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Democratic Republic of Armenia
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The Democratic Republic of Armenia (DRA; ; also known as the First Republic of Armenia), 1918–1920, was the first modern establishment of an Armenian republic. The collapse of the Russian Tsarist empire with the Russian Revolution of 1917 gave chance to the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (also known as the ARF or Dashnaktsutyun) to create the new republic which the leadership and the 103 of delegates from former Romanov realm (total 203) belonged to the party..
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The Democratic Republic of Armenia (DRA; ; also known as the First Republic of Armenia), 1918–1920, was the first modern establishment of an Armenian republic. The collapse of the Russian Tsarist empire with the Russian Revolution of 1917 gave chance to the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (also known as the ARF or Dashnaktsutyun) to create the new republic which the leadership and the 103 of delegates from former Romanov realm (total 203) belonged to the party.. When it was established borders were with the Democratic Republic of Georgia in the north, the Ottoman Empire to the west, the Persian Empire to the south, and Azerbaijan Democratic Republic to the east.
Establishment
During July 1914, the Armenians established negotiations with the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) of Ottoman Empire and Tsar of Russia at the Armenian congress at Erzurum. The public conclusion of this congress was "Ostensibly conducted to peaceful advance Armenian demands by legitimate means". Russian Armenian reservists had already been drafted into the Russian Armed forces and dispatched to European theatre of World War I. Count Illarion Ivanovich Vorontsov-Dashkov consulted with the Mayor of Tbilisi Alexandre Khatsian, the primate of Tbilisi, Bishop Mesrop, and the prominent civic leader Dr. Hakob Zavriev about the creation of Armenian volunteer detachments.. This force made up from Armenians who were not obligated to serve or who were not citizens of the Russian Empire, as the Russian Armenians at appropriate age was already mobilized.
During December 1914, Nicholas II of Russia visited the Caucasus. Telling to the head of the Armenian Church along the president of the Alexander Khatisyan of the Armenian National Bureau in Tiflis that "From all countries Armenians are hurrying to enter the ranks of the glorious Russian Army, with their blood to serve the victory of the Russian Army... Let the Russian flag wave freely over the Dardanelles and the Bosporus, Let your will the peoples [Armenian] remaining under the Turkish yoke receive freedom. Let the Armenian people of Turkey who have suffered for the faith of Christ received resurrection for a new free life ...". The Russian army had made progress on the Caucasus Front, advancing as far as the city of Erzerum in 1916 with the help of Armenian volunteer units.
On May 1915, General Nikolai Yudenich received the keys to the city and citadel of Van after the Russian relief to Van Resistance and following the subsequent occupation Western Armenia and confirmation of Administration for Western Armenia. This gave hope for the liberation of Western Armenia from Ottoman Turkish rule. However, Yudenich reported the following to Count Illarion Ivanovich Vorontsov-Dashkov:
On March 18, 1917, The Viceroyalty of the Caucasus was abolished by the Russian Provisional Government and all authority, except in the zone of the active army, was entrusted to the civil administrative body called the Special Transcaucasian Committee, or Ozakom. Hakob Zavriev was instrumental in having Ozakom issue a decree about the administration of the occupied territories. This region was officially identified as "the land of Turkish Armenia" and transferred to a civilian rule under Zavriev, who oversaw districts Trebizon, Erzurum, Bitlis, and Van. Each of the districts had their own Armenian governor, with Armenian civil officials.
In October 1917, things took a turn for the worst, when the Bolsheviks seized power from the Provisional Government that was governing Russia and announced that they would be withdrawing troops from both the Western Front and the Caucasus. The Georgians, Armenians and Muslims of the Caucasus, however, rejected the Bolsheviks' legitimacy. Armenians decided to have a summit to consider their future. The Armenian Congress of Eastern Armenians was the upper echelon which united the Armenian National Council of Karabakh, Armenian National Council of Baku, Armenian National Council of Tiflis. The Council worked like a provisional government, with ministries of military, refugees, health and education. It was based in Yerevan. Its decisions were accepted as Armenian decisions; given the conditions it was the best "plenipotentiary" representative parlementery system of the eastern Armenians. It send a member of the Special Transcaucasian Committee. It negotiated with the Ottoman Empire.
Armenian National Forces
The Eastern Armenian leaders at the Erivan established Armenian Army Corps. General Nazarbekov was selected as the Commanding Officer. Erivan assigned 1th Division under General Christophor Araratov into 1st regiment Erzurum-Erzinjan, 2nd Regiment Khnus, 3rd Regiment Yerevan, and 4th Regiment Erzinjan and Yerevan. Erivan also assigned Colonel Movses Silikyan to 2nd Division with 5th Regiment Van, 6th Regiment Yerevan, 7th and 8th Regiments to Alexandropol. The Chief of Staff of the Armenian Crops was General Vickinski. The divisions which comprise four regiments each, had also three regular and one depot regiment. Their total strength is 32,000 enlisted men. Besides these regular structures enabled man was also armed. A 40 to 50 thousand strong force formed from this armed civilian population. Infantry weapons were Russian rifles. A few auxiliary, quartermaster, medical, and garrison units completed the structure of the new armed force. Besides the Erivan forces the Western Armenian Administration sponsored a conference which adopted plans to form a twenty-thousand-man militia under Andranik in December, 1917. The 1st brigade of Andranik's division was composed of the Erzinjan and Erzurum regiments; the 2nd, of the Khnus and Alashkert regiments; and the 3rd, of the Van and mounted Zeytoun regiments. Civilian commissioner Dr. Hakob Zavriev promoted Adrianik to Major General.
In March 1918, Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Ottoman Empire allowed to regain the Western Armenian provinces and even were even allowed to take over Batum and the Russian Armenian provinces of Kars and Ardahan. In addition to these provisions, a secret clause was inserted which obligated the Armenians and Russians to demobilize their forces in both western and eastern Armenia. Having massacred and deported the Armenians of western Armenia during the Armenian Genocide, the Ottoman Empire now set its sights on eliminating the Armenian population of eastern Armenia.
During April 1918, Third Army advanced and took Erzerum and Kars. General Tovmas Nazarbekian was the commander on the Caucasus Campaign and Andranik Toros Ozanian took the command of Armenia within the Ottoman Empire. Under heavy pressure the forces withdraw from Erzincan to Erzurum. Van was abandoned as well in 1918. Vehib Pasha also occupied Trabzon, where the Russians had left huge quantities of supplies. The Republicans in the end were evacuated from Erzurum and Sarikamis after resisting at the Battle of Kara Killisse (1918), the Battle of Sardarapat, and Battle of Bash Abaran.
As the Third Army advanced towards Batum, the Georgians sought and received protection from Germany, declaring Democratic Republic of Georgia's independence on May 26. On May 27, the Muslim National Council in Tiflis announced the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan.
Declaration of Republic
On May 28, having been abandoned by its regional allies, the Armenian National Council, based in Tiflis and led by Russian Armenian intellectuals that represented Armenian interests in the Caucasus, declared thier independence. On May 30, 1918 the Armenian Revolutionary Federation had decided that Armenia should be a republic under a provisional coalition government. The declaration stated that the Republic of Armenia was to be a self-governing state, endowed with a constitution, the supremacy of state authority, independence, sovereignty, and plenipotentiary power. Hovhannes Kachaznuni became the country's first Prime Minister and Aram Manougian was the first minister of Interior. It dispatched Hovhannes Kachaznuni and Alexander Khatisyan, both members of the ARF, to Yerevan to take over power from the Armenian Congress of Eastern Armenians and issued the following statement on May 30:
Armenia established a Ministry of Interior, creating a police force. However, an Armenian police forced had been created earlier in 1918 before the declaration of the state. The Interior Ministry was also responsible for communications and telegraph, railroad, and the public school system, in addition to enforcing law and order. The reforms come soon and each of these departments became ministries and the Armenian parliament passed a law on the police on April 21, 1920, specifying its structure, jurisdiction, and responsibilities.
During June 1918, Republic engaged at many fronts Georgian–Armenian War 1918, Armenian–Azerbaijani War and the worst of all Caucasus Campaign which the Third Army decided to eliminate the center of Armenian resistance based in Yerevan. The treaty of Treaty of Batum with the Ottoman Empire become a stunning defeat, which the new republic was left with a mere 4,400 square kilometers.
In 1919, the leaders of the Republic had to deal with issues on three fronts: domestic, regional, and international. The Armenian Congress of Eastern Armenians that took control in 1918 fell apart and in June 1919, the first national elections were held. The establishment of law was a problem: Armenians had the most organized structure in their homeland; however, it was undeniable that several other ethnic groups had been settled for many centuries in these lands (Kurds and Azeris were the major ones). January 1919 was an important milestone as the first university was founded.
During 1920s, which began under the premiership of Kachaznuni, Armenians from the former Russian Empire and United States developed the judicial system.
Geography
In 1920, the DRA administered an area that covered most of present-day Armenia, and Kars, Igdir, Çildir and Göle districts of Ardahan, while the regions of Nakhchivan, Nagorno-Karabakh, Zangezur (today the Armenian province of Syunik), and Qazakh were disputed and fought over with Azerbaijan. The Oltu region (shortly administered by Georgia in 1920) was also claimed by the DRA. The majority-Armenian area of Lori was disputed with and administered by Georgia. The Muslim-populated districts to the south of Erevan refused to acknowledge the authority and officials of the Armenian republic and, with arms and money from Turkey and Azerbaijan, maintained a semiautonomous existence.
Population
Before World War I, in 1914, the Armenian Republic was part of Russian Armenia and among the total Armenian population of 2,800,000, only about 1,500,000 were in the Ottoman Empire, and the remainder were in the Russian Armenia. During 1918, the new Armenian Republic's initial year, Armenia had many migrations (population re-locations). An estimate in 1918, to have 800,000 Armenians and more than 100,000 Muslims which includes mostly Osmanli or Ottoman Turks in Kars, and Azeri Turks and Kurds everywhere else.
The estimate of 1918, of the 800,000 Armenians, about 500,000 were native Russian Armenians and 300,000 were destitute and starving refugees fleeing from the massacres that took place in the Ottoman Empire. Surviving Armenian population in 1919 was 2,500,000 and 2,000,000 were distributed in the Caucasus. Out of these 2,000.000 in the Caucasus, 1,300,000 were to be found within the boundaries of the new Republic of Armenia, which included the plus 300,000 to 350,000 refugees escaped from Ottoman Empire. That is 1,650,000 Armenians in the new Republic. Also added to this Armenian population 350,000 to 400,000 other nationalities, and a total population of about 2,000,000 within the Armenian Republic.
Refugee problem
There was also an Armenian settlement problem that also brought conflict with other ethnic residents. In all, there were over 300,000 embittered and impatient Armenian refugees escaping from the Ottoman Empire which were now the government's responsibility. This proved an insurmountable humanitarian issue for it. Typhus was also a major sickness, because of its effect on children. Conditions in the outlying regions, not necessarily consisting of refugees, weren't any better. The Ottoman governing structure and Russian army had already withdrawn from the region. Armenian government had neither time, nor resources, to rebuild the infrastructure. The 393,700 refugees were under their jurisdiction as follows:
| Districts | Erivan | Ashtarak | Akhta-Elenovka | Bash-Grani | Novo-Bayazit | Daralagiaz | Bash-Abaran | Etchmiadzin | Karakilisa | Dilijan |
|---|
| Number of refugees | 75,000 | 30,000 | 22,000 | 15,000 | 38,000 | 36,000 | 35,000 | 70,000 | 16,000 | 13,000 |
The government of Hovhannes Kachaznuni faced with a most sobering reality in the winter of 1918-19. The newly formed government was responsible for over half a million Armenian refugees in the Caucasus. It was a long and harsh winter. The homeless masses, lacking food, clothing, and medicine had to endure the elements. Many who survived the exposure and famine, succumbed to the ravaging diseases. By the spring of 1919, the typhus epidemic had run its course, the weather improved and the first American Committee for Relief in the Near East shipment of wheat reached Batum. The British army transported the aid to Yerevan. Yet by that time some 150,000 of the refugees had perished. Vratsian, Hanrapetium put this figure at around 180,000. That was nearly 20% of the entire nascent Republic. A report in early 1919 noted that the lives had been claimed of: 65% of the population of Sardarabad, 40% of the population of eight villages near Etchmiadzin, 25% of the population of Ashtarak.
Foreign relations
Georgian-Armenian war
In December 1918, Armenia and Georgia engaged with Georgian–Armenian War 1918, which was a brief military conflict over the disputed marshlands in the largely Armenian-populated Lori district along with some other neighboring regions. It was claimed by both nations but had been taken by Georgia after the Ottomans' evacuation of the area. The fighting continued with varying success for two weeks. Despite initial success, Armenian offensive under Drastamat Kanayan was finally halted and the war ended through the British mediation, establishing a joint Armeno-Georgian civil administration in the "Lori neutral zone" or the "Shulavera Condominium.
Armenian-Azerbaijan War
This period started with the declaration of Armenia and Azerbaijan as separate states. Just after the Russian Revolution of 1917 these groups engaged Armenian-Azerbaijani War. It can be distinguished as a series of brutal and hard to classify wars (1918, then again, 1920 to 1922).
In Baku, the Bolsheviks joined forces with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation to fight joint Azerbajani and Turkish Army of Islam. On July 26 1918, Bolsheviks were clearly outvoted in the Baku Soviet and were forced out of power. A new government, known as Central Caspian Dictatorship (Diktatura Tsentrokaspiya) was formed with the Armenian representation, and 1,000 strong British forces under General Lionel Dunsterville entered Baku the same day. However they were defeated, and had to evacuate from Baku, which became the capital of Azerbaijan. The Baku Commissar Stepan Shahumyan was executed by SRs in Krasnovodsk in September 1918.
South West Caucasian Republic
While the problem at Baku was developing, South West Caucasian Republic was a new state headed by Fakhr al-Din Pirioghlu and centered in Kars. Its territory was to include the regions of Kars and Batum, parts of the Erivan district in the province of the same name, and the Akhaltsikhe and Akhalkalaki districts of the Tiflis province. It existed alongside with the British general governorship created during the Entente's intervention in Transcaucasia. It was abolished by British High Commissioner Admiral Somerset Arthur Gough-Calthorpe and the region was assigned to ADR.
End of WWI
Paris Peace Conference
Democratic Republic of Armenia send a representative to Paris Peace Conference, 1919. The conference opened with Japan, China, India, Persia, Arabia, Syria, and Armenia. Very few of the representatives of the small nations had the access to the principal peace negotiators which Armenia had. The great Conference failed to see that Armenia had been deserted from the time it was left, according to the terms of the Armistice of Mudros, Armenia was seen as Ottoman territory, because the Allies did not occupy it during the war. This view did changed with the Treaty of Sèvres with the Wilsonian Armenia which is a boundary configuration for a proposed Armenian state drawn up by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson for the Treaty of Sèvres.
Treaty of Sèvres
The Treaty of Sèvres was signed between the Allied and Associated Powers and Ottoman Empire at Sèvres, France on August 10, 1920. The treaty had a clause on Armenia. It made all parties signing the treaty to recognize Armenia as a free and independent State. The borders drawn for the republic on the treaty reflected the efforts given by Armenians upon the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the Caucasus Campaign. This treaty was signed by the Ottoman Government, but Sultan Mehmed VI never signed the treaty; hence the treaty had never come into effect. Turkish Revolutionaries began a Turkish National Movement which, in turn, sought to crush the republic.
Turkish-Armenian War and Sovietization
The Turkish Revolutionaries claimed that the Turks inside DRA were being mistreated and oppressed by the Armenians. On September 20, 1920, Turkish General Kazim Karabekir invaded the borders delineated by the United States. In response, the DRA declared war on Turkey on September 24 and the Turkish-Armenian War began. In the regions of Oltu, Sarikamis, Kars, Alexandropol (Gyumri) Armenian forces clashed with those of Turkish Karabekir. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk then sent several delegations to Moscow in search of an alliance. This proved disastrous for the Armenians.
Armenia gave way to communist power in late 1920. In September 1920, the Turkish revolutionaries moved in on the capital. First an armistice was concluded, on November 18, and then a full peace treaty - Treaty of Alexandropol on 2nd and/or 3rd of December 1920.
During that time, the Soviet 11th Red Army invasion started on the 29th of November 1920. The actual transfer of power took place on December 2 in Yerevan. Armenian leadership approved an ultimatum, presented to it by the Soviet plenipotentiary Boris Legran - who was at work as one of major Russian diplomats on Caucasus at that time. Armenia decided to join the Soviet sphere, while the Soviet Russia agreed to protect its remaining territory from the advancing Turkish army. Soviets also pledged to take steps to rebuild the army, protect the Armenians, not to pursue non-communist Armenians, etc.
When on December 4, 1920 the Red Army entered Yerevan, the government of Armenian Republic effectively stopped working. On December 5, the Armenian Revolutionary Committee (Revkom; made up of mostly Armenians from Azerbaijan) also entered the city. Finally, on the following day, December 6, Felix Dzerzhinsky's dreaded secret police, the Cheka, entered Yerevan, thus effectively ending the existence of the Democratic Republic of Armenia. At that point what was left of Armenia was under the control of a communist government. The part occupied by Turkey remained for the most part theirs - by the subsequent Treaty of Kars. Soon, the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed, under the leadership of Alexander Miasnikyan. It was to be included into the newly created Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic.
Footnotes
Further reading
- Hovannisian, Richard G. The Republic of Armenia. Four volumes. Berkley: University of California Press, (1971-1996).
- Kazemzadeh, Firuz. The Struggle for Transcaucasia, 1917-1921, (1951) New York, Oxford: Philosophical Library.
See also
External links
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