ARMENIAN - Erevangala500

The Turmoil o f a War
That Would Not End
Turks and Armenians between the Treaty o f Brest-Litovsk
(December, 1918) and the Treaties o f Gtimru, Moscow,
and Kars (October, 1921)
Between 1917 and 1918, the collapse o f the Russian
Czar-dom robbed the Western powers o f their great
Eastern ally, thus giving the Central Powers a little
breathing-space. Armenian irregulars continued fighting
on the eastern Anatolian and Egyptian-Arabian fronts
and attacking the Turks, Austrians, and Germans with
rhetoric. During this period, the Armenians became a
factor to be reckoned with in the battle against the
Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and
Germany, who were all putting up a tough defense.
Now, negotiations were finally held that had a certain
real foundation. The concessions made to Czarist Russia
in the Sykes-Picot Agreement had served the Czar's
interests, not those o f the ever-hopeful Armenian
extremists (extremist not only in their political methods,
but also in their exaggerated expectations).
Communist-Bolshevist Russia would long remain an unknown
entity. (No one could have guessed that its politics
would differ in absolutely no way from those o f the
Czars; the Armenians suspected this least o f all!) So after
the collapse o f the Czardom, everything that had been
promised to the Czars in the Sykes-Picot Agreement was
now promised to the Armenians. It was thus reasonable to
expect them to distinguish themselves a little bit more in
the fight against the Ottoman Empire! Lloyd George, in
his well-known flowery style, described Armenia as a
land "soaked with the blood o f innocents". Little did he
know that he was telling the truth but that the blood was
mostly that o f Moslems, who in fact had many more dead
to mourn than the "Christian" Armenians. Lloyd George
was just as much a hypocrite as Wilson and Clemenceau.
They had all picked out a "romantic" victim and then
dropped her by the wayside as soon as she ceased to be
useful.
When the "peace conference" - which was actually nothing
but a dictate-preparation conference - began meeting
in Paris in January of" 1919, it appeared as if the Armenian
extremists' hour had arrived. The Armenians sent two delegations
to the "peace conference". One was led by the
professional emigrant Boghos Nubar, who had been
working towards the dismemberment o f the Ottoman
Empire for many years. The other was from the Republic
o f Armenia (the existence o f which had only been made
possible by the Turks after the Treaty o f Baku on May 28,
1918).
The two delegations immediately began "auctioning" -
outbidding each other in demands for territory and underbidding
each other in rational arguments. They were
apparently confusing politics with a carpet bazaar, where
the important criteria are the pattern, the number o f
square meters, and the age o f the desired item. Their
demands became so excessive that even such inveterate
carpet-lovers as the Allied rulers lost interest in making a
real offer. After all, it did not have to be an Armenian carpet.
Those o f the Turks were much older, more valuable,
and more reliable.
After the Armenian delegation led by Boghos Nubar
started things o ff by demanding an Armenia in eastern
Anatolia, the joint delegation (the group led by Avetis
Aharonian from the Republic o f Armenia had in the
meantime merged with Nubar) worked its way up to territorial
claims stretching from the Black Sea, with Trabzon
as a harbor, all the way to Cilicia.
The Armenian population o f this "Greater Armenia"
would not even have accounted for a fifth o f the total population
o f the region - and that is based on the figures
from 1914! Moreover, even if back then in 1914 the
entire Armenian population o f the world had gathered in eastern
Anatolia, there still would not have been an Armenian
majority in the region.
But so what? In the nineteenth century, the various
Armenian churches had wrestled over who was the "most
Armenian". Later, the Dashnaks and Hunchaks both
wanted to carry o ff the palm in the fight to be the best terrorists.
And now, the delegation from the Republic o f
Only the foundation walls remain o f this village church above
Lake Van in Bakracli Koyii, on the way to Yedikilisse-W arak-
wank.
The authorities are well aware o f the lamentable condition o f
many historical Armenian buildings. There is, however, a far
greater number o f Seljuk and Ottoman buildings in even worse
condition. (In many cases as a result o f the devastation o f the
civil war o f 1915.) These are naturally given priority in any
preservation or restoration project.
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