The result of the ill-boded war of 1920 between Armenia and Turkey, though darkening the history of the Armenian people, proved that the Armenian people could create a free and independent state and defend it. Similar defeats were witnessed in the history of the Balkan countries during the first decades of their establishment, for instance, the defeat of Serbia in 1876 and Greece in 1897, in the war against the Ottoman Empire.
On December 2, 1920, in Alexandropol, the representatives of the Armenian government were forced to accept the peace terms of the government in Ankara. Turkey not only kept Western Armenia but also annexed Kars and Ardahan in accordance to the Brest-Litovsk Treaty. Moreover, Turkey annexed the province of Igdir (where the national symbol of the Armenians, Mount Ararat, is located) and demanded the transformation of Nakhichevan into an in dependent Tartar state.
Armenia, amputated and limited to an area of barely 30,000km2, could no longer survive as an independent state constantly under threat of a Turkish attack. On the same day, December 20, 1920, the Republic of Armenia was annexed to the Soviet Union and became the Soviet Republic of Armenia. 48
The creation of the independent Armenia on May 28, 1918, is one of the most glorious moments in the history of the Armenian nation. Armenia owes a great debt to the men who made it possible and fought for it against all odds and during the most trying circumstances of 1918-1920, even though, in the end, Armenia could not exist without the cooperation of the old Russian Empire.
Thus, a new era began for the Armenian nation on the second day of December, 1920. A new page in the history of the Armenia people was turned, a history which is mournful but glorious, and which has irrevocably moulded contemporary Armenians in their attitude towards the world and towards themselves.
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