The Armenian Question Before the Peace Conference 1919

THE ARMENIAN QUESTION

Before the Peace’ Conference

A Memorandum

Presented Officially by the Representatives of Armenia to the Peace Conference at Versailles, on February 26th, 1919

The Armenian Question Before the Peace Conference 1919 (pdf version)

THE ARMENIAN QUESTION

Before the Peace Conference*

In the name of the entire Armenian nation, whose elected Delegates from Armenia and from all the other parts of the world are now assembled in Conference in Paris, the Armenian National Delegation has the honor to submit to the Peace Conference this Memorandum, which summarizes the claims and aspirations of the Armenian Nation.

* * *

After centuries of oppression and of suffering-, our nation, at the end of the World War, finds itself torn up and bleeding, but vibrating with life and determined with a faith stronger than ever before to set itself free and to attain the realization of its national ideal through the victory of the Associated Powers, which have inscribed on their banners the principles of Right, of Justice and of the right of peoples to dispose of their own destiny.

Relying upon these great principles, the Armenian National Delegation, interpreting the unanimous will of the entire nation, a part of which has already constituted itself into an Independent Republic in the Caucasus, proclaimed the independence of Integral Armenia and brought that fact to the attention of the Allied Governments by a note dated November 30, 1918.

Armenia has won her right to independence by her voluntary and spontaneous participation in the war on the three fronts of the Caucasus, of Syria and of France, and by the sacrifice of hundreds and thousands of men, women and children who fell victim for her fidelity to the Entente cause, which she regarded, from the beginning, as her own cause. On the fields of battle, through massacre and deportation, Armenia has proportionately paid in this war a heavier tribute to death than any other belligerent nation.

The victory of the Allies has freed her from the yoke of her oppressors, and her sufferings would have sufficed to justify her claim to independence; but as the following outline of facts will show, she has other meritorious claims of historical, ethnical, political and moral order to entitle her to recognition which are no less important.

* * *

The policy of the European Powers in their relation to Turkey has long been dominated by the dogma of the integrity of the Ottoman Empire. In order to reconcile this dogma of integrity with the duties which they felt they owed to the Christian peoples oppressed by the Turks, the great European States always resorted to the adoption of “REFORMS,” which were intended to benefit the non-Turkish peoples and to secure for them equality of treatment, without distinction of race or creed.

Events proved dearly the absolute fallacy of the policy pursued by Europe. The Turks, Old and Young, saw in these “REFORMS” but the means by which to hoodwink Europe, and, indeed, by skillfully playing the rivalries of the Powers, uniformly evaded their execution. Under these circumstances, the Christian populations became objects of suspicion by the Sublime Porte and, consequently, found themselves in a more precarious condition than they were at the height of the Ottoman Power.

The history of Armenia under Ottoman domination for the last six centuries has been but one long martyrdom, with periodic massacres. And these persecutions assumed a particularly grave character, during the last fifty years, since the Armenians demanded relief from these intolerable conditions.

The Treaties of San-Stefano (1877) and of Berlin (1878), the Cyprus Convention and the Reform Measure presented to the Porte by the Ambassadors in 1895, were international projects intended to reform the abuses of the Turkish regime. But all these were found insufficient to remedy the ever-growing ills; yet European diplomacy always contented itself with half-measures. Every time Europe spoke of “Reforms,” Turkey replied by “massacres,” and Europe kept silent.

In 1908, the Armenians lent the Young Turks hearty co-operation to bring about the overthrow of the Hamidian tyranny. The Young Turks, to secure their aid, had promised them an era of “liberty, equality and fraternity.” The Armenians put faith in these promises. But within less than a year, the massacres of Adana took place, when about 20,000 Armenians were butchered. And again, the fatal policy of the maintenance of the integrity of Turkey prevented the Powers from intervention.

Finally, in 1912-13, following the Balkans War, when the London Conference was assembled for the adjustment of Balkan problems, the Great Powers, at the instance of the Armenian Nation, brought pressure to bear upon the Sublime Porte to secure the carrying out of the Reforms stipulated by Article 61 of the Treaty of Berlin.

The Ambassadors in Constantinople were charged with the duty of elaborating a definite project on the subject. The ensuing negotiations, by reason of the persistent opposition of the Turks, became long and arduous. Finally, Turkey was prevailed upon to accept a definite plan which, however, was practically robbed of its original fullness, as a result of the intervention of Germany, who had always lent her hearty support to Turkish diplomacy. This agreement, signed on February 8, 1914, was torn into bits and cast into the waste basket by the Young Turks, when Germany started the Great War.

Under these conditions the Young Turks offered to enter into an unholy compact with the Armenians: They proposed that the Armenians make common cause with the Tartars to rise in rebellion against Russia, and in return, Turkey offered Armenia autonomy. Germany undertook to guarantee the proposal of her Turkish Ally. The Armenians unhesitatingly and categorically rejected this infamous offer. The vengeance of the Young Turks, coolly premeditated and announced in advance, was terrible.

Here we shall not recite the harrowing story of the massacres, nor the damning tale of the deportations which were but cloaks for massacres. The awful tales of this revolting Turkish carnival in innocent blood are supported by an overwhelming testimony appearing in the Blue Book presented to the Parliament by Lord Bryce, in Mr. Morgenthau’s book, in that of Mr. L. Einstein, and even in the pamphlets written by Germans, namely, the report of Dr. Niepage, that of Dr. Lepsius, which has just been issued in Paris, the book of Mr. Harry Stuermer, etc. But it is of utmost importance to state here the solemn fact that this infernal scheme for the extermination of an entire nation had been methodically organized by the so-called Government, whose orders were issued by circulars and telegrams to the officials in all the Armenian Vilayets. Many of these documents have since been recovered and published. The Government of the Young Turks had left nothing to chance: murder, rapine, torture, rape, forced conversion to Islam, destruction by hunger, all had been carefully planned and carried out with ruthless savagery.

After these experiences, our cause needs no further pleading.

The Allied statesmen, by their solemn declarations, have already pledged themselves to the absolute and definite liberation of Armenia from a tyranny unexampled in history*.

The People’s War, followed by the People’s Peace, must bring to Armenia her complete and unconditional independence.

The Armenians have shed floods of blood to achieve this Independence, —not only the blood of the martyrs who have been massacred or deported and then put to death after horrible tortures, —but the blood of the volunteers and soldiers shed on the fields of battle, who fought by the side of the Allies for the liberation of their country.

Armenian volunteers fought on all the fronts. In France, in the Foreign Legion, by their bravery they covered themselves with glory. Scarcely one-tenth of their original number now survives. They fought in Syria and in Palestine, in the Legion of the Orient, under French command, where they hurried in response to the call of the National Delegation. In this Legion, the Armenians constituted the largest element, or more than one-half of the entire French contingent. There they took a leading part in the decisive victory of General Allenby, who paid high tribute to their valor. In the Caucasus, where in addition to over 150,000 Armenian men who served in the Russian army on all the fronts, an army of 50,000 men and thousands of volunteers fought throughout under the supreme command of General Nazarbekian. It was with these troops that, after the breakdown of the Russian army and the treaty of Brest-Litovsk the Armenians, deceived and deserted by the Georgians, and betrayed by the Tartars who made common cause with the Turks, took over the defense of the Caucasus front and, for a period of seven months, delayed the advance of the Turks. They thus rendered important services to the British army in Mesopotamia, as stated by Lord Cecil in an official letter addressed to Lord Bryce and in his response to an interpellation in the House of Commons. In addition, thereto, by their resistance against the Turks until the conclusion of the armistice, they forced the Turks to send troops from Palestine to the Armenian front, and thus contributed indirectly to the victory of the Allied Army in Syria.

The Armenians have been actual belligerents in this war. Their losses, during this war, exceed 1,000,000 which, for a nation of 4,500,000, are proportionately larger than those suffered by any other race or nation.

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Integral Armenia

The Armenians have been subject to Turkish rule for over five centuries, and they are now found scattered throughout the Sultan’s dominions. A great number of them, as a means of escaping the Turks’ tyranny, have emigrated to foreign lands, particularly to Russia and to America. It is quite certain that the major portion of these emigrants will return to their liberated fatherland. Therefore, in considering the subject under discussion, we must keep in mind the ante-war statistics, or better still, those that antedated the Hamidian massacres of 1894-1896, which not only destroyed 300,000 lives, but also forced the exodus of a considerable portion of the population. It is a fundamental principle of equity that a criminal shall not be suffered to profit by his own crime. The Turks’ hideous deeds, which purposed to secure numerical superiority for the Moslem elements, must not be allowed to attain their end. The voice of all the Armenians, dead and alive, must be heard. It is true that the Armenians do not constitute the majority of the population in Armenia, but they do constitute the plurality of its population. Notwithstanding emigrations and massacres, before the outbreak of the Great War, the Armenians in the six Vilayets, in the Vilayet of Trebizond and in Cilicia had a number superior to those of the Turks and the Kurds taken separately, and their number was equal to those of the Turks and Kurds combined. In 1914, there were in Armenia 1,403,000 Armenians, against 943,000 Turks and 482,000 Kurds.

Moreover, the Armenian population is not the only one that has suffered. Even during the Balkans War, the Sultan’s armies, which were principally recruited in Asia, suffered heavy losses. The present War has actually exhausted the sources from which the Sultan recruited his fighting forces. On the other hand, mortality among the Turkish civil population has assumed terrible proportions, not only in the regions that were invaded by Russia but throughout Asia, where the Moslems have been decimated by epidemics, and as a result of lack of medical care and of food.

But number alone should not be the determining factor in fixing the boundaries of our future State. Not only the rights of the dead and the degree of the civilization of the people should be considered, but the vital fact must not be lost sight of that the Armenians are the only element in Armenia capable of setting up a civilized and free State.

The Moslem and non-Armenian populations, which are to be found within the boundaries of Armenia, will enjoy the liberties to be guaranteed by the principles to be adopted by the Peace Conference.

The most important one among these populations is perhaps the Kurdish. The Kurds are divided into the Sedentary and the Nomadic tribes. The majority of them are mountaineers, who are given to rapine and destruction, and have been used by the Turkish Government as the principal agents to perpetrate massacres on the Christian populations. The standard of their political evolution is yet that of the tribal stage. An important part of these Kurds lives in the country properly designated as Kurdistan, in the southern parts of the provinces of Diarbekir and Van (Hekkiari). These regions may be detached from the Armenian State. The sedentary Kurds may remain in Armenia, of course, under the protection of equal laws.

It is, furthermore, to be noted that a great many of these Kurds are of Armenian origin and that with the removal of the Turkish influence, it will be considerably easy to cultivate and maintain solidarity between the Armenian and the Kurdish races. The Armenians, for the benefit of the two peoples, shall have the mission to offer the Kurds the advantages of modern civilization.

As for the nomadic or migratory Kurds, —to safeguard the security of the country and to restrain them from the commission of excesses, special laws shall be adopted to regulate the conditions under which they may move from place to place.

* * *

In accordance with the principles set forth, the regions which must constitute the independent State of Armenia are the following:

First: The seven Vilayets of Van, Bitlis, Diarbekir, Harpoot, Sivas, Erzerum and Trebizond (in conformity with the provisions of the Reform Measure of February, 1914), excluding therefrom the regions situated to the south of the Tigris and to the west of the Ordu-Sivas line.

Second: The four Cilician Sanjaks, i.e.: Marash, Khozan, (Sis), Djebel-Bereket, and Adana, including Alexandretta.*

Third: All the territory of the Armenian Republic of the Caucasus, comprising the province of Erivan, the southern part of the former Government of Tiflis, the southwestern part of the former Government of Elizavetpol, the province of Kars, except the region north of Ardahan (see annexed map).

ARMENIA AS IT WILL APPEAR IN THE MAP, ACCORDING TO THE TERMS OF THIS MEMODANRDUM.

Area about 125,000 square miles. Population, 4,300,000 divided approximately as follows: Armenians, 2,500,000; other Christians, 500,000; Turks, Circassians, Arabs, Persians, 500,000; Tartars, 300,000; Kurds, 200,000; Other Religions, 300,000.

On the subject of frontiers, it should be recalled that, Abdul Hamid arbitrarily juggled with the administrative boundaries of the Vilayets by incorporating into them Turkish districts or by incorporating Armenian districts into Moslem districts, with the specific purpose of assuring majority for the Moslems. To the same end, he settled Circassian colonies and other Moslem emigrants from Russia and from the Balkans in the regions inhabited by Armenians. It will, therefore, be necessary to make a general revision of boundaries. In the circumstances, we demand that a special mixed commission be charged with the mandate of rectifying and determining all the frontiers of the Armenian State, consistently with the requirements of the geographical, ethnical, historical and strategical conditions. In the Vilayet of Trebizond, which has been the seat of the Ancient Kingdom of Pontus, the number of the Greeks is superior to that of the Armenians; but the port of Trebizond is the only important outlet for the Armenian plateau to the Black Sea. Greece has no designs on this Vilayet, which is so far away from the principal centers which she claims according to the principal of self-determination; and it is in perfect agreement with the Hellenic Government, which has faced this question with a broad spirit of equity, to which we pay homage, that we demand the union of a part of the province of Trebizond with the Armenian State. Its Greek population may rest assured that the Armenian administration will secure respect for its religion and for its language, under a regime of fraternity and of just equality.

On our part, we declare that the Armenians of those regions that shall be ceded to Greece will accept with the same spirit of confidence and of loyalty the provisions that shall be made for them by the Hellenic Government.

* * *

As for Cilicia or Lesser Armenia, is it necessary to assert that it is essentially Armenian and that it has always constituted an Integral part of Armenia? It was the stronghold of the last Armenian Kingdom for about four centuries, until the day when overwhelmed by the Mamelukes of Egypt, its last King, Leon V, was carried a prisoner to Egypt, and after his liberation, came to Paris, where he lived his last days. His remains were placed in the Basilica of Saint-Denis, where his tomb is to be found today.

The region of Zeitoun, which is inhabited by hardy mountaineers, a martial and proud race, remained always attached to its national rights, and until our day enjoyed semi-independence. It is well to recall that at all times, and until today, the Catholicos of Sis, the Supreme religious head of Cilicia, has had his pontifical seat at Sis, capital of Cilicia.

The population of Cilicia is principally Armenian and Turk. The Arab element figures in it only in insignificant proportion. In 1914, there were in Cilicia 20,000 Syrians, against an Armenian population which exceeded 200,000, despite the enormous emigration forced as the result of the Adana massacres in 1909. Elsewhere, in the historical part of this Memorandum, other proofs are offered which establish beyond the shadow of a doubt our incontestable rights to Cilicia. It is, therefore, extremely difficult to understand the principle upon which the Syrian Committee bases its claim that Cilicia forms a part of Syria, and extends its frontier as far as Taurus, as is to be seen from the annexed map, published under the auspices of said Committee, and presented to the Syrian Congress at Marseilles.

We do not know of any map of the world, modern or ancient, that comprises Cilicia within Syria, of which northern boundaries are the Amanus and not the Taurus, and which reach a point to the East of Alexandretta.

The Armenian people without Cilicia, deprived of its natural ports of Mersina and Yumurtalik (Ayas), will be condemned to be confined within mountains, without direct intercourse with the Mediterranean world. That is, it will be like a man without a pair of lungs—will be asphyxiated. Its life and its future lie on the Mediterranean.

Moreover, the claim of the Syrian Committee cannot be reconciled with the agreement which was effected in 1916 between the French Government and the Armenian National Delegation, after the Delegation had been informed of that clause relative to Armenia which was inserted in the Convention concluded between the Great Powers concerning Asiatic Turkey. At the time, the National Delegation acknowledged with grateful thanks the promise made by the Powers to liberate from Turkish yoke Cilicia and the three western provinces and hastened to furnish Armenian volunteers to contribute to the deliverance of their country. More than 5000 of these volunteers were enlisted in the Legion of the Orient; whereas, the Syrians numbered between 300 and 400. Here the Armenians took a decisive part in Palestine, to which Syria owes today its liberation.

We have referred to these facts so that the Peace Conference may render its decision after having been acquainted with all the phases of the subject and according to the principle of nationalities, which it has adopted as the basis for its deliberations.

We desire, however, to state that if there exists between the Armenians and the Syrians a difference of opinion on the subject of frontiers, it shall not in the slightest degree interfere with our sentiments of friendship and of solidarity with the Syrians, strengthened by centuries of common suffering, and that we now wish to see the creation of a free and strong Syrian State as a neighbor to the Armenian State.

We demand that Armenia, within the boundaries specified, be placed tinder the collective guarantee of the Allied and Associated Powers, or tinder that of the League of Nations, which shall guarantee the integrity and the inviolability of these territories. We also request that they designate one of the Great Powers as mandatary, to aid Armenia during the first years of its existence, in establishing its Government and in the organization and development of its economic and financial systems. The aid thus to be extended by such mandatary should not be, however, even provisionally, of the nature that is given by a protecting power to a dominion or a vassal state or to a colony; that the exercise of such mandate should be in the interest of the Armenian nation, and should not in the slightest degree interfere with the independence and sovereignty of the State of Armenia.

* * *

THE ARMENIAN CLAIMS

The program of the Armenian National claims may be summarized as follows:

First: The recognition of an independent Armenian State, formed by the union of the seven Vilayets and of Cilicia, with the territories of the Armenian Republic of the Caucasus.

That Boundary Commissions, composed of the delegates of the guaranteeing powers, assisted by Armenian commissioners, be charged to fix on the spot the definitive boundaries of Armenia. These commissions shall have plenary powers to determine and dispose of all the difficulties that may present themselves with the neighboring countries in the drawing of the final map on the ground.

Second: That the Armenian State, thus constituted, be placed under the collective guarantee of the Allied Powers and the United States, or the League of Nations, of which she asks to be a member.

Third: That special mandate be given by the Peace Conference to one of the Powers to lend aid to Armenia for a provisional period. In the selection of the mandatory power, the Armenian Conference, which is now actually assembled in Paris, representing the whole Armenian nation, should be consulted. The maximum duration of the mandate should be twenty years.

Fourth: That an indemnity be fixed by the Peace Conference to repair all damages suffered by the Armenian nation through massacres, deportations, plunder and destruction of property.

Armenia, on her part, shall assume her share of the consolidated Ottoman public debt prior to the war.

Fifth: That the aiding Power be charged with the following mandate:

To bring about the evacuation by the Turks, Tartars and others of all the Armenian territories:
To carry out the general disarmament of the populations;
To expel and punish all those who have participated in the massacres, committed excesses on the population; taken part in plunder, and those who have benefited by the booty of the victims;
To expel from the country all the disturbing elements and the lawless nomadic tribes;
To return to their homes all the Mouhajirs, (Moslem colonies) who have been brought into the country during the Hamidian regime and by the Young Turks;
To take all the necessary steps within and without the country to bring back to their faith all the women and children and the forced converts and liberate those that are locked up in the harems.

Turkey must undertake to pay the full value of all the requisitions she has made and also restore, with equitable indemnity, all the real estate, wherever situated, to their rightful Armenian owners, and also the Churches, schools, monasteries with their estates, real or personal, which have been unlawfully seized from the Armenian communities under any pretext.

The Armenian religious authorities at Constantinople shall have the right to take possession of all national properties, and also of the estates of all Armenians throughout Turkey, who have died leaving no heir, and shall have power and authority to dispose of them in any manner they see fit and appropriate their revenues for the needs of their flocks.

All persons of Armenian origin, resident or naturalized in foreign countries, shall have the right to exercise option within five years, in their own name and in the names of their minor children, to assume allegiance to Armenia, after having informed, however, in writing, the proper authorities of the two countries.

* * *

The Armenians rely implicitly on the spirit of justice of the Peace Conference and feel confident that it will sanction this program of the Armenian National rights. The Powers, having now better known the Armenians, whose national sentiment, vitality and the martial qualities have been so strongly brought out in the course of this War, may repose absolute faith in them. The Powers will, of course, take into consideration the native industry and the all-around aptitudes of our race, as demonstrated in all the fields of human activity, which are the sure guarantees of its fitness and its capacity for the development of a high degree of culture and civilization.

They may rest assured that with these human qualities Armenia, under a rule of peace, of justice and of liberty and thanks to the good will and watchful aid of the League of Nations and the co-operation of the mandatory power, shall become rapidly a flourishing and prosperous State and thus become in the Orient one of the most important factors of peace and civilization.

The Armenian question is not essentially a local and national question; it concerns the peace of Europe, and upon its solution shall depend the pacification, the progress and the prosperity of the Near East.

Paris, February 12, 1919.

AHARONIAN,

President

Delegation of the Armenian Republic to the Peace Conference

BOGHOS NUBAR,

President

Armenian National Delegation

* * *

Complementary Notes

Cilicia

Syrian Committees have, for some time past, put in circulation, pamphlets and maps, by which they labor to make Cilicia a geographical part of Syria. By its history, its geography, its population and its economic relation, Cilicia is a geographical entity absolutely dependent on the high Armenian plateau and is clearly distinct and separate from Anatolia and from Syria.

All the Armenian territories constitute a high, vast plateau, protected by the mountain chains of the Little Caucasus, the Middle Armenian Pontus, the Taurus, the Anti-Taurus and their arches. Certain altitudes here attain very high proportions. Bristled with mountains and intercepted by deep valleys, the country may be compared to an entangled knot, which, by the very striking topographical affinity of its many parts, forms an entirely homogeneous and well-defined geographical unity. This is a gigantic fortress and an enormous boulevard, which extends from the eastern blind-alley of the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and which has played an important role in history. It separates the high plateau of Anatolia from the plains of Kur and from the deserts of Persia, of Mesopotamia and of Syria.

The mountains of Kurdistan and of Amanus, which are the extreme ends of the high Armenia plateau and stretch to and rest almost on the Cape of Ras-El-Khanzir, on the Mediterranean, according to modern and ancient geographers, are the barriers that separate not only Cilicia, but also the whole Anatolia from the Syrian plain. Likewise, the Anti-Taurus and the Bulgar Mountains, constitute the western boundaries of the high Armenian plateau and extend as far as Mersina, on the Mediterranean. Also, they separate the four Sanjaks of Cilicia from Asia Minor. By its hydrographical system as well. Cilicia is absolutely distinct and separate from its two neighbors, (Anatolia and Syria) and forms a natural part of the high Armenian plateau, since its three principal rivers, the Tazsus, the Sihoun and the Djihoun, have their sources in the Armenian Mountains and their outlets in the Gulf of Alexandretta. This Gulf itself, embraced by the two arms of the mountains of the high Armenian plateau, is the natural outlet to the sea.

The history of Cilicia is identical with that of the Armenian Uplands. Situated at the steppe of the high plateau, it is its natural pathway whose mastery all the Asiatic invaders have disputed. It was at the time of the Hittites that Cilicia first became independent. It was for centuries a powerful kingdom against which the Rameses and the Touthmes of Egypt strove in vain, until its final subjugation by the kings of Niniveh.

After ages of subjection to alien powers, it was during the middle part of the eleventh century that Cilicia won her independence through the Armenian people and princes who, under the pressure of the Seljukes, had retreated westerly. This Armenian kingdom lasted until the latter part of the 14th century, its frontiers expanding or contracting in the course of continual endless struggles that it had to wage against the Byzantian Empire and the Moslem Sultanates. During these wars she always enjoyed the cooperation of the Crusaders, and of the Latin Kingdoms which were founded at Antioch, at Urfa, at Cyprus and elsewhere: and by its faith, its commerce, the usages of its court, and particularly by the family ties of its Royal House, she remained always attached to the peoples of the Western World. It was finally overwhelmed under the avalanche of the Turco-Moslem invasions in 1375.

We need not dwell upon the fact that the term Syria has never been a political expression and there has never been a kingdom of Syria. The kingdom of the Seleucides was founded by Seleuces -one of the Generals of Alexander, who was Greek by race and had no Syrian national character.

A new phase of the history of Cilicia begins today. The people that are about to lay down the foundation of a new fatherland upon its ancient ruins, are not new-comers, but are the same people who lived there for centuries, fought and suffered there, and who now claim the right of possession of the soil of their ancestors. Our claim does not date from this day, but from the day when we were vanquished and brought under alien yoke.

But it should not be forgotten that Cilicia, as well as certain regions of the high Armenian Plateau, have never been fully subjected to Turkish domination. Until the middle part of the 19th Century, small Armenian Communities remained real masters of their mountain fastnesses, in perpetual combat against Ottoman domination.

The history of the region of Zeitun has been, during the last fifty years, a long series of insurrections against the yoke of the oppressors. The Zeitunians fought, in 1860, against the 12,000 soldiers of Khourchid Pasha: in 1862, against the 35,000 regular and irregular forces of Aziz Pasha, and, in 1896, they battled successfully against the army of Edhem Pasha which numbered 40,000 strong. In spite of all these attempts on the part of Turkey to impose her rule upon these hardy mountaineers. Zeitun had not been completely conquered at the time of the outbreak of the Great War. It remained the incarnation of the living protest of Armenia against the Turkish rule, as did Sassoun in another part of the Taurus Mountains.

We should not forget that, in Cilicia as in all Armenia, the massacres which were periodically organized by the Turkish Government, had for their specific purposes to stifle in blood the protests of the Armenians and to exterminate the Armenian race, which conscious of its right and of its merit, resolutely and always aspired to independence.

In Cilicia, we have a guardian of our secular rights, the Catholicos of Cilicia who, during centuries of agony and blood, has had, and still has, his Pontifficial Seat in the Royal Palace, in Sis, now in ruins, and awaits the arrival of the Armenian Government, so that he may be reestablished in his rights and the Spiritual leadership of the survivors of his martyrized people, whose number formerly exceeded one half million.

The proportion of the various elements of the population in the four Cilician Sanjaks was, before the War, similar to that in the high Armenian plateau. The principal population of the country is constituted of three elements; the Armenians, whose number exceeded 200,000, the Turks who numbered 78,000, and the Turkomans and Nomadic Kurds, who numbered about 60,000. The other populations are secondary in point of number; there are approximately 15,000 Arabs and about 20,000 Christian Syrians, in a total population of one-half million.

The composition of the population of Armenia (Armenians, Turks and Kurds) is entirely different from that of Asia Minor, of which the principal racial elements are Turks and Greeks, and from that of northern Syria, where the Arabs, Turks and Kurds predominate. The Arabs and the Christian Syrians that are to be found to the north of the Kurdish and Amanus Mountains, form together hardly 7% of the population: and also, in the four Cilician Sanjaks, (claimed by us as integral parts of Armenia) as in the Cazas (administrative sub-district) immediately adjacent thereto: whereas, within about one to two kilometers to the south of these mountains, the Arab element constitutes more than half of the population. It means that the Amanus and the Kurdish Mountains form the natural barrier where in a clear cut and well-defined fashion the limits of Syria end and those of Armenia begin.

Independently of these historical, geographical and statistical bonds, other conditions which spring from them strongly and incontestably bind the four Cilician Sanjaks with the other portions of Armenia. These are first the sentimental considerations: The seat of our last kings, covered still with the ruins of our convents and of our fortresses, where our desperate resistance was put down and our independence brought to an end, Cilicia has remained to our own day the object of the veneration and affection of Armenians. No power on earth can forever rupture or even weaken these ties. Under the heavy hand of ruthless force, a people may submit temporarily to such rupture of its vitals, but never will it resign to it and lie still for long.

To these sentimental considerations must be added the inexorable economic necessity of joining by all means this coastal zone of the Mediterranean to its Armenian hinterland. The vast continental high plateau needs, for its commercial and industrial development, an outlet to the water. To separate Armenia from this gulf, is to amputate its economic arteries—to strangle its productive forces.

We must also consider the moral factor, which is no less important. The Armenians are industrious, energetic and productive, but they are naturally influenced by the environment destiny has assigned them. They are an Aryan and Christian people, almost submerged in a sea of Turko-Moslems. By origin and in his outlook of life, the Armenian is a westerner, but he lives in contact with the Turks and the Tartars, who are the most backward peoples of the Orient. This is indeed the most tragic part of the lot of the Armenian people. Is it, therefore, to be wondered at that Armenia aspires with all the force of her soul to be closely connected with the western world, and to have an immediate and quick means of contact with the west? Hence her invincible attraction towards the blue waters of the Mediterranean, which alone can liberate and deliver her from her Asiatic confinement.

To shut this outlet (on the Mediterranean) against her face is to push her back into the arms of the Turko-Moslems world, to the customs and conditions of a hideous life to which she declines to submit, and against which she will find herself obliged to fight, until this window on the Mediterranean has been opened to her.

May we here add that, the Armenians do not claim all of the Vilayet of Adana in Cilicia, much as they are entitled to it. The region of Itchil, to the west of Mersina, where the Armenian element is to be found only in small numbers, may be left out of it.

* * *

The Population of Armenia

Up to the middle part of the Nineteenth Century, the Armenian population formed the absolute majority in Turkish Armenia. During the last fifty years, under the Hamidian and Young Turkish Regimes, hundreds of Armenian villages, of which we have the full record in our literature of that period, have disappeared. The Turkish Government has colonized the homes of the Armenians with Turk, Kurd and Circassian emigrants from the Balkans and the Caucasus. On the other hand, insecurity of life, absence of administrative justice, poverty, and the tyranny of the Turks forced a considerable number of Armenians to emigrate to Russia, to the liberated Balkan States and to America.

But, in spite of all the efforts and schemes of the Turks, the principal portion of the Armenian people remained and clung to its ancestral soil with a desperate tenacity. It has always formed, until the beginning of the World War, the most important element of the population of Armenia, not only by its intellectual superiority and its economic activity, but also by its numerical superiority over all the other elements of the population.

What was the number of the population of Armenia prior to the massacres, and what were the proportions among the various elements? Not the slightest attention should be given to Turkish data on these subjects.

No scientific census has ever been taken by the Government of the Turks and no reliable statistics on anything has ever been prepared by the Turks. The Turkish Government has always falsified statistics, with the deliberate purpose of presenting the Armenians as only an insignificant minority in Armenia.

We cite hereinbelow a few instances of these falsifications:

The Turkish Government gives as 80,000 the number of the Armenians in the Vilayet of Van. It has been established beyond the possibility of contradiction that the Armenians in this Vilayet, who have found refuge in Russian Armenia during the Great War, numbered over 220,000.

At the southern end of Armenia, in the Sanjak of Marash in Cilicia, the Turkish Government counts about 4,200 Armenians, whereas, in the City of Marash alone there are, according to Elisee Reclus, more than 20,000 Armenians, or one half of the population of the city Zeitun, which is situated in the Sanjak of Marash, with its eight villages, according to the statistics which were compiled right on the spot in 1880, had 27,460 Armenians as against 8,344 Moslems.

According to the Turkish Government statistics, there are to be found a total of 848,000 Armenians in the nine Vilayets of Van, Bitlis, Diarbekir, Harpoot, Erzerum, Trebizond, Sivas, Adana and Aleppo. Whereas, the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief, in its fifth bulletin, published in 1916, states that (be number of Armenians massacred in Armenia is between 600,000 and 850,000; the number of those deported to Zor, Aleppo and Damascus, 486,000; the number of those deported to the interior of Anatolia, 300,000, and those who have found refuge in the Caucasus, 200,000. If we add to these figures, the number of victims to cholera among the refugees in the Caucasus, that of those who have been forced to accept Islam, and the women and children who have been confined within the homes of their oppressors, we can clearly see that the figure given by the Turks is smaller than one half of the actual figures.

The customary system which the Turkish Government follows in the preparation of its statistics is this: First, without modifying materially the total number of the population it reduces, as far as possible, the number of the Christians, and then adds the difference to that of the Moslems; Second, it evades to give the precise numbers of the nationalities and classifies them in blocks according to their religion, and gives separate figures for the Orthodox, Protestant and Catholic Armenians, whereas they unite in one figure all the Moslems, including the Turks, the Tartars, the Turkomans, the different Kurdish races and tribes, the Circassians, the Zazas, the Arabs, the Persians, the Gypsies and others, without regard to the fact that, these are totally different from them by race, mode of living, degree of culture and particularly political bent.

It is on such false bases as these that all the ethnographical maps have been heretofore founded, and which, quite naturally, have not failed to influence erroneously the European public opinion.

The ethnological question of the Turkish Empire cannot be approached and studied as it is done in European Countries. It would be absolutely illogical to create political national units in Turkish Asia, based on the ethnographical condition of a given region, with the purpose of applying the principle of nationalities. In Turkey there are none but political questions; and the ethnic condition of a given region of the Empire, at a given period, presents just the effect of a political situation produced as the result of the calculated effort of the Government.

It is not logical, therefore, to take a given effect as premise in order to destroy the cause. Until the treaty of Berlin, Armenia, oppressed as she was for six centuries, presented a compact Armenian population, which formed an absolute majority. Since the conclusion of the treaty of Berlin, which was to guarantee for the Armenians security of life, and of possession, the ethnographical aspect of Armenia has been radically transformed by violence and by massacre. In comparing the statistics prepared by the Armenian Patriarchate in 1882 and 1912, it is seen that the number of Armenians in Turkey in 1882 reached 2,600,000, of which 1,680,000 were found in the six vilayets: whereas in 1912, these figures fell respectively to 2,100,000 and 1,018,000. This means a total decrease of 500,000 persons in the total number of Armenians in Turkey. As a matter of fact, the decrease in number in the six vilayets has been 662,000, which means that outside of Armenia, the number of the Armenians in Turkey had increased by 162,000. This is an eloquent evidence of the fact that the ethnographical question in Turkey functions in sympathy with and reflects the nature of the political question. The fact that in thirty years, (1882-1912), the number of the Armenians in the six vilayets, instead of increasing, has decreased by 662,000, whereas the number of the Armenians in the other parts of Turkey has increased by 162,000, clearly indicates that Turkish oppression in the other parts of Turkey has been less vigorous than in the six vilayets. To revert to the total decrease in the number of the Armenians, can we believe that this decrease has been 500,000 only? Most assuredly not. A prolific race, such as the Armenian is, should have increased during the period of thirty years by not less than 500,000. It follows then that the number of Armenians destroyed by the Turks during the period of thirty years was in reality 1,000,000, to which should be added 100,000, those who have emigrated to foreign lands as result of Turkish misrule.

One million Armenians have perished, during this War. Hence, since the treaty of Berlin, by which the Powers solemnly covenanted to guarantee the security of the Armenians, more than two million of them have been destroyed by the Turks. It is impossible to believe that the Powers, now standing on an ethnographical condition created directly by their own omission, and Turkish violence, would or could deny the purely Armenian character of Armenia.

But the ethnological situation in Turkey has not been the product of arbitrary whim during the last forty years only. It has ever been so since the foundation of the Turkish Empire. The ethnographical aspect of Turkey, since its conquest by the Turks, has invariably and uniformly represented the effect of the policy of suppression, which all the Turkish rulers adopted against the conquered races. When the Turks founded their Empire, Asia Minor proper had a compact Greek population. Today there is there a fairly compact Turkish population, with Greek infiltrations and groups along the coastal regions. What, then, has brought about this transformation? History shows that when wild tribes have invaded a civilized country, they have been assimilated by the conquered races with a superior civilization, which took place in the case of the Franks in Gaul, of Lombards in Italy, of Bulgars in Bulgaria. Turkey alone makes exception to this historical law; and this exception has been the result of a policy of massacres followed by the settlement of Turkish colonies on the lands of the victims of Turkish barbarity. In order to consolidate their military conquests, the Turks have always resorted to this mode of colonization. They have also availed themselves of other agencies to attain the same end, namely, the creation of Jannissaries and Hamidian Kurd irregulars, who were used for the destruction of Christian elements.

These considerations demonstrate that the application of the principle of nationalities in Turkey cannot be based on a given ethnographical condition, which is the direct result of the flagrant violation of that principle. The War has made it necessary to resolve the problem as it should be resolved. The ethnographical aspect of the Turkish Empire has been today radically changed from what it was four years ago. Its peoples have been transformed into nomadic masses. On what ethnographical data are we, then, to base the principle of nationalities?

Quite evidently, there is but one serious basis that can and will be considered: the historical rights of its racial elements. Speaking in the terms of ethnography, it should be recalled that, the Balkan Peoples, at the time of their restoration to independence, were confronted with the same difficulty as the Armenians are today. Armenia too should be allowed to regain her independence as did the Balkan Peoples, in realization of the principle of “Armenia for Armenians,” hallowed by six centuries of martyrdom. The ethnic situation in Armenia today is not any more precarious than that of Bulgaria was in 1876. This assertion finds a clear substantiation by the comparative table of statistics, annexed to this memorandum marked 5, the one concerning the Bulgarians in 1876, according to a report of Mr. Aubaret, Consul at Roustchouk, made to his government, and reproduced in the Bulletin De la Societe Geographique, August, 1876; and the other concerning Armenia, according to a census taken by the Armenian Patriarchate in 1912. (See annex No. 5.)

Is it necessary to recall that, Greece at the time of the declaration of her independence in 1828, contained between 300,000 and 400,000 Greeks?

But, apart from the fundamental affirmative facts in our favor, a careful examination of the ethnographical situation arbitrarily created by the Turks in Armenia shows that the essential racial element in Armenia is still today, despite the methodical massacres, the Armenian people.

If we examine the statistics prepared by the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople and also other Armenian documents, we see that the number of the Armenian population in Turkey exceeded, at the outbreak of the War, 2,000,000, of which 1,403,000 lived in Armenia (see, annex No. 2).

According to the official Russian statistics issued at the beginning of the War, the number of Armenians, which inhabited the south-Caucasus, reached 1,804,600, of which 1,296,000 lived in Armenia (Caucasian) (see. annex No. 3). If we add to these figures the number of the Armenians known to be in foreign countries, which is 823,000, we obtain a grand total of the Armenians before the War of 4,470,000 (see, annex No. 4).

Of this number, approximately 2,700,000 lived in the mother country, and more than 1,000,000 in the adjacent regions.

The number of Turks who then lived in Armenia was 1,005,000; that of Tartars, 537,000; that of Kurds and Nomadic Turkomans, 555,000; Moslems, Total, 2,308,000. Hence,

The Armenians constituted in Armenia the relative majority, or the plurality of the population;
In Turkish Armenia, they were slightly less in number than all the other Moslem elements combined;
They were considerably superior to all the Moslem elements in Turkish Armenia and in the Caucasus;
The number of the Christian peoples formed 55%, and the other religions, other than Moslem, 5%.

* * *

This War has inflicted fearful losses upon the Armenians. The losses of other peoples rarely exceed 10 percent, whereas ours represent one-quarter of the total number of the Armenians, and about one-half of the Armenians who lived in Armenia.

“There is no longer any Armenian question. We have already settled that question?” said, cynically, the Turkish Minister. “Independent Armenia? Yes, that would lie very good, but unfortunately there are no more Armenians,” repeat hypocritically our adversaries.

To admit this sort of argument would be tantamount to denial of all human justice, and an insult to the memory of millions of human beings who have been sacrificed for the victory of RIGHT. It would be putting a premium upon crime and an approval and condonation of the abominable Turkish scheme for the extermination of an entire nation.

Moreover, it is not, fortunately, true that the Armenians have been exterminated. It is true that the number of the victims may reach 1,000,000; it is true that a considerable number of the survivors who had fled elsewhere and those who had been deported have succumbed to starvation and to disease, and that the majority of those who remain have been exhausted by continuous battles and by infinite suffering; but the major portion of the nation survives, and it has but one hope and one will: to start again their home fires burning, to rebuild their hearths which are now in ruins, to go back to work, and this time, free from alien oppression, in a liberated and independent Fatherland.

Today, of the three and one-half million Armenians, 1,500,000 are to be found in their native land. Tomorrow, this number can easily reach 2,500,000. In the Caucasus, in Russia, in Constantinople, in Europe, in Egypt, in America, in the Balkans, and everywhere, Armenians await impatiently for the hour when, stirred by hope, they all may return to the land of their ancestors.

* * *

The number of the Moslems in Armenia has been reduced in a greater proportion than it is generally supposed.

First, the Vilayets which have been invaded and occupied by the Russian Armies, such as Erzerum, Trebizond, Van, Bitlis, are, today, veritable deserts. The major portion of the Turkish population has either perished in the War or from disease, or has tied from these regions. At the end of 1907, in the Vilayets of Van, Bitlis and Erzerum, the Turks numbered 46,000 and the Kurds 50,000 out of a normal number of 327,000 and 224,000 respectively.

Second: In the immediate rear of the battle line, such as in the Vilayets of Sivas, Diarbekir, the Moslem element, according to the reports of German officers, has suffered enormous losses as the result of military evacuation, starvation, cholera and typhus. At the beginning of the War, the City of Diarbekir had a total population of 55,000, of which 22,000 were Armenians, who were deported in the Fall of 1915, and immediately replaced by 30,000 Moslem emigrants from the region of Bitlis. In May, 1917, the resident and immigrant population of Diarbekir had been reduced to 6,000.

Third: With the creation of an independent Armenian State, the majority of the Moslems that now remain in Armenia will follow the Turkish Government. This has always been the case when a Christian nation has been liberated from the Turkish yoke.

Fourth: An understanding may be effected between the Armenian and the Turkish Governments, whereby regular exchanges of populations may take place. This question may even be submitted to the League of Nations and equitable conditions agreed upon, since such a consummation will accrue to the benefit of Armenia and Turkey alike, and also promote the Universal Peace.

In fine, there is today, in Armenia, hardly one-half of the Moslem population that existed prior to the War, that is even less than 1,000,000, probably composed of the following elements: Turks, Circassians and kindred elements, 500,000; Tartars, 300,000, and Kurds, 200,000.

* * *

The following table gives an approximate idea as to the proportion of the racial elements that are likely to be found in Armenia during the first years of her independent life:

Armenians	2,500,000
Greeks, Nestorians, Russians, Georgians, Europeans	500,000
Turks, Circassians, Arabs, Persians	500,000
Tartars	300,000
Kurds	200,000
Kizil-baches, Yezidis, Zazas, Fellahs	300,000
Total	4.300,000

Christians	3,000,000
Moslems	1,000,000
Other Religions	300,000
Total	4,300,000*

We have already stated that the importance of a people must not be measured by its numbers only, but also, and above all, by its economical aptitudes and its degree of culture.

Historians of remote periods have signalized the high merit of the Armenians who, by their spirit of initiative, their strength of character and their talent and courage in undertaking large affairs, have always stimulated the development of the commerce and industries in Near Asia, and they have been, with the Greeks and the Phoenicians, the pioneers of the civilization of the East.

The Armenians continued to play this important role during the Middle Ages, as they have during modern times. We can do no better than quote here the testimony of a German observer.

Paul Rohrbach, an apostle of Pan-Germanism, who could not possibly be suspected of impartiality for the Turks.

“In the Turkey of today, now reduced almost within its Asiatic confines, the Armenians represent a greater economic force than their numbers would suggest. They are, most assuredly, from the intellectual as well as the material points of view, tile most active element among all the Eastern peoples. It can readily be asserted that, in the region where they are found, they are the only people with innate national qualities. The Armenian is endowed with an energy and a tenacity of purpose or character which differ absolutely from that which we are accustomed to regard as Oriental character.”

In order to give an idea as to the economic activity of the Armenians in Turkish Armenia, we present hereinbelow the commercial and industrial statistics of the Vilayet of Sivas, which is the least representative Armenian among the six vilayets. (The Armenians in Sivas constitute about 34 percent, of the population). It will be seen that even here all the commercial and industrial activities are centered almost exclusively in the hands of the Armenians.

Commerce: 166 importers; 141 Armenians, 13 Turks and 12 Greeks. 150 exporters; 127 Armenians and 23 Turks. 37 Bankers and capitalists; 32 Armenians and 5 Turks. 9800 shop keepers and artisans; 6800 Armenians, 2555 Turks, 150 other elements.

Industries: 153 factories, of which 130 belong to Armenians. The technical staff of all factories are principally Armenians. Number of factory workers, 17,700, of which 14,000 are Armenians.

The important fact should be noted that prior to the War, 2,000,000 Armenians controlled over 35 percent, of the Commerce of the Ottoman Empire, which had an estimated population of 18,000,000 to 20,000,000. But commerce has never been the principal occupation of the Armenian people. The greater portion of the Armenians, or from 85 to 90 percent., have always been engaged in agriculture and in smaller crafts in Turkey, in the Caucasus and in Persia. The Armenians have been, before everything else, tillers of the soil and artisans.

“In the Vilayet of Van. they control.” says Rohrbach, 90 percent, of its commerce and 80 per cent, of its agriculture. Goldsmiths, engravers, furniture makers, tailors, shoemakers, architects, carpenters, masons, blacksmiths are all Armenians. Also, those in liberal professions, such as physicians, lawyers, druggists, are likewise Armenians. The same state of things is to be found in all the other regions. The activity of the Armenian element is also noteworthy in the field of public instruction and educational organizations. The Armenian schools are better and more numerous than those of all the other nationalities in Turkey; and what should be particularly appreciated here is that they have been constructed and maintained with the voluntary contributions not only of wealthy Armenians, but, more so, with those of the common people and poor communities. In 1903, there were 818 Armenian schools in Turkey with 82,000 pupils of both sexes. These schools are under the supervision of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. To these schools should also be added the Armenian Catholic and Protestant schools, and also the private schools. In Turkish Armenia alone, that is, in the six provinces and in Cilicia, there were in 1903, 585 Armenian schools with 52,000 pupils, as against 150 Turkish schools with about 17,000 pupils in the same region.

“To this state of things, to the general intellectual activity and particularly to the innate love for work of the Armenians must be attributed the relatively large number of Armenian officials in the Turkish administration. These officials are so numerous and the amount of work they perform is so great that without them the machinery of the State would come to a standstill.”

We find similar testimony in the books of all Europeans and Americans who have traveled through Turkey and Armenia before the War.

The proportion of Armenian schools and students, as well as that of instructors, is still more striking in the Russian portion of Armenia. The number of Armenian students in the Russian, European and American Universities exceeds 15,000.

Armenians have distinguished themselves not only in Turkey, but also in Russia and in Persia by their superior administrative, diplomatic and military qualities. They have given a large number of generals to the Russian Army, administrators of distinction to Turkey and to Hungary, and a large number of diplomatists to Turkey, Persia and other countries. The Armenians have distinguished themselves particularly during the last fifty years, in all branches of intellectual activity, literature, arts and sciences.

The time has indeed arrived for the Armenians to be given the opportunity to put their talents and their abilities at the disposal of their own country.

The Armenians are essentially a democratic people. At all times they have directed their public institutions by elective systems. The ecclesiastical hierarchy forms no exception to this rule. The Supreme Head of the Church is elected by the nation.

Our country has always been the point of division between two worlds, two civilizations, West and East. It is precisely for this reason that the great shocks between East and West have taken place in or around these mountains, and it is also for this reason that the great powers of the Orient and the Occident have attached so great an importance to the mastery of these regions. They have snatched them from one another in numberless Wars. They have always trampled underfoot and devastated them, and it has always been the native Armenian people which has built and rebuilded and restored them, and which has never permitted any great power to establish itself there permanently. The history of Armenia has been one of continuous, obstinate and unequal battles to defend its individuality, its culture and its faith against powerful enemies and races which attacked it on all sides. Armenia has also suffered for centuries in defense of her Christian faith against Moslem invaders. It stemmed for a while the tide of the invasions of the hordes from Central Asia, which surged forth toward Europe, and which finally engulfed the Byzantian Empire.

During centuries, her political lot has been one of many changes. She has formed and maintained kingdoms; she has succumbed to the overwhelming forces of invaders; she has raised her head and reconquered her independence in one and then in another part of her patrimony, according to the pressure of circumstances. But whether under the rule of his native kings, or under the yoke of the alien, the Armenian has always remained the producer, the worker and the owner of his mountains. With his sweat and with his blood he has bathed the soil of his country, and his resolute tenacity, in the face of tremendous obstacles, has founded a civilization which is peculiarly his, and which is also the resultant mixture of the Eastern and Western civilizations. The entire uplands of Armenia, from Adana to Sis, as far as Van and Erivan, are strewn with the ruins of cities, fortresses, churches, convents, bridges, monuments, which bear witness to his steadfast civilizing labors. A literature of great poetic, philosophical and historical value, dating from the Fourth Century, a rich and supple language, and a Christian Church of national character, are the noble heritage of this unfailing, indefatigable intellectual work which have been bequeathed us.

The misfortune of the Armenian people has been that, in consequence of Turkish tyranny, particularly during the last quarter of a century, the civilized peoples of the West have seen in the Armenian but a persecuted Christian people, who aroused pity. It is not pity, but respect, that is due to a people which has so nobly consecrated itself to the idea of liberty and which has endured so much and resisted so bravely. Unfortunately, the Armenian history is too little known in the West, where they ignore the important role the Armenians have played alike in their own history and in the history of the peoples by which they have been subjugated. Less known are, indeed, our literary and artistic works, which reflect the best features of our soul and which we would place with pride side by side with those of other civilized nations.

For thirty centuries, long before Xenophon spoke of them, the Armenians have lived on these plateaus, until our own day. Here the Armenian people have played an honorable and worthy role, which destiny has assigned to them, as recorded in their annals, again and again affirmed their rights to these territories, and after each upheaval, have built and rebuilded what others have laid in ruins. All the other elements within the boundaries of Armenia are secondary either by their numbers or their importance; they are semi-civilized races which have no arts, no literature, no recorded history, and which, in the course of their existence, have not made any contribution to the development of our civilization. As for the Turkish conquerors, who have fed on our blood, on our brains and on the sweat of our brow, which have created absolutely nothing, they belong to that unbroken line of hordes which, since the time of the Assyrians, have conquered and ravaged our country and which finally have disappeared from the scene of history, abandoning the high Armenian Plateau to its original owners, the Armenian people.

* * *

Armenian Republic of the Caucasus

The northern region of our country which, speaking generally, constitutes the basin of the Arax River and which, during the course of the nineteenth century, the Russian Government has seized bit by bit from the Persians and the Turks, represents likewise an essential and indivisible part of the high Armenian Plateau. Ararat, Koukark, Ardzakh and Siounik, known since antiquity, are the four principal provinces of Armenia in the Caucasus. Here are also to be found our principal capitals and the majority of our celebrated cities, such as Ardachad, Vagharchabad, Yervantaguerd, Dvin, Nakhitchevan, Kars and Ani.

Here was situated our Kingdom of the Bagratides of the Middle Ages, of which the capital city, Ani, with its ruins still standing, is the best testimony to the high degree that the Armenian arts, industry and civilization had attained. Here, the principality of Lory lasted until the beginning of the Fifteenth Century. Here, at Karabagh, the Armenian independence continued until the arrival of the Russians. It was the Armenian Meliks (princes) of Khama who instigated the entry of the Russians into the Caucasus, hoping that, with the aid of the Christian Russians, the Armenians would be delivered from the Moslem yoke; and, indeed, relying upon the pledged words of the Czars that an independent Armenian Government was to be reconstituted within the occupied territories. Until this day, it is at Etchmaidzin that is to be found the seat of the Catholicos, the Supreme Spiritual Head of all the Armenians, founded in the Third Century, at the time of the conversion of Armenia to Christianity. The most important element of the population of these provinces, in point of its number and of the situation it occupies, is the Armenian (see annex No. 3).

* * *

One of the principal purposes for which this War has been waged is the recognition of the rights of oppressed peoples to dispose of their own destiny, and this principle has been accepted by the various Russian Governments which have succeeded each other. And since by the breaking up of Turkey, the major portion of Armenia has been liberated, it is no longer expedient or necessary to leave to Russia an important part of Armenia, for the simple reason that these provinces happened to be under Russian rule for the last few decades. Moreover, since the end of 1917, all of the Caucasus has been, in form and in fact, separated from Russia and set up the Republic of the Caucasus. And this Republic was then divided into three parts, according to the principle of nationalities.

In May, 1918, the Armenian National Assembly proclaimed, in the name of the 2,000,000 Armenians of Russia, the constitution of Russian Armenia into an independent Republic, having Erivan as its capital. A Government was organized and an army raised. When the Russian Army of the Caucasus broke down and left the Armenians to face, single-handed, their age long enemy, this Young Republic, with its limited means, faced the Turkish Army then advancing in the direction of Kars and fought it desperately for seven months.

Russia, in abandoning the Armenians to their lot, in spite their prayers: in bequeathing to them a War which was manifestly beyond their power to carry on, by handing over to Turkey by the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, without consulting them, the Armenian provinces of the Caucasus, Kars, Ardahan and Kaghisman, thereby causing incalculable injury to hundreds of thousands of Armenians, has, by these very acts and by her own free will, broken forever, all ties existing between herself and Armenia.

Moreover, with the creation of a united Poland, the occupation of Bessarabia by Romania, the independence of Finland, the formation of a Ukrainian State and of others, the argument in favor of the preservation of the integrity of the Russian Empire can no longer be invoked.

It would, therefore, be distinctly a denial of justice to separate the ancient territories of Turkish Armenia from those of Russian Armenia, under any pretext or in any form. It would, indeed, be an amputation of a living body, which will become a perpetual cause for fresh persecutions, oppressions and for destruction of life.

A great number of the Armenians of the Caucasus, or their fathers, were subjects of Turkey until the massacres of 1894-6, when they found refuge during that period in the territory under the Czar’s rule. On the other hand, the Armenians of the Caucasus, not having suffered through the recent massacres to the same extent that their brothers of Turkey have suffered, are in a position to furnish to Armenia the elements that it will need in the beginning for the creation of a governmental scheme, for the resumption of its economic life. Furthermore, to separate them from their brothers of Turkey would force them to endless and natural efforts at reunion, and it also would make heavier the responsibility of the power which shall have the temporary mission to aid Armenia during her formative period.

Moreover, how can the powers oppose a fact which has been already accomplished, in perfect harmony with the principle for the triumph of which a Peace Treaty is to be concluded?

The Armenians of Russia, during half of the last century, have sacrificed the best part of their moral and physical forces for the cause of Turkish Armenia, because they understood that the path for their deliverance ran through Turkey. Entire generations lived in the dream of liberating Turkish Armenia. It is rightly for this reason that the Armenians of Russia, at the declaration of the War, joined with enthusiasm the Russian, French and British colors, and in unison with the Armenians of Turkey, formed volunteer corps, thus proving that an artificial frontier, drawn by foreign governments, was powerless to separate an indivisible whole, —one in origin, in hope and in destiny.

In the name of justice, in the name of our rights of ages, in the name of the irresistible aspirations of the Armenian Communities of Russia and of Turkey, and in the name of the inexorable historical necessity which, sooner or later, must triumph, we demand the absolute and definite reunion of these two fragments of the same nation.

A Memorandum

Presented by the President of the Delegation of the Armenian Republic to the President of the Peace Conference*

To the President of the Peace Conference,

Mr. President:

The Republic of Armenia (in the Caucasus), born during the storm of the War, and its Parliament, have entrusted to me, as head of the Delegation to the Peace Conference, and to my two colleagues, Dr. Ohachanian and Mr. Papadjanian, the duty of submitting to you the following facts:

Since the very first days of the War, the Armenians throughout the world entered the field resolutely on the side of the Powers of the Entente. They fought on the Western front as well as on the Eastern front. They contributed to the Russian Army from 150,000 to 200,000 men. Thousands of Armenians volunteered in the Caucasus, where they did their full duty, and they also fought in Palestine and in Syria.

The world knows today that in consequence of our sympathy for the cause of the Allies,—a sympathy which manifested itself so eloquently by our active and effective military participation in the War on all the fronts,—the Government of the Young Turks, as a measure of ruthless vengeance, ravaged the Turkish Armenia through massacres unexampled in history, by mass deportations of the Armenian population, driving them to the deserts of Mesopotamia and Syria, where they met a death equally horrible.

One million Armenians have thus been destroyed.

The suffering of Armenia is sufficiently well known to the world. But that which is very little known is the part that the Caucasian Armenia has taken in the World War. It is very little known that, following the break-down of the Russian Caucasus Army, which, having been infected with the demoralizing virus of Bolshevism, wholly abandoned the front, the Caucasus Armenians, with exemplary heroism and abnegation, without any help whatsoever from any source, with their own forces, fought the common enemy.

The infamous treaty of Brest-Litovsk immediately followed this shameful desertion by the Russians of the Armenian front. This treaty not only left to the Turks the provinces of Turkish Armenia, which had been conquered by the Russian Armies with the most effective aid of the Armenians, but it even turned over to the Turks the purely Armenian provinces of the Caucasus of Kars and Kaghisman, and Batum and Ardahan.

From this moment on the Armenian National Council, chosen by the Great National Congress in September, 1917, and presided over by me, rejected the Brest-Litovsk Treaty and took upon itself the task of carrying on a war started by the Russians, who now had abandoned the entire front. Unfortunately, the Armenian soldiers, who were in the ranks of the Russian Armies on the Austro-German fronts could not hasten to the aid of their mother country. The vacillation of the Kerensky Government, which did not have the vision to grasp the vital importance of the Caucasian front, and later, the general chaos which set in throughout Russia in consequence of Bolshevism, made the return of these Armenian soldiers to the Caucasus impossible.

Therefore, the Armenian National Council found itself in the necessity of raising a purely Armenian Army for the defense of the mother country and the cause of the Allies.

As President of the Armenian National Council, I received from Paris at this time, through the agency of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of France, a dispatch in cipher from His Excellency Boghos Nubar Pasha, President of the Armenian National Delegation, by which His Excellency counselled the Armenians to hold firm, to reorganize the defense of the front and to oppose the advance of the Turks.

In the name of the National Council, I replied His Excellency, through the agency of the French Consulate at Tiflis:

That the Armenian Nation was ready to do its supreme duty now as it had done since the beginning of the War;
That it counted upon the material, moral, and, if possible, the military aid of the Allies;
That through the disclosure made by the Bolsheviki of the secret treaty of 1916 between France, Great Britain and Russia, by and under which Turkish Armenia was to be partitioned between France and Russia, the Armenians had been deeply depressed and discouraged, and that, therefore, in order to stimulate their power of resistance and to encourage them to go on with the desperate and unequal battle, it was imperative,

To annul said treaty so far as it concerned Armenia;
To proclaim the independence of Armenia.

In response to this dispatch, I received a second communication from His Excellency Boghos Nubar Pasha, again through the agency of the French Consulate, in which the promises of aid and co-operation were renewed. As to the independence of Armenia, in the meaning of my message to him, it was stated that the solemn declarations made in the British House of Commons and in the French Chamber of Deputies were of a nature to satisfy the Armenian national demands*.

The texts of the declarations referred to by His Excellency were unknown to us, but the words of encouragement that his message contained inspired us and filled us with hope at this most tragic hour, and the Armenian Nation rallied about its National Council and thing itself once more whole-heartedly into the struggle against the Turks.

A levee en masse of all the Armenians was then decreed by the National Council, and an army of 50,000 men was organized during the last months of 1917. This result was achieved in spite of the numberless difficulties created by the marked antagonism which was shown towards us and the Allies by the divers populations of the Caucasus, our neighbors, who did their best to prevent us from raising an army which was to fight on the side of the Powers of the Entente.

The Tartars and Kurds openly ranged themselves on the side of Turkey, and in order to serve the cause of their ally better, they mobilized in our rear, and did all that lay within their power to hinder our efforts for the national defense.

The Georgians, to whom we had been hound in the past by common faith and by common suffering, and upon whom we had the right to count, deserted us at this most tragic moment, refused to march with us and left us alone to meet the enemy.

Far away from our great Western Allies, and not having received the aid that had been promised us, alone, isolated, and surrounded on all sides by hostile neighbors, we, nevertheless, hurled ourselves into the supreme combat, with the purpose, if not of vanquishing the enemy, at least of hindering his advance into the interior of the Caucasus; and this we did, believing implicitly as ever in the ultimate triumph of the righteous cause to which we had dedicated all that we were and all that we had from the very beginning.

General Nazarbekian, whose military talents had been very highly appreciated during his service in the Russian Army, was named Commander-in-Chief of the Armenian forces, and the famous Chief, Andranik, was placed at the head of a division composed of Armenian volunteers from Turkey. It was this young army which went onward bravely against the Turks to defend the front abandoned by the Russians, which extended from Erzindjian to the Persian frontier, —over 250 miles long.

The unequal struggle against the Turkish Army, which was greatly superior in numbers, lasted seven months, until June, 1918. Beginning with Van and Erzindjian, the most desperate and bloody battles took place between these two ancient enemies. Erzerum, Sarikamisch, the fortress of Kars, Alexandropol, Sarderabad, Karakilisa became the scenes of terrible encounters, in the course of which the Turks suffered very heavy losses. It was this heroic resistance of the Armenians which not only prevented the Turks from advancing into the interior of the Caucasus immediately after the abandonment of the front by the Russians, but it also made it impossible for the Turks, during these seven months, to concentrate their forces against the British in Mesopotamia, and which, drawing against itself divisions from the Turkish Army in Syria, also contributed greatly to the victory of General Allenby on that front.

In the meantime, with the arrival of the German troops in the Caucasus, Georgia proclaimed her independence under the military protection of Germany. Tatarstan, with the aid and support of the Turkish Army, also proclaimed her independence and assumed the title of Azerbaijan. The Caucasian unity being thus brought to an end, the Armenian National Council likewise proclaimed the independence of Armenia on May 28, 1918, which is now known as the Republic of Armenia.

The government of the Republic has been normally functioning now for about a year. Law and order prevail within its borders, and it has found itself forced, on several occasions, to repulse successfully Georgian and Tartar aggressions without. The Republic has an area of 60,000 square kilometers, a population of 2,000,000, and a well-disciplined army of 40,000, which is absolutely free from the taint of Bolshevism.

It is this Republic, whose Government and Parliament sit in its capital, at Erivan, which has delegated us as its representatives to the Peace Conference, and has charged us to submit to it the following:

Russia, in abandoning the Armenians to their lot, in spite of their prayers, in bequeathing to them a war which it was manifestly beyond their power to carry on; in handing over to Turkey by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, without even consulting them, the Armenian provinces of the Caucasus, Kars, Ardahan and Kaghisman, thereby causing incalculable injury to hundreds of thousands of Armenians, has, by these very acts and of her own free will, broken forever all ties existing between Russia and Armenia.
The Republic of Armenia, accordingly, believes itself justified in demanding the immediate recognition of its independence, which has been merited and won upon the field of battle, and which the success of its arms has obliged even its enemies to recognize.
Taking into consideration this War, which Armenia has waged all alone for the defense of the Cause of the Allies and the superhuman sacrifices which all the Armenians have made, I have now the honor to claim, in the name of the Armenian Nation, the place which Armenia has justly merited at the Peace Conference, beside Emir Faizal and the representatives of the Czechoslovaks, Poles and Serbs.
The Delegation of the Armenian Republic submits that it acts in all its demands and proceedings in perfect accord with the Armenian Delegation from Turkey, presided over at Paris by His Excellency Boghos Nubar Pasha.

Accept, Mr. President, the assurance of my most distinguished consideration.

AVETIS AHARONIAN,

President, Delegation of the Armenian Republic to the Peace Conference.

Paris, February 12, 1919.

* On February 26, 1919, the President of the Armenian National Delegation and the President of the Delegation of the Armenian Republic in the Caucasus, appeared Indore the Peace Conference at Quai d’Orsay and presented to that Body this joint memorandum, which embodies the claims of the entire Armenian nation. (The French original follows this in this book.) Mr. Aharonian, as President of the Delegation of the Armenian Republic, handed to the President of the Peace Conference a separate memorandum, which summarizes the series of events in Northern Armenia which culminated in the establishment of the Republic of Armenia. The French original and English translation of that memorandum are printed elsewhere in this book.

* Mr. Lloyd George, on January 5. 1918, solemnly declared in the House of Commons that the recognition of the separate condition of Armenia shall constitute one of the war aims of Great Britain.

Mr. Balfour, replying to an interpellation by Mr. Ramsay MacDonald in the House of Commons on July 11, 1918, said: “His Majesty’s Government is following with earnest sympathy and admiration the gallant resistance of the Armenians (in the Caucasus’) in defense of their liberties and honor. I would refer the Honorable Manlier to the public statements made by leading statesmen among the Allied Powers in favor of a settlement (of the Armenian Case) upon the principle of self-determination.”—Translator’s note.

* Turkish Armenia has an area of 101,000 square miles, and Russian Armenia an area of 26,491 square miles. What constitutes Turkish Armenia has been defined in four international documents since 1878. 1) Under Article 61 of the Treaty of Berlin, the provinces of Erzerum, Van, Bitlis, Harpoot, Diarbekir and Sivas, which have an area of 96,600 square miles, were recognized as constituting parts of Armenia. 2) Under the terms of the Ambassadors’ Memorandum of 1895, said Six Provinces and Cilicia were recognized as Turkish Armenia. 3) Under the terms of the Reform Measure, dated February 8, 1914, agreed upon between Germany and Turkey on the one side, and Russia, representing the Entente and the Armenians, on the other, acting by direction of the Ambassadorial Conference of London of 1913, said Six Provinces and the Province of Trebizond, which have an area of 109,100 square miles, were considered as parts of Turkish Armenia. At the suggestion of Germany, Cilicia, or Lesser Armenia (the Bagdad Railroad crosses through it), was to become a separate subject of treatment. 4) Under Article XIV of the terms of the armistice granted to Turkey by the Allies, dated November 1, 1918, the above mentioned Six Provinces were referred to as the “Six Armenian Vilayets.’’—Translator’s note.

* In 1914, the Turks constituted about 25% of the population of Turkey, or, their number was estimated at 4,600,000, out of an estimated population of 18,000,000 in the Empire. The Turks ordinarily include in their own number all the Moslem elements, except the Arabs. —Translator’s note.

* On February 26, 1919, the President of the Armenian National Delegation and the President of the Delegation of the Armenian Republic appeared before the Peace Conference and presented to that Body a joint memorandum in the name of the Armenian Nation, of which English translation and French original are printed in the first part of this book. Mr. Aharonian, as President of the Delegation of the Armenian Republic, handed to the President of the Peace Conference this memorandum, which summarizes the series of events in Northern Armenia which culminated in the establishment of the Republic of Armenia. The French original of this memorandum is printed in the following pages. —Translator’s note.

* Mr. Lloyd George, on January 5, 1918, solemnly declared in the House of Commons that the recognition of the separate condition of Armenia shall constitute one of the war aims of Great Britain.

Mr. Balfour, replying to an interpellation by Mr. Ramsay MacDonald in the House of Commons on July 11, 1918, said: “His Majesty’s Government is following with earnest sympathy and admiration the gallant resistance of the Armenians (in the Caucasus) in defense of their liberties and honor. I would refer the Honorable Member to the public statements made by leading statesmen among the Allied Powers in favor of a settlement (of the Armenian Case) upon the principle of self-determination.”—Translator’s note.

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