian government faced onerous responsibilities.

Pomble after the 1755 catastrophe in Lisbon, when asked about what he was about to do, answered: "Bury the dead, protect the alive and plan the future." That was the only option facing the Armenian government in 1918.

Despite the terrifying obstacles they faced, the new government, following the lead of the great nationalist Aram Manoukian, began its work. Famine and typhus claimed many victims until the first load of wheat from the USA arrived in the spring of 1918 and provided food for small overcrowded country. 20

The government worked with dedication and devoted its efforts to ensuring the security, organisation and rebuilding of the country. A new army was created, a university was built and the first foundations for economic development and expansion were laid. The work of the government was obstructed enormously by the refugee masses which had been forced eastward by the Turkish army and had almost all gathered within Yerevan guberniia (term for a province within the Russian Empire). The winter cold was merciless. The pitiful masses lay in the snowdrifts, inside destroyed buildings and on the steps of the churches, too weak to protest or even beg. Even the protests did not produce food since the warehouses were empty. The refugees lived in the "land of the walking dead", waiting with hollow faces and swollen bellies for the final deliverance. And death came. It claimed thousands upon thousands of refugees, as well as previous inhabitants. Many who resisted the famine were swept away by the ravaging epidemics. Typhus was the main murderer which struck every district and every age group, taking the majority of its victims from among the children. During the winter of 1918-1919, almost 200 000 Armenians – 20 percent of the population in the Republic of Armenia – lost their lives to the three-headed beast of cold, famine and plague. In 1919, per 1 000 people, 8.7 children were born, while 204.2 died. The genocide had not ended, yet.