The "Provisional Government's Arrangement about Western Armenia"
Soon after the March Revolution, Dr. Zavriev, utilizing his close association with members of Prince Lvov's cabinet, requested that the new Russian administration nullify the 1916 tsarist act, which reeked with Armenophobe overtones. 58 The gratifying response to Zavriev's appeal was the appearance in the official organ, Vestnik Vremennago pravitel'sva, of the "Provisional Government's Arrangement about Western Armenia," dated April 26 [May 9], 1917, and signed by Minister-President Lvov and Foreign Minister Miliukov:
- The land of Western Armenia, insofar as the civil administration taken over by Russian forces is concerned, is removed from the jurisdiction of Caucasian administrative bodies and of the military authorities of the Caucasus front, and is subject directly to the Provisional Government,
- The powers mentioned in the Article I, as well as the prerogatives granted the governor-general for the administration of these Western [Turkish] Armenian regions by the temporary law of June [18], 1916, are entrusted by the Provisional Government to its appointed General Commissar for Western Armenia.
- The General Commissar of Western Armenia will have an assistant to deal with civil affairs.
- The General Commissar, in pursuance of a report from his assistant fro civil affairs, will immediately submit to the Provisional Government his proposal for desirable additions to or changes in the June 5 [18], 1916, temporary law concerning the administration of the Western Armenian regions. 59
For the realisation of Armenian aspirations, the decree was an impressive victory. The occupied territories were to be removed from the area of Ozakom and Transcaucasian rivalries and administered directly by the central government. Though not specifically mentioned, the appointment of Dr. Zavriev as the civil assistant to the General Commissar had already been approved in Petrograd. Soon after publication of the decree, that choice as well as the selection of aged and amiable General P. Averianov to the post of General Commissar received official confirmation, the new administrators of Western Armenia divided the area into the provinces of Van, Erzurum, Bitlis, and Trabizond, retaining whenever possible the already established internal boundaries. Now the Armenians enjoyed a taste of officialdom, for they assumed most civil positions created by the Commissar of his assistant. The government of Van and Bitlis was without exaggeration an Armenian monopoly. Because appointed superior Russian officials rarely left Tiflis, the Western Armenians were granted even greater opportunities to gain from the ruling experience. 60 If the military front could be stabilised and the war advantageously concluded, the revival of the Plateau seemed at hand.
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