ABMXSNIA 58 ABMEDAI2
troubles Annenia has suffered in common with all the first refused to recognize the Bolsheviki, and Turkish provinces from the stagnation produced by had formed a provisional government at Tiflis in Turkish misrule. Schemes of development have not February, 1918. Each party was to hold its own been wanting, but nearly all suffered shipwreck territory, but the republic lasted only five weeks, through lack of security, of communication, of owing to the divergent political tendencies. On capital, and of any adequate economic incentive. 26 May, 1918, the Transcaucasian Republic was Commercially the Armenians were long hampered dissolved and Georgia declared its inaependence, by the decree forbidding them to travel abroad, as did Armenia. Its ae facto government was recog- which was abrogated only in 1908. While this was nized by the allies in January, 1920: and the de jure in operation, the Armenians could not get into recognition was embodied in the Treaty of Sevres, direct touch with foreign supplies, and were de- signed in August, 1920, between the allied powers pendent on Constantinople and Aleppo agents, and Turkey, to which Annenia was a signatory, who granted them long credits. In the new republic there was no president, tlie
History (190^1921)^— The rise of the Yoimg Turk presidential functions being discharged partly by party, concentrated in the Committee of Union and the chamber of deputies (80 members), and partly Progress, with its assertion of liberty and toleration by the cabinet of ministers. The mandate of Ar- and the new constitution of 1908, aroused Armenian menia was offered to the League of Nations and hopes. However, the deposition of Abdul Hamid refused on the aground that it was not the object in 1909 was followed by the massacre of Adana, of the League to take up mandates. It was offered for which a pretext was found in the pretensions to the Umted States and refused, by the Senate, to complete independence of a small section of contrary to the wishes of President Wilson, who Armenians. This massacre was part of the reac- was asked to arbitrate the question of Armenian tionary revolution projected by Abdul Hamid and frontiers. In the meantime the Nationalists and resulting in his fall. But the extermination of the the Bolsheviki made a concerted attack on Ar* whole Armenian people was a later project, at- menia. The Russian divisions commenced opera- tributable to the government of the Young Turks, tions against Armenia in their base at Azerbaijan. At the outbreak of the European War, the Ar- The seriousness of the Polish situation caused the menians who had fought for the Turkish Govern- withdrawal of these troops and Armenia took ad- ment in the Balkan Wars were regarded with sus- vantage of the occasion by capturing the coal-fields picion and were consequently disarmed. Then of Olti. In August they advanced to Jiilfa on the ensued, in 1915, massacres on a larger scale than Persian frontier and forced the Turks to retire to ever, in which it is said that 1,000,000 Armenians the Arax River. Ill-luck befell the Armenians after- perished, wards and they lost Erivan, their capital, to the
On the eve of Turkey's entry into the war, the Turks. On 11 November, 1920, the Armenian min- Young Turks employed every conceivable means, istry which had taken part in the treaty of Sfevrea persuasion, cajolery, intimidation, and the promise was replaced by an extremist government which had of a large autonomous Armenia to induce the Ar- come to an understanding with the Soviet goyem* menian party leaders to prevail on the Russian ment, with a view to concluding a new armistice Armenians to rally to the Turkish flag against with the Turks. This took place, the terms pro- Russia. The Armenians obeyed the Turkish orders posed by the Turks being made with the view of for mobilization, but soon developed in large num- keeping Armenia as a buffer state between Turkey bers. The massacres and deportations began soon and Russia. The Turks demanded th&t Armenia after the collapse of the Turkish invasion of the renounce the treaty of Sevres and that the frontier Caucasus and North Persia, and when Turks de- between Armenia and Turkey should be fixed by termined to deport and to destroy all Armenians, the two peoples concerned. As yet the boundaries the persecuted race took up arms in self-defense, are indeterminate. First reports place them as run- in Shahin-Karahissar they held out for three ning along the Black Sea at a point a little to the months and were only reduced by artillery brought west of Tireboli through Militkan, west of Mush, from Erzerum. In Van and Jebal-Mousa they de- south to Lake Van to the frontier of Azerbaijan, fended themselves against heavy odds imtil relieved President Wilson's award did not include the by the Russians and Armenian volunteers in the vilayets of Daiarbekr, Sivas, Kharput, and Adana. first case, and rescued by the French and British On October, 1921, a tv*eaty was signed at Kars, cruisers in the second. By this resistance they Armenia, between the four Bolshevized republics, forced the Turks to detach large numbers of their Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Daghestan on troops and in some cases, artillery and machine one hand, and the Turkish Nationalist government
guns to keep the Armenian rebels in check, thus on the other, giving the latter about one half of indering the full development of the Turkish mili- Caucasian Armenia, and creating a small autonomous tary power during the war. They gave enthusiastic state on Armenian territon' under the protection support to the Russian cause, they organized a of Azerbaijan, to be known as Nakitchevan. It now volunteer force of Armenians which was blamed by appears that the Turks are supporting the inten- the Turks for the disaster that befell them at tions of Ru5?sia to federalize all the so-called Cauca- Sarikamish, Azerbaijan, and Van; they contributed sian republics in Russia into a Russian state, the high officials to the Russian army, including several political center being at Baku, and the economic generals, and they suffered their land to become center at Tiflis. The independence of these repub- the battleground of Asia Minor. Archbishop Hcs is a thing of the past. Sempad, the Gregorian incumbent of Erzerum, was murdered by brigands in the service of the Union Armenlerstadt, Diocese op. See Ghehla.
and Progress Company The Gregorian Bishops of Armenopolis, Diocbsb op. See Gherla. Trebizond, Caesarea, Mush, Bitlis, and Erzmdjan, ' ^w^,i«5ov.r. k^ ^^^u^,
and the Catholic Bishop of Seerth were also mur- Armldale, Diocese op (Armidalensis; cf. C. E.,
dered by the order of the Young Turk government. I-740b), in New South Wales (Australia) is under
On 22 April the Diet of Transcaucasia declared its the administration of its third bishop, Rt. Reverend
independence of Russia under the title of the Fed- Patrick Joseph O'Connor, D. D., who has filled the
eral Republic of Transcaucasia, comprising Georgia, see since 1904. Dr. O'Connor came to this diocese
Annenia, and Azerbaijan (Tartar). It nad from in 1876 and in 1882 was appointed dean and vicar
