In the words of one of the ARF leaders, Ruben Ter-Minasyan: “Even though the Republic of Yerevan was independent in 1918 and even though the ideology of a United and Independent Armenia was proposed in1919, those were in fact only incomprehensibl and empty words for the majority of the RussianArmenians. Even for state establishments and many of their representatives, the independence acquired was a temporary phenomenon. Armenia was considered a part of Russian territory and even the Armenian army a part of the Russian army.”
The first government (cabinet) of Armenia formed in Tiflis (Tbilisi), and the Armenian National Council only reluctantly moved to Yerevan. In Vratsyan’s words the members of the Council “did not want to part from Tiflis.” There were heated arguments during consecutive sessions. “Moving to Yerevan was unacceptable to many.” The issue of moving to Yerevan was firmly raised during the joint session of the National Council and the government.
The ARF demanded that the National Council and the government immediately move to Yerevan with their entire structure.
The Armenian Popular Party proposed sending a delegation to Yerevan and forming a local government and keeping the Armenian National Council, as a national body, in Tiflis.
The Socialist Revolutionaries were proposing sending the National Council and government to Yerevan to form Armenia’s local authorities, after which the National Council would return to Tiflis and this wealthy country in the Caucasus, to remain as a “general national authority.”
In the beginning, the Social Democrats were for moving to Yerevan, but after a short while they started “hesitating.” Kajaznuni announced that should the National Council remain in Tiflis or should two National Councils be formed, he would resign from his position as Prime Minister. With seven for and five against votes it was decided to move the National Council and government to Yerevan.
On July 17, the National Council and the government moved to Yerevan from Tiflis. From Sanahin station onwards, the railway was in the hands of the Turks and passing through Alexandrapol was dangerous. It was decided to move from Tiflis to Aghstafa and reach Yerevan, the dusty and poor capital city of the newly-formed republic, via Dilijan. Kajaznuni, Khachatur Karjikyan (Minister of Finance), General Hovhannes Hakhverdyan (Minister of War), and the members of the National Council were amongst those departing. Two German and one Turkish officer were leaving for Yerevan with them.
Artashes Babalyan writes, “The Georgian government displayed a rough and uncivilised attitude. They did not provide wagons on time and they did not allow us to take the National Council’s few old and worn-out vehicles. Only after long negations did they allow us to put a few necessary items and vehicles on the train. None of the representatives of the Georgian authorities had come to bid us farewell. The Armenian general public was totally indifferent. We received a warm welcome from Azerbaijan’s authorities, in Ghazakh.”
From Ghazakh the delegation reached Karvansara (Ijevan) and Dilijan in the evening. It had been proposed in Tiflis that Kajaznuni and Khatisyan be candidates for the post of Prime Minister and that there should not be a single-party government. However, the Populists demanded the post of the Prime Minister, putting forward the candidacy of Papajanyan. They said that the Turks did not trust the ARF and that they would create difficulties. Kajaznuni proposed the candidacy of Populists Papajanyan and Samson Harutyunyan for the post of Foreign Affairs Minister, but they both refused. Kajaznuni had no other choice but to form a single-party government. The delegation reached Yerevan on July 19.
Arshavir Shahkhatuni, the commandant of Yerevan, writes, “At three o’clock the battalions were standing at the head of Abovian Street, at St. Sargis Church. Aram arrived by car and announced that the government was coming. Several minutes later the governmental group with their vehicles appeared at the corner of the main avenue. I ordered, ‘Ceremonial parade, ready, salute!’ And, drawing my sword out of its sheath, I approached the members of the government, together with fifty cavalrymen. I lowered my sword in front of Armenia’s Prime Minister, while my horse was rearing up on two legs. I said, ‘Your Excellency, as the Military Commander of the capital city of Armenia, I welcome your arrival. I am immensely happy that after many centuries I am the first officer lowering his sword in front of his government. At this moment I am proudly putting my sword back in its sheath and will take it out when you give the command to defend our unmatched homeland’. Kajaznuni replied very emotionally, just holding back his tears. This is how the entrance of Armenia’s first government into Yerevan took place.”
Kajaznuni’s government had four ministers: Manukyan (Internal Affairs), Khatisyan (Foreign Affairs), Hakhverdyan, and Karjikyan. All, apart from Hakhverdyan, were members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation – Dashnaktsutyun Party. Prior to departing for Yerevan, Kajaznuni and the National Council had appointed Armenia’s diplomatic representatives in several locations: Arshak Jamalyan in Georgia, Hovhannes Saghatelyan at the Russian volunteer army, Grigor Dzamoyan at the Alexander Kolchak army, and Simon Vratsyan to the governments of Kuban and Don.
Prior to Armenia’s government moving to Yerevan, Aram was governing the republic. He had carried out vast organisational works aimed at creating state structures and establishing law and order. It was necessary to create a state apparatus, a legal system, to bring the country out of anarchy, provide the migrants with food, resolve border conflicts with neighbours and settle the internal revolts of the Muslims which were aimed at the Armenian majority and their newly-appointed government. The largest and most effective power in Armenia and, generally speaking, in the Armenian worldwas the ARF, which carried the entire political responsibility of the newly-independent republic on its shoulders.
Although peace had been signed in Batum, the Armenians and Turks interpreted the subject matter of the treaty differently. In order to resolve issues connected with the treaty, the National Council of Yerevan sent a special delegation to Alexandrapol headed by Mkrtich Musinyan, who was assigned to negotiate with Turkish commander Kâzim Karabekir around several issues arising from the Batum treaty: the return of the refugees to their homes, the exchange of hostages, the conditions for the Turkish army to pass through Armenia, the issue of handing over the railway, and relinquishing Gharakilisa to the Armenians. The Turks did not accept the demands of the Armenians. On July 7, without interrupting the Alexandrapol negotiations, the Turks once again moved forward towards Sardarapat. Silikyan ordered the army to leave the railway and take position in the region of Etchmiadzin. The trench battles continued until July 9 when the Turks occupied positions seven kilometres away from Yerevan, directing their artillery towards the capital city of Armenia.
Those were difficult and troubling days. Without the knowledge of Yerevan’s National Council, the Georgian National Council had declared independence in Tiflis, and a small Armenia around Mount Ararat, under the forceful and alert control of Aram, was living gloomy days of uncertain destiny, writes Vahan Navasardyan, one of the ARF figures of that time. It was an exceptional situation surrounded on all four sides by a round chain, deprived of almost all means of communication with the outside world. It was a country in which the Foreign Affairs Minister held the title only because it is hard to imagine a government without such apposition. Encircled and chained by Turkish armies and a Muslim Tatar population, Armenia was living by itself, with its thoughts and sufferings, condemned to the horror of a doomed future.
In Vratsyan’s words, during those days Armenia was a “mound of formless chaos and ruins.”
“The birth of the republic was not welcomed with sounds of joy and applause. On the contrary, for many it was viewed as an untimely birth. Some could not believe in it; they put the words ‘independence’ and ‘republic’ in brackets. And the bases to do so were very strong. The conditions were truly horrifying and independence seemed ironic in those conditions. A tiny piece of land, twelve thousand square kilometres, was left in the hands of the Armenians. A poor and semi-destroyed country squeezed between arid mountains, in a forsaken corner of the world, overloaded with migrants and orphans, surrounded by teeth-grinding enemies, without bread, without medication, and without help; hunger and epidemic, looting and ravage, tears and misery, massacre and terror. On the other hand, there was the triumphant army of Enver, inspired by pan-Turkist dreams which aimed towards Absheron and Turkestan through Armenia. Such was the situation in Armenia, while there was total chaos in Tiflis. After May 26, Armenian-Georgian relations had become tense. The Georgians, high on their independence and German support, were treating the Armenians, clutching at the hem of Russia’s robes, with enmity. The Armenians, in their turn, considered the Georgians conspirators and traitors.”
The humble birth of Armenia was preceded by the collapse of the Tsarist regime in Russia. And so, in May 1918, the Republic of Armenia was declared on a small piece of Armenian land attached to Russia – about nine centuries and more than five hundred years after the fall of the Bagratid Armenian kingdom and the Armenian state of Cilicia respectively. Although in the following months Armenia was going to gradually expand, turning from formless chaos into a true republic, the Armenian regions under the military-political control of the Ottoman Empire and the Kemalists never did become a part of Armenia’s republic.
More than ninety years later, and today the Armenian dream to have a “Free, Independent, and United Armenia” continues to crumble on the slopes of Ararat.
From TATUL HAKOBYAN‘s book ARMENIANs and TURKs
Image – The Government building of the First Armenian Republic, 1918-1920/21
