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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..020314c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #53976 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53976) diff --git a/old/53976-8.txt b/old/53976-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 365c21d..0000000 --- a/old/53976-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2120 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, Why Armenia Should Be Free, by G. (Garegin) -Pasdermadjian - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - - -Title: Why Armenia Should Be Free - Armenia's Role in the Present War - - -Author: G. (Garegin) Pasdermadjian - - - -Release Date: January 16, 2017 [eBook #53976] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHY ARMENIA SHOULD BE FREE*** - - -E-text prepared by Cindy Horton, Martin Pettit, and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made -available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) - - - -Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this - file which includes the original illustrations. - See 53976-h.htm or 53976-h.zip: - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/53976/53976-h/53976-h.htm) - or - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/53976/53976-h.zip) - - - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/whyarmeniashould00pasduoft - - - - - -WHY ARMENIA SHOULD BE FREE - -Armenia's Rôle in the Present War - - -[Illustration: DR. G. PASDERMADJIAN (Armen Garo)] - - -WHY ARMENIA SHOULD BE FREE - -Armenia's Rôle in the Present War - -by - -DR. G. PASDERMADJIAN -(ARMEN GARO) - -Ex-Deputy from Erzeroum in the Ottoman Parliament -Former Commander of the Second Battalion of the Armenian -Volunteers on the Caucasian Front -Representative in America of Armenian National Council of the -Caucasus. - -With an Introduction by George Nasmyth, Ph. D. - -Former President of the Central Committee of the International -Federation of Students -Secretary of the Massachusetts Joint Committee -for a League of Free Nations - -Illustrated - - - - - - - -Boston -Hairenik Publishing Company -1918. - -Written at Washington, D. C., October, 1918. -All Rights Reserved - -Published, December, 1918 - -The Blanchard Printing Co. -Boston Massachusetts. - - -TO THOSE WHO WERE MARTYRED -AND -TO THOSE WHO DIED ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE -FOR THE LIBERATION OF ARMENIA - - - - -CONTENTS - - _Page_ -INTRODUCTION 1 - -TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE 5 - -TURKISH AND RUSSIAN PROPOSALS TO THE ARMENIANS IN 1914 15 - -MILITARY SERVICES RENDERED BY THE ARMENIANS ON THE CAUCASIAN FRONT 18 - -ARMENIAN RESISTANCE TO THE TURKISH MASSACRES 24 - -ATTITUDE OF RUSSIAN CZARISM TOWARD THE ARMENIANS 28 - -RÔLE PLAYED BY THE ARMENIANS IN THE CAUCASUS AFTER THE RUSSIAN - COLLAPSE 34 - -ARMENIA'S CO-OPERATION WITH THE ALLIES ON OTHER FRONTS 41 - -CONCLUSION 42 - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -Armenia has become a touchstone of victory in the great war for freedom -and humanity. - -If Armenia is granted national independence it will mean that in the -making of the peace treaty the forces of democracy and human progress -have triumphed over the forces of imperialism and short-sighted -reaction. It will mean that in the future the rights of the small -nations are to be recognized as well as those of the great. It will mean -that international justice is to be the foundation of the new world -order. The triumph of the principle that is involved will mean that the -war has been won because its moral aims have been achieved. - -But if the Armenians were to be thrust back under the yoke of Turkey, it -would mean that injustice, massacre and atrocity are to be permanent -features of the world of the future. It would mean that the -justice-loving nations of the world will prepare for inevitable -conflicts that are to come. It would mean that the war which was fought -to end war has been lost. - -National independence for Armenia will mean that the old order of secret -intrigue and orthodox diplomacy has given way to a new order of open -democratic diplomacy, based on the self-determination of nations and the -principles of international justice. It will mean that the peace which -ends this war will be a democratic peace, a peace of the peoples, a -peace that will last. It will mean that imperialistic aims, secret -treaties and selfish greedy interests have given way before the -conception of a world organized for righteousness and permanent peace. - -National independence for Armenia will mean that the Balance of Power, -which has always considered the subject nations of Turkey as mere pawns -in a diplomatic game, has been replaced by a League of Free Nations -opening the way towards a world federation and the parliament of man. It -will mean that the old chaos of international anarchy is to be replaced -by a new world order in which peoples and nations shall be free to live -their own lives, to speak their own language, to worship in their own -religion and to develop their own civilization, in the fullest -friendship and democratic co-operation with the other free nations of -mankind. - -National independence for Armenia is a touchstone of victory because it -will mean that mankind has come to recognize that there is a moral law -in the world, which applies to nations as well as to individuals. It -will mean the overthrow of imperialism, militarism and the philosophy of -force. It will mean an invaluable extension of the principle of -democracy in the world. It will mean that the way will be open to -develop the great highway between Europe and Asia amid political -conditions of a stable and durable peace. It will mean that mankind can -proceed to cultivate again the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates -and that once more after centuries of desolation this region will become -one of the garden spots of the earth. - -What should be the boundaries of the new Armenian nation? I have before -me Stanford's Linguistic Map of Europe, a map based upon the most -careful scientific research and conscientious scholarship. This map -shows the area in which the Armenian speaking population is dominant as -extending to Adana and Alexandretta on the Mediterranean, almost to the -Black Sea near Trebizond, to Tiflis in the Caucasus Mountains and to -Lake Urmia near the western boundary of Persia on the East. - -At the edges this Armenian territory shades over into regions occupied -by Turks and Kurds. In the interest of international justice and -permanent peace in the future, the boundaries of the new Armenia ought -to be extended as far as the Armenian race extends as an important -element of the population, because the Armenians have proved their -capacity for self-government even under the almost impossible conditions -of Turkish misrule, while Turks and Kurds have again and again proved -incapable of governing themselves, much less of governing others. The -hope for toleration of racial minorities, which is the indispensable -condition for peace in areas of mixed population, would be many times -greater in a government by the Armenians than in a government by Turks -and Kurds. - -Armenia is a touchstone of victory in this war because, unlike Belgium, -it lies so far beyond the range of accurate news reports and the -limelight of public opinion, that it is likely to be overlooked unless a -settlement is approached in a new spirit of international justice. The -horrors of the Armenian massacres have been so unendurable that many -people have had to try to escape from thinking about Armenia in order to -keep their sanity in the midst of such wholesale horror. But oblivion is -no remedy for the problem of Armenia and the world of the future will -not be safe for democracy or for anything else unless Armenia and the -problem which it represents is permanently solved in the Peace -Conference. I do not believe that any indemnities or annexations of -territories or any imperialistic gain of this war is worth the life of a -single American soldier, but I do believe that only by giving Armenia -its independence, by establishing the principle of international -justice, of which Armenia is a concrete example, and by creating a -League of Free Nations as the basis of the new world order, will we be -enabled to say that the sacrifices of these young men shall not have -been in vain. Thus Armenia becomes the touchstone of victory in this -great war for freedom and humanity. - -GEORGE NASMYTH. - -BOSTON, MASS. -DECEMBER 12, 1918. - - - - -TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE - - -Dr. Pasdermadjian, the author of this pamphlet, is a native of Erzeroum, -and a member of a family which, both in the past and in the present, has -been an object of barbarous persecution at the hands of the Turks. When -the Russians in 1829 captured Erzeroum for the first time, 96,000 -Armenians, with the encouragement of the Russian government, left that -city and the outlying villages with the Russian army, and emigrated -towards the Caucasus, where they founded three new cities, Alexandropol, -Akhalkalak, and Akhaltsikh. Only 300 Armenian families remained in -Erzeroum, refusing to leave their homes, even in face of the Turkish -despotism. Among these was the Pasdermadjian family. - -In 1872 the Turkish government had Khatchatour Pasdermadjian killed, -simply because he was a well-to-do and influential Armenian, and, -therefore, undesirable. In 1877 during the Russo-Turkish war, the -Pasdermadjian family was subjected to the basest kind of persecution by -the Turkish government, which still owes the Pasdermadjians 36,000 -Turkish _liras_ ($180,000), the value of a quantity of wheat wrested -from them by the military authorities. During those same hostilities, -taking advantage of the war conditions, the Turkish government planned -to hang Haroutiun Pasdermadjian, on the ground that he was in -communication with the Russian army; but he was saved through the -intervention of the British consul. When the Russian army occupied -Erzeroum in 1878, the Pasdermadjians naturally gave a very hospitable -reception to the two Armenian Generals, Loris Melikoff and Lazareff. -After learning of the family's history, Loris Melikoff asked Haroutiun -Pasdermadjian to emigrate to the Caucasus. He promised to bring the -influence of the Russian government to bear on Turkey and to claim the -family's extensive real estate and various sums of money which the -Turkish government owed them. But Haroutiun Pasdermadjian refused the -kind offer, saying that he could not leave the country which contained -his martyred father's grave. When the Russians, in accordance with the -terms of the Berlin Treaty, were forced to evacuate Erzeroum, the Turks -came back and began anew to persecute the Pasdermadjians in every -possible way. In 1890 the Armenians of Erzeroum made a protest against -Turkish despotism, and demanded to have the reforms promised in the -Berlin Treaty carried out. The first bullet fired by the Turkish -soldiers during those disturbances was aimed at Haroutiun Pasdermadjian; -but he was saved through the heroism of a group of young Armenians. In -the massacres of 1895, the Pasdermadjians were again attacked by an -armed Turkish mob, but were saved from plunder and murder through the -stubborn resistance of all the members of the household, including the -servants. Afterwards, three members of the family, Hovhannes, Tigrane, -and Setrak, were imprisoned for a long time as revolutionists. In -reality, they were imprisoned simply because they had not allowed -themselves to be slaughtered like sheep by the Turkish mob. In February, -1915, when the present Turkish government began its organized slaughters -to eliminate the Armenians from the world, the first victim in Erzeroum -was Setrak Pasdermadjian, because he was an influential Armenian and had -had the courage several times to protest against the unlawful acts of -the government. The remnants of this numerous and ancient Armenian -family are now scattered throughout Mesopotamia. - -The author of this booklet, Garegin Pasdermadjian, is the son of -Haroutiun Pasdermadjian and the grand-son of Khatchatour Efendi. He was -born in 1873, and received his elementary education at the Sanasarian -College of Erzeroum, being one of its first graduates (1891). In 1894 he -went to France and studied agriculture in the college at Nancy, -intending to return and develop the lands belonging to his family -according to the modern agricultural methods of Europe, and in that way -give a practical lesson to the Armenian peasants. He had hardly begun -his course when the great massacres of 1895 revolutionized the plans of -the younger generation of Armenian students. Out of the 26 young -Armenians at the University of Nancy, four, Sarkis Srentz, Haik -Thirakian, Max Zevrouz, and Garegin Pasdermadjian, left their studies -and returned to participate in the effort at vengeance which the -Armenian Revolutionary Dashnaktzoutiun (Federation) had decided to -organize in Constantinople. In 1896, Garegin Pasdermadjian and Haik -Thirakian, under their assumed names of Armen Garo and Hratch -respectively, took part in the seizure of the Ottoman Bank. This -European institution, with its 154 inmates and 300 million francs -($60,000,000) of capital, remained in the hands of the Armenian -revolutionists for fourteen hours as a pledge that the European -ambassadors should immediately stop the Armenian massacre in -Constantinople and give assurances that the reforms guaranteed to the -Armenians in the Treaty of Berlin should be carried out. On behalf of -the six great powers, signatories to the Berlin Treaty, the chief -interpreter of the Russian embassy, Mr. Maximoff, made a gentleman's -agreement with the young Armenian revolutionists to fulfill their -demands. Trusting to Mr. Maximoff's word of honor, the Armenians left -Constantinople. But immediately after their departure, the massacres -were resumed with more intensity, while the reforms have remained a dead -letter to this day. Such were international morals in 1895. - -After these events Garegin Pasdermadjian returned to Europe to continue -his unfinished studies. Mr. Hanoteau, however, the French foreign -minister at that time, would not allow the Armenians who had been -connected with this affair to remain in France, so young Pasdermadjian -went to Switzerland and studied the natural sciences at the University -of Geneva. In 1900 he completed his course and received the degree of -Doctor of Science. Unable to return to Turkish Armenia, as was his -desire, Dr. Pasdermadjian went to the Caucasus and settled at Tiflis in -1901. There he opened the first chemical laboratory, for the purpose of -investigating the rich mines of that region. - -National events, however, prevented him from pursuing his research work. -Having been a member of the responsible body of the Armenian -Revolutionary Dashnaktzoutiun (Federation) since 1896, he took part in -all the movements which aimed to protect the moral and physical well -being of the Armenian people from Turkish and Russian despotism. For -example, in 1905, when the Caucasian Tartars, with the approval of the -Russian government, began to massacre the Armenians in divers parts of -the Caucasus, Dr. Pasdermadjian became a member of the Committee created -by the Armenian Revolutionary Dashnaktzoutiun (Federation) to organize -defence work among the Armenian people. In November of the same year, -when the Armeno-Tartar hostilities began right in Tiflis, under the very -nose of the Russian administration, he was entrusted with the command of -the Armenian volunteers to protect Tiflis and its environs. During the -seven-day struggle which took place in the streets of Tiflis, 500 -Armenian volunteers faced nearly 1400 armed Tartars, and drove them back -with heavy losses. - -The situation in the Caucasus was almost normal, and Dr. Pasdermadjian -and his idealistic colleagues were about to resume their main -object,--to carry arms and ammunition from the Caucasus to the Turkish -Armenians in order to prepare them for self-defense,--when the Turkish -revolution came in 1908. The Armenians in Erzeroum, as well as the party -to which he was a member, telegraphed to Dr. Pasdermadjian and strongly -urged him to become their candidate in the coming elections for -Representative to the Ottoman Parliament. After seven years of -professional studies, Dr. Pasdermadjian had been able to create for -himself in the Caucasus a life fairly prosperous financially. He had -just secured the right to develop a copper mine, and was about to work -it in partnership with a large company. His business required that he -should stay in the Caucasus to continue his successful enterprise, but -he yielded to the moral pressure of his comrades and left his personal -affairs to go to Constantinople as a deputy from Erzeroum. - -During his four years in Constantinople as a deputy, Dr. Pasdermadjian -devoted his entire time to better the economic conditions of the -Armenian vilayets, and especially worked for the railroad bill, of which -he was the real author, but which was known to the public as Chester's -bill. Its main object was to build railroads as soon as possible in -those vilayets of Armenia which were considered to be Russia's future -possessions. For that reason neither France nor Germany wished to -undertake it, lest they should arouse the enmity of Russia. Another -fundamental object was to build those lines with American capital, which -would make it possible to counteract the Russo-Franco-German policies -and financial intrigues, for the benefit of the Armenian people. But in -spite of all his efforts, Dr. Pasdermadjian was unable to overcome the -German opposition in Constantinople, although, as the outcome of the -struggle in connection with that bill, two ministers of public works -were forced to resign their post. Both of the ministers were absolute -German agents under the name of Turkish ministers. It may also be worth -mentioning that during his four years at Constantinople as a deputy from -Erzeroum, at three different times, Talaat Bey (who became the butcher -of the Armenian people in 1915), on behalf of the "Committee of Union -and Progress," offered the portfolio of public works to Dr. -Pasdermadjian, as the most competent man for the post. Dr. -Pasdermadjian, however, refused these proposals, for the simple reason -that he did not wish to compromise in any way with the leaders of the -Turkish government, as long as they continued their chauvinistic and -anti-Armenian policy. - -In the parliamentary elections of 1914, the "Committee of Union and -Progress" used every means to defeat the election of Dr. Pasdermadjian -in Erzeroum. On account of this attitude of the Turks, all the Armenian -inhabitants of the Erzeroum vilayet refused to take part in the last -elections. This intense opposition of the Turks to the candidacy of Dr. -Pasdermadjian was due to the fact that he had taken too active a part in -1913 in the conferences held for the consideration of the Armenian -reforms, and especially because, while parliamentary elections were -going on in Turkish Armenia during April, 1914, he was in Paris and -Holland, as the delegate of the Armenian Revolutionary Dashnaktzoutiun -(Federation), to meet the inspectors general who were invited to carry -out the reforms in Turkish Armenia. - -In the autumn of 1914, a month and a half before the beginning of -Turco-Russian hostilities, Dr. Pasdermadjian went to the Caucasus on a -special mission, and joined the committee which had been appointed by -the Armenian National Council of the Caucasus to organize the Armenian -volunteer movement. In November of the same year, when the Russo-Turkish -war had begun, he accompanied the second battalion of the Armenian -volunteers, as the representative of the executive committee of Tiflis, -to prepare the local inhabitants of Turkish Armenia for self-defence, as -the Russian army was about to advance into the captured territories of -that country. On November 14 the second battalion of the Armenian -volunteers engaged in battle for the first time, near Bayazid, with the -Turkish soldiers and the Kurds. In the course of a bloody combat which -lasted twenty-four hours, Dro, the brave commander of the battalion, was -seriously wounded, and Dr. Pasdermadjian was forced immediately to take -his place. From that day to March of the following year, he remained at -the head of that battalion, and led it into eleven battles in the -neighborhood of Alashkert, Toutakh, and Malashkert, until Dro recovered -and returned to resume the command. In the summer of 1915, Dr. -Pasdermadjian (again as a representative of the executive committee of -Tiflis) went to Van. He was there when the people migrated en masse to -the Caucasus (when the Russian army was forced to retreat to the old -Russo-Turkish frontiers) and shared their untold hardships. - -In the spring of 1917, when the Russian Revolution turned all the -defence work of the Caucasus up-side down, Dr. Pasdermadjian, with Dr. -Zavrieff, was sent from the Caucasus to Petrograd to negotiate with the -temporary Russian government concerning Caucasian affairs. From -Petrograd he left for America in June of the same year as the -representative of the Armenian National Council of Tiflis and as the -special Envoy of His Holiness the Catholicos of all the Armenians, to -lay before the American public and government the sorrows of the -Armenian people with the view of winning their sympathy and protection -for the indisputable rights of Armenia. He is still acting in that -capacity with all the energy at his command. His last effort has been -the preparation of this pamphlet, in which the reader will find a part -of these biographical facts under his assumed name of Armen Garo. - - -A word or two more about this booklet, which has been written in the -nick of time. - -The critical days in the spring of this year are over, and the complete -victory of the Allies and of the United States has been won. "The day is -not very far," in the words of the writer, "when ... the representatives -of all the nations of the world,--guilty or just,--are to receive their -punishment or reward...." It is the purpose of this pamphlet to -demonstrate beyond any shadow of doubt, with most authentic facts, that -Armenia has fulfilled her duty to the allied cause in full measure (and -suffered untold sacrifices in doing so), and, therefore, is entitled to -her just claims as an Independent Armenia. - -One other purpose the writer had in view in writing this booklet: to -make the great and generous American public realize that Armenians are -not an anaemic and unaggressive people, with no fighting blood in their -veins; that the Armenians have not been butchered like sheep, but, on -the contrary, have fought most bravely and resisted most stubbornly the -savage attacks of the Turks whenever they had an opportunity. - -If the translation can possibly convey the spirit of the original, the -sustained eloquence and suppressed emotion with which the author pleads -the cause of his unfortunate but brave people, should be intensely -effective because they are not mere words, but are based on actual, -real, undeniable facts, and are the expression of a soul wholly -dedicated to a sacred cause. - -A. T. - -Cambridge, Mass. -December, 1918. - - - - -WHY ARMENIA SHOULD BE FREE -ARMENIA'S RÔLE IN THE PRESENT WAR - - -"The interest of the weakest is as sacred as the interest of the -strongest." - -PRESIDENT WILSON. -New York, Sept. 27, 1918. - -[Illustration: A seventy-year old Armenian priest leading the volunteers -to the battlefield.] - - - - -WHY ARMENIA SHOULD BE FREE ARMENIA'S RÔLE IN THE PRESENT WAR - - -In the early days of August, 1914, when civilized nations took up arms -against the German aggression, only three of the smaller nations of -Europe and the Near East had the courage, from the very first days of -the war, to stand by the Allies without any bargaining or dickering, and -they still stand at their posts on the ramparts, in spite of the immense -sacrifices they have already made. - -The first member of this heroic triad was brave Serbia, which was the -first victim of Austrian aggression, and whose sons, after four years of -heroic struggle, are about to regain their lost native land. The second -member was little Belgium, whose three weeks of heroic resistance -delayed the German advance of 1914 and enabled gallant France to crown -with success the historic battle of the Marne. The third member of this -heroic triad was the Armenian people, who for four years and without an -organized government or a national army, played the same role in the -Near East by preventing the Turco-German advance toward the interior of -Asia as the Belgians played in the West by arresting the march of -Germany toward Paris. The Armenians, however, paid a higher price to the -God of War than either the Belgians or the Serbs. Out of four and -one-quarter millions of Armenians living in Turkey and Russia at the -beginning of the war, scarcely three millions remain at the present -time. What were the conditions under which the Armenians sided with the -Allies, and why were they forced to bear so great a sacrifice for their -cause? - - -TURKISH AND RUSSIAN PROPOSALS TO THE ARMENIANS IN 1914. - -In the beginning of this world conflagration, in 1914, both the Russian -and the Turkish governments officially appealed to various Armenian -national organizations with many promises in order to secure the active -participation of the Armenians in the military operations against each -other, the principal stage of which would be Armenia itself. Both -Turkey and Russia were very anxious to win the co-operation of the -Armenians, because, judging from their past experience, they were -convinced that without such co-operation they would not be able to -accomplish the much desired military successes on the Armenian plateau. - -With such aims in view, Russia, through Count Varantzoff Dashkoff, -informed the Armenian National Council (then in existence at Tiflis) -that if the Armenians would unreservedly give their support to the -Russian armies during the course of the war, Russia would grant autonomy -to the six Armenian vilayets. The Russian Armenians, however, through -bitter experience, knew very well what little practical value could be -attached to the promises of Russian Czarism. During the course of the -19th century at three different times the Russians had made similar -promises to the Armenians when they waged war with Turkey and Persia, -and, although the self-sacrificing co-operation of the Russian Armenians -enabled the Russians to capture the districts of Elizavetpol, Erivan and -Kars in 1806, in 1828, and again in 1878, at the end of these wars their -flattering promises to the Armenians were promptly forgotten. But this -time the Armenians thought that Russia was not alone; the two great -liberal nations of the West, France and England, were her Allies. After -long and weighty consultation, with their hopes pinned on France and -England, the Armenians resolved to aid the Russian armies in every -possible way. - -While Russian diplomacy was in the midst of these diplomatic -negotiations at Tiflis, during the last days of August, 1914, a Turkish -mission of twenty-eight members (the object of which was to organize a -Pan-Islamic and a Pan-Turanian movement among all the races of the Near -East against Russia and her Allies) left Constantinople for Armenia. The -leaders of that mission were Omar Nadji Bey, Dr. Bahaeddin Shakir, and -Lieutenant Hilmy, all of them very influential members of the "Committee -of Union and Progress." The mission included representatives of all the -Eastern races, such as the Kurds, Persians, Georgians, Chechens, -Lezgies, Circassians, and the Caucasian Tartars, but not the Armenians. -During those same days the annual Congress of the Armenian National -Organization was in session at Erzeroum. In the name of the Turkish -government the above mentioned mission appealed to the Armenian -Organization with the following proposition: - -[Illustration: Armenians of Van defending themselves against the Turkish -and Kurdish raids in 1915. The volunteers in their trenches.] - - - "If the Armenians,--the Turkish as well as the Russian - Armenians--would give active co-operation to the Turkish armies, - the Turkish government under a German guarantee would promise to - create after the war an autonomous Armenia (made up of Russian - Armenia and the three Turkish vilayets of Erzeroum, Van, and - Bitlis) under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire." - - -The Turkish delegates, in order to persuade the Armenians to accept this -proposal, informed them also that they (the Turks) had already won the -co-operation of the Georgians and the Tartars, as well as the -mountaineers of the northern Caucasus, and therefore the noncompliance -of the Armenians under such circumstances would be very stupid and -fraught with danger for them on both sides of the boundary between -Turkey and Russia. In spite of these promises and threats, the executive -committee of the Dashnaktzoutiun (Federation) informed the Turks that -the Armenians could not accept the Turkish proposal, and on their behalf -advised the Turks not to participate in the present war, which would be -very disastrous to the Turks themselves. The Armenian members of this -parley were the well-known publicist, Mr. E. Aknouni, the representative -from Van, Mr. A. Vramian, and the director of the Armenian schools in -the district of Erzeroum, Mr. Rostom. Of these Mr. Aknouni and Mr. -Vramian were treacherously killed a few months later for their audacious -refusal of the Turkish proposals, while Mr. Rostom luckily escaped the -murderous plots against his life. - -The bold retort of the Armenians to the Turkish proposal mentioned -above, intensely angered the Turks, and from that very day the -extermination of the Armenians was determined upon by the Turkish -government. And in reality, arrests and persecutions within the Armenian -vilayets began in the early part of September, 1914, a month and a half -before the commencement of the Russo-Turkish war. The speed of the -persecutions gained greater momentum as the months rolled by and tens of -villages in different parts of Armenia were subjected to fire and sword. -In the district of Van alone, during February and March of 1915, -twenty-four villages were razed to their foundations and their -populations put to the sword. Early in April of the same year, they -attempted the massacre of the inhabitants of the city of Van as well, -but the Armenians took up arms, and, guided by their brave leader, Aram, -defended their lives and property for a whole month, until the Armenian -volunteers from Erivan with Russian soldiers came to the rescue and -saved them from the impending doom. This resistance on the part of the -inhabitants of Van gave the Turkish government a pretext to deport in -June and July of the same year the entire Armenian population of Turkish -Armenia, with the pretended intention of transporting them to -Mesopotamia, but with the actual determination to exterminate them. Out -of the million and a half of Armenians deported, scarcely 400,000 to -500,000 reached the sandy deserts of Syria and Mesopotamia, and most of -these were women, old men, and children, who were subjected in those -desolate regions to the mortal pangs of famine. More than a million -defenceless Armenians were murdered at the hands of Turkish soldiers and -Turkish mobs. The gang of robbers, headed by Talaat and Enver, resorted -to this fiendish means to eliminate the Armenian question once for all, -because the Armenians had had the courage to oppose their Pan-Turanian -policies. The barbarities of Jenghiz Khan and Tamerlane pale in -comparison with the savageries which were perpetrated against the -Turkish Armenians in the summer of 1915 during this wholesale massacre -organized by the Turkish government. Mr. Morgenthau, who was the -American ambassador at Constantinople during those frightful months, has -proclaimed all these atrocities by his authentic pen to the civilized -nations. This was the price which the Armenian people paid within the -boundaries of Turkey for refusing to aid the Turco-German policies. - -Now let us see what positive services from a military point of view this -same martyred people rendered to the allied cause on both sides of the -Turco-Russian boundary line. - - -MILITARY SERVICES RENDERED BY THE ARMENIANS ON THE CAUCASIAN FRONT - -In order to have an adequate comprehension of the events which took -place on the Caucasian front, it would be well to bear in mind that all -the peoples of Trans-Caucasia, including the Armenians, felt great -enmity toward the government of the Czar, whose treatment of them in the -past had been very tyrannical and very brutal. For this very reason, the -Turco-German propaganda had easily won the sympathy of nearly 3,000,000 -Tartars and 2,000,000 Georgians. The dream of the Tartars was to join -the Ottoman Turks and re-establish the old great Tartar Empire, which -was to extend from Constantinople to Samarkant, including all the lands -of the Caucasus and Trans-Caspia, while the Georgians, through their -alliance with the Turco-Germans, hoped to regain their lost independence -in the western Caucasus. Only the 2,000,000 Armenians of the Caucasus -were not influenced by the Turco-German propaganda, although they hated -the Russian despotism as much as their neighbors. But, on the other -hand, having very close acquaintance with the psychology of the Turkish -race and with their ulterior aspirations, the Armenians had the -political wisdom and courage to put aside their petty quarrels with -Russian Czarism and throw in their lot with the allied cause. - -[Illustration: Armenian volunteers of the Caucasus taking the oath of -allegiance administered by the church dignitaries before leaving for the -battlefield in October, 1914.] - -These were the circumstances under which the mobilization of 1914 took -place in the Caucasus. The Armenian reservists, about 160,000 in number, -gladly responded to the call, for the simple reason that they were to -fight the arch enemy of their historic race. Besides the regular -soldiers, nearly 20,000 volunteers expressed their readiness to take up -arms against the Turks. The Georgians, on the other hand, answered the -call very reluctantly, and the Armenian-Georgian relations were greatly -strained from the very beginning. The attitude of the Armenians toward -the despotic Russian government was incomprehensible to the Georgians, -who thought that, because the Armenians sided with Russia,--the -oppressor of all the Caucasian races,--they must be unfriendly to the -Georgians. Many Georgian young men crossed the border from Batoum, went -to Trebizond, and prepared bands of volunteers under the leadership of -Prince Abashizé in order to aid the Turks. As to the Tartars, not being -subject to call, they assumed the role of spectators on the one hand, -and on the other used every means to arm themselves, impatiently -awaiting the arrival of the Turks. The great land-owners of the -provinces of Erivan, Elizavetpol, and Baku began to accumulate enormous -stores, and prepare a huge reserve of sugar and wheat. The price of one -rifle, which was 100 rubles ($50), rose to 1500 rubles ($750). Through -Persia, the Germans took to the Caucasus great sums of money in order to -push forward the task of arming the Tartars from the very first days of -the war. Great numbers of young Tartars went to Persia and joined the -Turkish armies. And all this was carried on in broad daylight under the -very eyes of the short-sighted Russian bureaucracy. - -The Russian administration of the Caucasus was more concerned with the -Armenian "danger" and had no time to pay attention to the Georgians and -the Tartars. Was it not a fact that officially no Georgian or Tartar -question was placed on the diplomatic table, whereas the Armenian -question was there? And for that very reason, before the commencement of -the Russo-Turkish hostilities, the second and third army corps of the -Caucasian army, the majority of which were Armenians, were transferred -to the German front and were replaced by Russian army corps. Moreover, -out of the 20,000 Armenian volunteers who responded to the call, only -7,000 were given arms; the authorities objected that they had no rifles -ready, while a few months later the same administration distributed -24,000 rifles to the Kurds in Persia and in the district of Van. It is -needless to say that all the Armenian officers and generals were -transferred to the Western front; only one Armenian general was left as -a specimen on the entire Caucasian front, General Nazarbekoff, and he -was transferred to Persia, away from the Armenian border. Under these -trying conditions commenced the Russo-Turkish war and the -Armenian-Russian co-operation on the Caucasian front in the autumn of -1914. But, in spite of this suspicious and crafty attitude assumed by -the Russian administration, the Armenian inhabitants of the Caucasus -spared nothing in their power for the success of the Russian armies. In -the three main unsuccessful Turkish offensives the battalions of -Armenian volunteers played a great role. Let us now see just what took -place during those offensives. - -[Illustration: KERI VARTAN HAMAZASP - -Commanders of Armenian volunteers; Keri, of the 4th battalion; Hamazasp, -of the 3rd battalion, and Vartan, of the regiment of Ararat.] - -The first serious Turkish offensive took place in the beginning of -December, 1914, when Enver Pasha attempted to reach Tiflis by shattering -the right wing of the Russian army. The Turkish "Napoleon" was anxious -to connect his name with that great victory which seemed certain to his -puny brain. And with that very purpose in view he boarded Goeben, the -German cruiser, and left Constantinople, amid great demonstrations. He -reached Erzeroum in three days, thanks to the German automobiles which -were ready for him at different stops between Trebizond and the -frontier. The offensive was planned with great care, and had great -chances of success if all the three wings of the Turkish army had -reached their objectives on time. Enver had under his command three army -corps--the ninth, the tenth, and the eleventh. The ninth army corps was -to advance toward Ardahan by way of Olti and from there to march on -Tiflis by way of Akhalkalag, when it should receive word that the tenth -army corps had already captured Sarikamish and cut off the retreat of -the Russian army of 60,000 men; while the eleventh army corps was to -attack the centre of the Russian army near the frontier. The ninth army -corps, in three days and without difficulty, reached Ardahan, where the -local Moslem inhabitants assisted it in every possible way. The tenth -army corps, during its march from Olti to Sarikamish, suffered a delay -of twenty-four hours in the Barduz Pass, due to the heroic resistance of -the fourth battalion of the Armenian volunteers which made up the -Russian reserve. This delay of twenty-four hours enabled the Russians to -concentrate a sufficient force around Sarikamish (which had been left -entirely undefended) and thereby force back the ninth corps of the -Turkish army. The Turks were so certain of the success of their plan -that they had no transports with them and no extra supply of provisions. -Opposite Sarikamish, where a battle was waged for three days and three -nights, the Turks suffered a loss of 30,000 men, mostly due to cold -rather than to the Russian arms. But if the Turkish army corps had -reached Sarikamish twenty-four hours earlier, as was expected, it would -have confronted only one battalion of Russian reserves, and that without -artillery. This was the invaluable service rendered to the Russian army -by the fourth battalion of the Armenian volunteers under the command of -the matchless Keri. Six hundred Armenian veterans fell in the Barduz -Pass, and at such a high price saved the 60,000 Russians from being -taken prisoners by the Turks. This great service of the Armenians to the -Russian army was announced at the time by Enver Pasha himself, when he -returned to Constantinople immediately after his defeat. From that time -on the government at Constantinople laid the blame of its defeat at the -door of the Armenians, as a preliminary step in its preparation for the -execution of its already-planned massacres of the Armenian people. - -After their defeat at Sarikamish, the Turks attempted in April of 1915 -to turn the extreme left wing of the Russian army by marching to Joulfa -through Persia, and from there (in case of success) moving on to Baku, -with the hope that the Tartar inhabitants of the eastern Caucasus would -immediately join them and enable them to cut the only communicating -line of railroad of the Russians, and thereby force the entire Russian -army to retreat toward the northern Caucasus. The work of the -intelligence department of the Turks was very well organized, especially -as the Tartar and Georgian officers of the Caucasus rendered them -invaluable services. The Turks knew very well that the Russians in -Persia at that time had only one brigade of Russian troops under the -command of the Armenian General Nazarbekoff and one battalion of -Armenian volunteers scattered throughout Salmast and Urmia, while their -own army was made up of one regular and well-drilled division of troops -(sent especially from Constantinople) under the command of Khalil Bey -and nearly 10,000 Kurds. Khalil Bey with his superior forces captured -the city of Urmia in a few hours (taking prisoner nearly a thousand -Russians) and victoriously marched on Salmast. Here took place one of -the fiercest battles between the Armenians and the Turks. The first -battalion of the Armenian volunteers, under the command of the veteran -Andranik, strongly enforced in its trenches, repulsed the attacks of -Khalil Bey for three days continuously, until the Russians, with the -newly-arrived forces from the Caucasus, were able to put to flight the -army of Khalil Bey. Thirty-six hundred Turkish soldiers lay dead before -the Armenian trenches in the course of those three days. - -In that very month of April, while Khalil Bey was confidently -attempting, as we have seen, to surround the left wing of the Russian -army in Persia, over in Van the Armenians had taken up arms in -self-defence, and for one whole month were fighting another division of -Turkish troops and thousands of Kurds until the first days of May, when -three other battalions of Armenian volunteers, under the command of -General Nikolaeff, came to the rescue, riding a distance of 250 -kilometers (155 miles)--from Erivan to Van--in ten days. For one who is -acquainted with the local conditions, it is an undisputed fact that if -the Armenians of Van in April, 1915, by their heroic resistance had not -kept busy that one division of regular Turkish troops and thousands of -Kurds, and had made it possible for them to join the army of Khalil Bey, -the Turks undoubtedly would have been able to crush the Russian forces -in Persia and reach Baku in a few weeks, for the simple reason that from -the banks of the Araxes to Baku the Russians had no forces at all, while -the local Tartar inhabitants, armed and ready, were awaiting the coming -of the Turks before rising en masse to join them. From the very -beginning of the war, Baku has been the real objective of the Turks, -just as Paris has been the objective of the Germans, and that for two -reasons: first, as a fountain of wealth, the Turks knew very well that -the Russian government received from the oil wells of Baku an annual -income of more than 200,000,000 rubles ($100,000,000), a sum which is -more than all the revenues of the bankrupt Turkish government put -together, and they looked upon these financial resources as -indispensable for the accomplishment of their plan of a Pan-Turanian -Empire; second, because the very plan of their Pan-Turanism had been -introduced in Constantinople after 1908 by these very Tartars of Baku. -The commanders of the Turkish forces engaged in Persia and Van--Khalil -and Jevded--understood very well why their plans failed in the month of -April, 1915; and that failure is the explanation of those frightful -massacres which took place on the plains of Bitlis and Moush in June of -the same year, when the armies of the same Khalil and Jevded, defeated -in Persia and Van, were forced to retreat under the pressure of the -Armenian volunteers. - -[Illustration: ANDRANIK - -The commander of the first battalion of Armenian Volunteers] - -The third Turkish offensive took place early in July, 1915. This time -the Turks, with all their available forces--eleven divisions of regular -troops, again under the command of Khalil Bey--attacked the very center -of the Caucasian army. In a few days they re-occupied Malashkert, -Toutakh, and the greater part of the plains of Alashkert. During one -week the center of the Russian army retreated more than 100 kilometers -(62 miles) leaving behind the district of Van entirely unprotected, and -in danger of being surrounded at any moment. If the Turks had had one or -two more divisions of troops at their service in those days, they would -have been able very easily to take prisoners the entire fourth army of -the Russian left wing and cut off their way of retreat. In order to -escape from this dangerous situation, the Russian left wing was forced -to retreat hastily toward the Russian frontier and sent a part of its -forces to aid the central army. Only at the end of July did the Russian -army, having received aid from its left wing, and under the leadership -of the Armenian General Nazarbekoff, succeed in forcing back the Turks -to their former line. These were the conditions under which nearly -150,000 Armenian inhabitants of the district of Van were compelled to -leave all their property at the mercy of the enemy's fire and flee -toward Erivan. - - -ARMENIAN RESISTANCE TO THE TURKISH MASSACRES - -It is true that the battalions of Armenian volunteers took no active -part in the battles of July, for they were then in the district of Van -and undertaking the heavy duty of rear guard work for the Russian army -and the Armenian refugees. But the Turkish Armenians behind the front, -who were being deported and massacred as early as the month of July, by -their heroic resistance, occupied the attention of four Turkish -divisions and tens of thousands of Kurds just at the time when the Turks -had such great need of those forces to aid them in their July drive. It -is worth while, therefore, to point out here that, during the -deportations and massacres of 1915, whenever the Armenians had any -possible means at all of resisting the criminal plans of the Turkish -government, they took up arms and organized resistance in different -parts of Armenia. - -Even before the deportations had begun, toward the latter part of 1914, -the Turkish government cunningly attempted to disarm the Zeitunians, the -brave Armenian mountaineers of Cilicia, who had taken up arms against -the Turkish government at three different times in the nineteenth -century, and each time had laid down their arms only on the intervention -of the European powers, believing that they would put an end to the -Turkish barbarities. This time the government filled the prisons with -the prominent Zeitunians and persuaded the young warriors to surrender, -promising to set them free if they did so. After accomplishing its -deceitful plan, the government put to death most of the young men, -deported the inhabitants, and made the mouhajirs from Balkans inhabit -Zeitun, even changing the name of the place to Soulaymania, in order to -erase the memory of those brave mountaineers. A group of warriors, -however, found means to take up their arms, climb the mountains, and -fight the Turkish soldiers. They are still free, and live among the -mountains of Giaur Dagh. In the following year the inhabitants of -Suediah were the first to defend themselves against the Turks. In April, -when the Turkish government ordered the Armenian peasants of Suediah to -leave their homes and emigrate toward Der-El-Zor, the inhabitants of -four or five villages, nearly 5,000 in number, refused to obey this -unlawful order of the Turkish government. With their families they -climbed the Amanos mountains and for forty-two days heroically resisted -the cannonading of the regular Turkish forces. Their situation was of -course critical. The desperate villagers sewed a large red cross on a -white sheet to inform the fleet of the Allies in the Mediterranean that -they were in danger. The French cruiser, Guechène, got in touch with the -Armenian peasants, informed its war department of the situation, and -obtained permission to remove them by transports to Port Said (Egypt). -Most of them are still there, cared for by the British, while the young -warriors went to join the French Oriental Legion, and fought on the -Palestine front under General Allenby. - -[Illustration: Turkish cannons captured by the Armenians of Van in -April, 1915.] - -The resistance at Van has already been spoken of. The next place of -importance must be given to the brave mountainous district of Sasoun, -that very Sasoun which had retained its semi-independent position in -Turkish Armenia up to the beginning of the last century, and had taken -up arms at three different times in the present generation to defend its -independence against the Ottoman troops--in 1894, in 1904, and again in -1915. This last time, toward the end of June, when the troops of Khalil -and Jevded began to lay waste with fire and sword the city of Moush and -the unprotected villages of the outlying district, the gallant -Sasounians, under the guidance of their two idealistic leaders, came -down from their mountains and made several raids on the city to drive -away the Turks. One of their leaders was Roupen, a self-sacrificing and -highly educated young man who had received his university training in -Geneva, Switzerland, and had shouldered his gun in 1904 and had -dedicated himself to the task of defending Sasoun. The name of the other -was Vahan Papazian (a native of Van, but educated in Russian -universities), who had been elected representative from Van to the -Ottoman parliament. This daring step on the part of Sasoun forced the -Turkish commanders to march on Sasoun with two divisions of troops and -with nearly 30,000 Kurds. From the first days of July to Sept. 8, the -Sasounians were able to resist the Turco-Kurdish attacks, always with -the hope that the Russian army would come to their assistance. During -that interval of time, the Sasounians sent several couriers to the -Russian army and asked for help, but the Russian commanders remained -indifferent, in spite of the fact that the extreme front line of the -Russian army was scarcely 50 kilometers (31 miles) away from Sasoun, and -the sound of the Turkish artillery aimed at the Sasounians could be -heard very distinctly by the Russian army. One of the commanders of the -Armenian volunteers, Dro, appealed to the Russian commander and asked -for one battery of cannon and a score or two of machine guns, which -would have enabled his men to break the Turkish front and join the -Sasounians. That request likewise was refused by the heartless -commanders of despotic Russia. These were the conditions under which -fell the historic Verdun of Armenia, heroic little Sasoun which, with -its 10,000 mountaineers, succeeded in facing 50,000 Turks and Kurds for -two months, with antiquated weapons and without adequate food or -ammunition. - -Making all due allowance for the relative magnitude and importance of -the Near Eastern and the Western fronts, we may safely say without -exaggeration that Van and Sasoun, on the Caucasian front in the year -1915, played exactly the same role which Liege played in 1914 and Verdun -in 1916 on the Western front. Had it not been for these two points of -stubborn resistance against the Turkish troops in the summer of 1915, -the two Turkish offensives, already spoken of, would have had great -chances of success. This is an undisputed fact with all the inhabitants -of the Near East. And indeed, three months after these events, when the -Armenian volunteers together with the Russian troops recommenced their -drive and captured the cities of Moush and Bitlis, in the diary of a -Turkish officer, who was taken prisoner in Bitlis, was found the -following item, which appeared at the time in the Russian press: - - - "We are asked why we massacre the Armenians. The reason is quite - plain to me. Had not the Armenians fought against us, we should - have reached Tiflis and Baku long ago." - - -In addition to Van and Sasoun, during the same July when deportations -and organized massacres were going on, three other places might be -mentioned where hopeless attempts at resistance were made by the -Armenians against the savage Turks and Kurds. These places were Sivas, -Urfa, and Shabin-Karahissar. At Sivas the heroic resistance of Mourat -and his comrades and their escape were so full of thrilling events that -they have been likened to the adventures of Odysseus. Mourat is a brave -warrior who, together with his companion, Sepouh, had fought at Sasoun, -in 1904, and had taken part in the Armenian and Tartar clashes of 1905 -and 1906 in the Caucasus. When deportations and massacres commenced in -1915, Turkish gendarmes were sent to capture Mourat, who was living with -his wife and child in a village near Sivas. Realizing the coming danger, -Mourat climbed the mountains with his band of warriors and resisted the -raids of the enemy. After a year and a half of stubborn resistance, he -descended one day to the shore of the Black Sea, captured a Turkish -sail-boat near Samsoun, and, putting his comrades into it, ordered the -Turkish sailor to steer the boat toward Batoum, a Russian port. -According to cable messages, Mourat was chased by a Turkish gun-boat. -Several battles took place in which he lost a few of his men, but -finally repulsed the Turks and reached Batoum safe and sound. At Urfa -the Armenians were able for forty days to repulse the attacks of one -Turkish division, but finally fell heroically under the fire of Turkish -artillery, commanded by German officers, having previously destroyed all -their property so that it would not fall into the hands of their -enemies. In the ruined Armenian trenches at Urfa, by the side of -Armenian young men there had fallen dead also Armenian young women who, -arms in hand, were found all mangled by the German bombs. At -Shabin-Karahissar, nearly 5,000 Armenians, for twenty-seven days without -interruption, in the same month of July, kept busy another division of -Turkish troops with their artillery. There took place one of the most -tragic and heroic episodes of the present war. When the ammunition of -the Armenians was almost gone, on the last day of the struggle, nearly -3,000 Armenian women and girls drank poison and died in order not to -fall alive into the hands of the savage Turks. If the supply of poison -had not given out, all the women would have done likewise. An -eye-witness, one who had taken part in the struggle and who succeeded in -reaching the Caucasus in 1916, after wandering in the mountains and -valleys of Armenia for a whole year, related how on that last day -Armenian mothers and girls, with tears in their eyes and with hymns on -their lips, received poison from the Armenian physicians and -apothecaries for themselves and their little ones. When the supply of -poison gave out, those who were unable to obtain any uttered terrible -wailing, and many of the girls cast themselves down from the rocks of -the Karahissar citadel and committed suicide. - -[Illustration: DRO - -The commander of the second battalion of Armenian volunteers.] - -These events reveal the following facts: first, that in spite of all the -precautions which the Turkish government employed to disarm the -Armenians before carrying out its fiendish design, the Armenians found -means to organize in the four corners of Armenia hopeless but serious -plans of resistance against the swords of their enemy; second, that in -order to eliminate these Armenian points of resistance during the summer -of 1915, five Turkish divisions and tens of thousands of Kurds were kept -employed, and were unable to add their immediate co-operation in those -very days to the other Turkish forces engaged in their two offensives on -the Caucasian front. These were the positive services which the martyred -Armenian people rendered to the allied cause in the Near East. Their -active resistance to the Turco-German plans, however, cost the Armenians -more than one million men massacred under the most savage conditions, -and the deprivation of their means of livelihood in Turkish Armenia. -But, to complete the description of the Armenian Calvary, it is -necessary to picture also in a few words the attitude assumed by the -government of the Russian Czar toward the very Armenian people whose -active participation on Russia's side enabled the Caucasian front to -repulse the Turkish attacks in 1914 and 1915, and, moreover, to -accomplish definite successes during the following year, 1916. - - -ATTITUDE OF RUSSIAN CZARISM TOWARD THE ARMENIANS - -As we have already mentioned, from the beginning of the war the Russian -bureaucracy tried on the one hand by various false promises to win over -the sympathy of the Armenians, while on the other it tried by every -means to keep the Armenian military forces away from the Caucasian -front. Only seven battalions of Armenian volunteers were kept on the -Caucasian front. As we have already seen, those few battalions even, in -1914 and 1915, rendered to the Russians invaluable services, twice -saving the right and left wings of the Russian army from an unavoidable -catastrophe by their heroic resistance; but the Russian official -communiqués do not contain one line in which the battalions of Armenian -volunteers are even mentioned. The same silence was maintained by the -Russian communiqués concerning the heroic resistance of the Armenians at -Van, and with regard to the assistance which the Armenian volunteers -rushed to that city. This was the policy of the government of Russian -Czarism from the beginning of the war to the end of its existence,--to -avoid in every way speaking about the Armenians and Armenia. The -Russian press was even forbidden to speak about the massacres carried on -in Turkish Armenia at the hands of the Turkish government. Therefore, -when the capture of Erzeroum in 1916 made the immediate co-operation of -the Armenian volunteers unnecessary to the Russians, the -commander-in-chief of the Caucasian army at the time, Grand Duke Nicolas -Nicolaevitch, ordered the disbanding of all the battalions of the -Armenian volunteers. Besides this amazing treatment of the Armenian -military forces, the Czar's government removed from the Caucasus before -the war all the Armenian officers and replaced them by generals -(manifestly anti-Armenian in spirit) from the Russians, Georgians, and -other Caucasian races. The object of this move was to enable the -government to check the national aspirations of the Armenians, and to -give it a plausible opportunity at the end of the war to take over the -Armenian vilayets without gratifying the demands of the Armenians for -autonomy. - -[Illustration: The civilian Armenians of Urfa who defended themselves -against the Turks and the Kurds in July, 1915.] - -From the third month of the war, it became clear to us that the Russian -government pursued unswervingly its Lobanoff-policy toward the -Armenians. What was that policy? In 1896, when an English correspondent -interviewed the Russian minister of foreign affairs, Count Lobanoff -Rostowsky, and asked him why Russia did not occupy the Armenian vilayets -of Turkey in order to save that Christian people from the Turkish -massacres, the Russian minister cynically replied: "We need Armenia, but -without the Armenians." It is worth while, then, to give here a few -actual facts which reveal this fiendish policy pursued by the Russian -government toward a people which was the only one of all the peoples of -the Caucasus and the Near East to help the Russian army by its -unreserved co-operation, and which was the only factor that saved the -Caucasian front from an unavoidable catastrophe in 1914 and 1915. - -ONE. Every time that the Russian army was forced to retreat from the -recaptured parts of Turkish Armenia, no precautionary measures were -taken in order to save the local Armenian inhabitants from the -inevitable massacres. For example, in December, 1914, when the Turks -advanced as far as Sarikamish and Ardahan and forced the central Russian -army to retreat from the neighborhood of Alashkert and Bayazid, the -commander of the local forces, General Abatzieff (an Acétine Moslem who -had joined the Greek church) strictly ordered the local Armenian -inhabitants, nearly 32,000 in number, not to stir from their places, and -in order to have his command accurately carried out he placed mounted -Cossack patrols in the plains of Alashkert lest the Armenian peasants -should emigrate toward the Russian frontier, in which direction the -Russian army with its transports had already been moving since December -13. Three days later the second battalion of the Armenian volunteers, -which had been fighting in the first-line positions for over two months -under the command of the same general, returned to the army headquarters -for a well-earned rest, and there only it heard about the serious -happenings already mentioned, and the extraordinary attitude assumed by -the Russian general. The Armenian peasants from every side appealed to -the Armenian volunteers with tears in their eyes and begged to be saved -from an inevitable massacre. The commander of the Armenian volunteers, -Armen Garo, and his brave assistant, Khetcho, who died like a hero in -July, 1915, on the shores of Lake Van, went immediately to General -Abatzieff and asked him to revoke his order and permit the Armenian -inhabitants to move with the army toward Igdir. The hostile general -refused their request, his answer being that, if the people stirred from -the place, he would be unable to remove the army transports soon enough. -When he heard this answer, Armen Garo immediately telegraphed to Igdir -and appealed to the commander-in-chief of the fourth army, General -Oganowsky, and in touching words asked for his intervention. On the -following day only, thanks to the intervention of General Oganowsky, the -Armenian volunteers received permission to organize the retreat of the -Armenian inhabitants of the plains of Alashkert toward Igdir and to -defend them from the attacks of the Kurds. During the seven days that -the retreat lasted the Armenians lost only 400 persons, and most of -those on account of the severe cold. Another example of this hostile -treatment of the Armenians by the Russian authorities might be -mentioned,--the retreat from the Van district in July, 1915. There -General Nikolaeff for eight continuous days deceived the Armenian -leaders and made them remain idle (telling them every day that he would -not retreat under any circumstances, and that therefore it was entirely -needless to remove the people), until behold, one day, July 18, he -suddenly sent for the mayor of Van, Aram, and the commander-in-chief of -the Armenian volunteers, Vartan, and informed them that he had received -orders to retreat immediately, but in order to make it possible for the -people to prepare for departure, he would wait until the 20th of the -month. Thus the Armenian leaders were forced to remove in two or three -days nearly 150,000 people of the Van region, and if those three -battalions of Armenian volunteers had not been there to protect the -people from Kurdish and Turkish raids, the loss of life during the -journey would have been tenfold more than it actually was. Whereas, if -the Russian general had not been so deceitful in his behavior but had -given an opportunity of seven or eight days to organize the retreat, it -would have been possible to direct the people to Erivan without the loss -of a single life. The Armenians suffered a loss of 8,000 to 10,000 men, -women, and children during the retreat. - -[Illustration: KHETCHO - -The commander of the cavalry corps of the Armenian volunteers, who was -killed in July, 1915, near Bitlis.] - -TWO. When Turkish Armenia was almost wholly emptied of its Armenian -inhabitants, due to these successive retreats, the Russian government -raised all sorts of barriers before the refugees to prevent them from -returning to their former homes when the Russian army recaptured the -Armenian vilayets. For example, in 1916-1917, scarcely 8,000 to 10,000 -Armenians were permitted to go back and inhabit the region of Van; the -rest were compelled to stay within the borders of the Caucasus as -refugees. Toward the latter part of 1916, even among Russian -governmental circles there was talk of transferring to Siberia nearly -250,000 Turkish Armenian immigrants who had sought refuge in the -Caucasus, because it was objected that no available lands existed there -for them. Russians considered it a settled question that even after the -war the Turkish Armenians would not be permitted to return to their own -homes. - -On the other hand, the same Russian bureaucracy resorted to every means -to win the sympathy of the Turkish and Kurdish inhabitants remaining in -Armenia. With that purpose in view, in the spring of 1916, on behalf of -the ministry for foreign affairs at Petrograd, Count Chakhowsky with his -own organization established himself in Bashkalé (a city in the district -of Van) and distributed nearly 24,000 rifles to the Kurds of the -neighboring regions. It is needless to say that not long after those -very rifles were used by the Kurds against the Russian army both in -Persia and Armenia. This amazing action of Count Chakhowsky was taken so -openly that it was even known to ordinary Russian soldiers, who were -extremely enraged against the Count, a fact which accounts for the -murder of the same Count Chakhowsky in Persia by Russian soldiers, when -the discipline of the Russian army was relaxed on account of the -revolution which took place in the spring of 1917. - -THREE. While the Russians were preventing the Turkish Armenian -immigrants from returning to their own lands, they, in the spring of -1916, commenced to organize in Turkish Armenia colonies of Cossacks. The -Russian administration sent special propagandists to the northern -Caucasus to persuade the Cossacks living there to move to Armenia, and -during that same year 5,000 of them, under the name of agricultural -battalions, were already cultivating the plains of Alashkert, lands -which rightly belonged to the Armenians. This last act of the Russian -government was so revolting that even the liberal organs of the Russian -press complained of the government for such inhuman proceedings, while -in the Russian Duma two Russian representatives, N. Milukoff and A. -Kerensky (both of whom played such great roles the following year in the -downfall of Czarism), publicly criticised the government of the Czar for -its base treatment of the Armenians. Documentary evidence relating to -this disgraceful action of the Russian government, which incensed the -ire of prominent liberals in the Duma, may be found in the July 28, -1916, issue of the _Retch_, the organ of the Constitutional Democrats in -Russia. In order to characterize this criminal action of the Russian -bureaucracy against the Armenian people who were martyred for the allied -cause, it may be worth while also to cite the following details: - -In the month of July, 1915, the Armenian inhabitants of Erzeroum, nearly -25,000 in number, were likewise deported by the Turkish government, -leaving all their real and personal property at the disposal of the -Turks. The governor of the place, Tahsin Bey, arranged a scheme by means -of which every Armenian before leaving the city could store his goods -and household furniture (with the name of the owner on each article) in -the cathedral, with the apparent purpose of returning them to their -owners after the war, but with the real purpose of preventing so much -riches from falling into the hands of the Turkish mob, in order to -appropriate them later for the government. The cathedral of Erzeroum was -packed with the goods of the exiled Armenians when the Russians captured -the city in February, 1916. Ordinary human decency demanded that the -Russians should not have touched the articles stored in that sacred -edifice, especially as they belonged to the very martyred people whose -professed sympathies for them (the Russians) were the cause of their -being exiled to the deserts of Mesopotamia. But the fact is that the -commander of the Russian army, General Kaledine himself, set the example -of desecration; he personally entered the cathedral first, and selected -for himself a few car-loads of rugs and sundry valuable articles. Then -the other officers of the Russian army followed his example, and in a -few days half of the contents of the church was already pillaged before -the representative of the Armenian Committee, Mr. Rostom, after repeated -telegrams, was able to receive an order from Tiflis to stop the plunder. -In that same summer of 1916, the Buxton brothers (representatives of the -Armenian Committee of London) and other English Armenophiles came to -Armenia. When they witnessed all these disgraceful particulars they -could not believe their own eyes, so monstrous was the attitude of the -Russian government toward the Armenians. The English and American -friends of Armenia consoled them by saying that on their return they -would have the privilege of explaining this state of affairs to their -government and that they would doubtless do all in their power to -protect the rights of the Armenians. These were the circumstances under -which the Armenian people joined its fate to the allied cause from the -very beginning of the war, and, having made colossal sacrifices during -three whole years, was almost crushed to death in the claws of Turkish -and Russian despotism. - -[Illustration: The mounted troops of the second battalion of Armenian -volunteers of the Caucasus, November, 1914.] - -In that same sorrowful summer of 1916 the Armenians heard the news that -England, France, and Russia had signed an agreement concerning Armenia. -According to that agreement Russia was to take over the three vilayets -of Turkish Armenia, Erzeroum, Bitlis, and Van, while southern Armenia -and Cilicia were to be put under the guardianship of France. One must be -an Armenian in order to feel the depth and intensity of the bitterness -and disappointment which filled the hearts of all the wandering -Armenians from the Caucasus to Mesopotamia. Every Armenian asked himself -or herself: Was this to be our recompense? - -In those very days (September, 1916) one of the agents of the German -government in Switzerland approached Dr. Zavrieff (one of the -representatives of the Armenian Committee of that place) with the -following proposal: - - - "You Armenians made a great mistake when you joined your fate to - that of the Allies. It is time for you to rectify your mistaken - policy. Your dreams with regard to the historic Armenia are - unrealizable. You may as well accustom yourselves to that fact, and - before it is too late you will do better to join the fate of your - people with the German policies, and remove the remnants of the - Armenian people to Mesopotamia, where the Germans will put at the - disposal of the Armenians every means which will enable them to - create for themselves a new and a more fortunate fatherland under - their (German) immediate protection." - - -In order to persuade his Armenian opponent, the German agent constantly -reminded him of the agreement (between England, France and Russia), and -especially of the hostile attitude of the Russians up to that time -towards the Armenians. The news of this German proposal reached the -Caucasus in December of the same year. It was made the subject of -serious consultation among the Armenian leaders. The writer of these -lines was present at those conferences, and his impression was this: Had -there not been that superhuman adoration (so peculiarly Armenian) which -every Armenian has for his ancestral home and recollections so -sanctified by blood, the German proposal would very likely have been -accepted by the Armenians at that psychological moment when their hearts -were overflowing with bitterness and disappointment toward the Russian -government,--a member of the allied nations. The outcome of those -conferences was that we decided to continue our former policy toward the -Entente, in spite of the base behavior of the Russians towards us, and -at the same time to invite the serious attention of our great Allies of -the west to our hopeless situation. - - -ROLE PLAYED BY THE ARMENIANS IN THE CAUCASUS AFTER THE RUSSIAN COLLAPSE. - -This was the state of affairs when there came the crash of the Russian -revolution. The heart of every Armenian was greatly relieved, thinking -that the greater part of their torments would come to an end. And in -truth, during the first few months of the revolution, the temporary -government of Kerensky made definite arrangements to rectify the unjust -treatment of the Armenians by the government of the Czar. But events -progressed in a precipitate manner. The demoralization of the Russian -troops on all the fronts assumed greater proportions as the days went -by. Foreseeing the danger which threatened the Caucasus, the Armenian -National Organization of the Caucasus, as early as April, 1917, sent to -Petrograd on a special mission Dr. Zavrieff, already mentioned, and the -writer of these lines, in order to have them obtain permission to -transfer to the Caucasus some 150,000 Armenian officers and men -(scattered throughout the Russian army), by whose assistance the -Armenians might be able to protect their own native land against the -Turkish advance. Mr. Kerensky, who was well acquainted with the abnormal -conditions reigning in the Caucasus, agreed to grant the request of the -Armenian delegates, but, on the other hand, for fear of receiving -similar requests from the other races in case he granted an order -favorable to the Armenians, he decided to fulfill our request -unofficially, that is, without a general ordinance, to send the Armenian -soldiers to the Caucasus gradually, in small groups, in order not to -attract the attention of the other races. And he carried out this plan. - -[Illustration: KHETCHO DRO ARMEN GARO - -The staff of the second battalion of Armenian volunteers in the Caucasus -in November, 1914.] - -But unfortunately, scarcely 35,000 Armenian soldiers had been able to -reach the Caucasus by November, 1917, when Kerensky himself fell at the -hands of the Bolsheviks, and there was created a chaotic condition the -result of which was the final demobilization of the Russian army. During -December, 1917, and January, 1918, the Russian army of 250,000 men on -the Caucasian front, without any orders, abandoned its positions and -moved into the interior of Russia, leaving entirely unprotected a front -about 970 kilometers (600 miles) in length, extending from the Black Sea -to Persia. As soon as the Russian army disbanded, the 3,000,000 Tartar -inhabitants of the Caucasus armed themselves and rose en masse. Toward -the end of January last, the Tartars had cut the Baku-Tiflis railroad -line as well as the Erivan-Joulfa line, and now began to raid and -plunder the Armenian cities and villages, while behind, on the frontier, -the regular Turkish army had commenced to advance in the first days of -February. Against all these Turks and Tartars the Armenians had one army -corps made up of some 35,000 regular troops under the command of General -Nazarbekoff, and nearly 20,000 Armenian volunteers under the command of -their experienced leaders. Armenia's only hope of assistance was their -neighbors, the Georgians, who were as much interested in the protection -of the Caucasus as the Armenians were, because the Turkish demands of -the Brest-Litovsk treaty included definite portions of Georgia, as well -as of Armenia; for example, the port of Batoum. And in fact, during the -months of January and February they seemed quite inclined to help the -Armenians, but when the Turks captured Batoum on April 15 and came as -far as Usurgeti, the morale of the Georgians was completely broken, and -they immediately sent a delegation to Berlin and put Georgia under -German protection. From this time on the 2,000,000 Armenian inhabitants -of the Caucasus remained entirely alone to face, on the one hand, the -Turkish regular army of 100,000 men, and on the other hand, the armed -forces of hundreds of thousands of Tartars. From the end of February the -small number of Armenian forces commenced to retreat step by step before -the superior Turkish forces, from Erzingan, Baiburt, Khenous, -Mamakhatoun, Erzeroum, and Bayazid, and concentrated their forces on the -former Russian-Turkish frontier. Here commenced serious battles which -arrested for quite a long time the advance of the Turkish troops. It -took them until April 22 to arrive before the forts of Kars, where the -first serious resistance of the Armenians took place. The fierce Turkish -attack which continued for four days was easily repulsed by the -Armenians, owing to the guns on the ramparts of Kars. - -During these events a temporary government of the Caucasus existed in -Tiflis, composed of representatives of three Caucasian races--Georgian, -Armenian, and Tartar. This Caucasian government was formed immediately -after the _coup d'etat_ of the Bolsheviks, and conducted Caucasian -affairs as an independent body. It refused to recognize the authority of -the Bolshevik government, or the terms of the Brest-Litovsk treaty -signed by its accredited delegates. The president of the government was -Chekhenkeli, a Georgian. Immediately after the capture of Batoum the -Caucasian government opened peace negotiations with Turkish delegates in -Batoum itself. The Turks, by their usual crafty tricks, persuaded the -Georgian delegates that they would return Batoum to the Georgians if -Kars surrendered without resistance. Feeling assured of this Turkish -promise, the Georgian president of the Caucasian government, -Chekhenkeli, on the night of April 25, without consultation with the -other members of the government, telegraphed the commander of Kars that -an armistice had been signed with the Turks on condition of surrendering -Kars, and therefore to give up the forts immediately and retreat as far -as Arpa-Chai. On the following day the commander of the Armenian -soldiers who were defending Kars delivered the fortress into the hands -of the Turks and retreated to Alexandropol. Then it became known that -Chekhenkeli had sent the fateful telegram on his own responsibility, but -it was already too late. This event occasioned very strained relations -between the Armenians and Georgians. Not long after, on the 26th of May, -the Georgians, assured of German protection, declared in Tiflis the -independence of Georgia. Thus the temporary Caucasian government -dissolved. - -[Illustration: MOURAT - -Who lead the volunteers at Erzingan after the Russian collapse and died -heroically in the fighting at Baku.] - -After the separation of the Georgians the Armenian National Council of -the Caucasus declared Armenian independence, under the name of the -Republic of Ararat, with Erivan as its capital. While the negotiations -were going on in Batoum--always between the delegates of the Turks and -the three Caucasian races comprising the Caucasian temporary -government,--the Turkish armies, after the occupation of Kars, became -more aggressive and commenced to advance toward Alexandropol and -Karakilissa. Concentrating their forces around Karakilissa and Erivan, -early in June, the Armenians in two fierce battles drove the Turks back -almost to their frontier. In the battle of Karakilissa, which lasted -four days, the Turks left 6,000 dead before the Armenian posts, and -escaped to Alexandropol. When the Turks felt that their position in the -face of the Armenian resistance was becoming more and more hopeless and -that it would cost them dear to continue the fight, they immediately -began to make concessions. Up to that time the Turks had not yet -recognized the right of Russian Armenia to independence, their objection -being that they only recognized in the Caucasus Georgian and Tartar -countries. But when they heard the news of the last military victory of -the Armenians, on June 14, in Batoum, the Turkish delegates, together -with the representatives of the Republic of Ararat, signed the first -terms of armistice, leaving the final peace signature to the congress of -Constantinople, where the final negotiations were to take place. - -The delegates of the three nations of the Caucasus reached -Constantinople on June 19. They were 32 in number. Among them were also -the representatives of the Republic of Ararat, Mr. A. Khatissoff, the -minister of foreign affairs, and Mr. A. Aharonian, the president of the -Armenian National Council. In that congress, which convened in presence -of the delegates of the German and Austrian governments, the Turks -signed peace treaties with each of the newly-formed Caucasian Republics. -It is needless to say that those treaties had as much value as that -which the Roumanian government was forced to sign a few months before by -the central powers. And, as was expected, the Turks and the Germans -rewarded the Georgians and the Tartars at the expense of the Armenians. -They gave the greater part of the Armenian territories to the other two -nations, and the remainder was claimed by Turkey, with the exception of -32,000 square kilometers (about 12,350 square miles), with 700,000 -Armenian inhabitants, which were left to the Republic of Ararat. -According to these terms only one-third of the Armenians of the Caucasus -are included within the Republic of Ararat, while the remaining -1,400,000 Armenians are left in territories allotted to the Tartars or -the Georgians. - -That portion of the Armenians which inhabits the mountainous regions of -Karabagh (which was assigned to the Tartars), up to this very day, -October, 1918, resists the Turco-Tartar hordes and refuses at any price -to be subjected to the unjust terms of the treaty of Constantinople, -while beyond, the Armenians at Van, when their military forces realized -that their retreat was cut off early last May, after being sheltered for -two whole months in Van, moved toward Persia, there joined the Christian -Assyrians in the neighborhood of Urmia, repulsed for a long time the -Turkish and Kurdish attacks, and only early in September succeeded in -shattering the Turkish lines and thereby reached the city of Hamadan in -Persia, where they entrusted to the care of the British forces the -protection of about 40,000 Armenian and Assyrian refugees. In order to -complete this picture of the heroic resistance of the Caucasian -Armenians, let me say a few words more about the struggle at Baku. - -As already mentioned, early in May, 1917, through the efforts of the -Armenian National Organization of the Caucasus, the Armenian soldiers -and officers scattered throughout Russia were gradually brought together -and mobilized on the Caucasian front. With that purpose in view an -Armenian Military Committee was formed in Petrograd with General -Bagradouni as president. Bagradouni was one of the most brilliant young -generals of the Russian army. He had received his military training at -the highest military academy of Petrograd, and, during Kerensky's -administration, was appointed Chief of the Staff of the military forces -at Petrograd. When the Bolsheviks assumed power they ordered him to take -an oath of loyalty to the new government. General Bagradouni refused to -do so, and for that reason he was imprisoned, with many other high -military officials. After remaining in prison two months, through -repeated appeals by the Armenian National bodies, he was freed by the -Bolsheviks on condition that he should immediately leave Petrograd. -After his release from prison, General Bagradouni, accompanied by the -well known Armenian social worker, Mr. Rostom, with 200 Armenian -officers, left for the Caucasus to assume the duties of -commander-in-chief of the newly-formed Armenian army. This group of -Armenian officers reached Baku early in March, where it was forced to -wait, for the simple reason that the Baku-Tiflis railroad line was -already cut by the Tartars. During that same month of March from many -parts of Russia a large number of Armenians gathered at Baku and waited -to go to Erivan and Tiflis in response to the call issued by the -Armenian National Council. Toward the end of March nearly 110,000 -Armenian soldiers had come together at Baku. - -[Illustration: Armenians valiantly defending Baku against the Tartars. - -_Taken from "Asia."_] - -By the 30th of March the news of German victories was spread throughout -the Caucasus by the Turco-German agents. On the same day in Baku and -other places appeared the following leaflets: - - - "Awake, Turkish brothers! - - "Protect your rights; union with the Turks means life. - - "Unite, O Children of the Turks! - - "Brothers of the noble Turkish nation, for hundreds of years our - blood has flowed like water, our motherland has been ruined, and we - have been under the heel of thousands of oppressors who have almost - crushed us. We have forgotten our nation. We do not know to whom to - appeal for help. - - "Countrymen, we consider ourselves free hereafter. Let us look into - our conscience! Let us not listen to the voice of plotters. We must - not lose the way to freedom; our freedom lies in union with the - Turks. It is necessary for us to unite and put ourselves under the - protection of the Turkish flag. - - "Forward, brothers! Let us gather ourselves under the flag of union - and stretch out our hands to our Turkish brothers. Long life to the - generous Turkish nation! By these words we shall never again bear a - foreign yoke, the chains of servitude." - - -And on the following day (March 31) from all sides of the Caucasus the -armed hordes of Tartars attacked the Armenians. The leaders of the -Tartars at Baku were convinced that they would easily disarm the -Armenian soldiers, because they were somewhat shut up in Baku, but they -were sadly mistaken in their calculations. After a bloody battle which -lasted a whole week the Armenians remained masters of the city and its -oil wells. They suffered a loss of nearly 2,500 killed, while the -Tartars lost more than 10,000. The commander of the military forces of -the Armenians was the same General Bagradouni, who, although he lost -both of his legs during the fight, continued his duties until September -14, when the Armenians and the small number of Englishmen who came to -their assistance were forced to abandon Baku to the superior forces of -the Turco-Tartars, and retreat toward the city of Enzeli in the northern -Caucasus. - -During these heroic struggles, which lasted five and a half months, the -small Armenian garrison of Baku, together with a few thousand Russians, -defended Baku and its oil wells against tens of thousands of Tartars, -the Caucasian mountaineers, and more than one division of regular -Turkish troops which had come to the assistance of the latter by way of -Batoum. Time after time the Turkish troops made fierce attacks to -capture the city, but each time they were repulsed with heavy losses by -the gallant Armenian garrison. The Armenians had built their hopes on -British assistance, since nothing was expected from the demoralized -Russian army. But, unfortunately, the British were unable to reach Baku -with large forces from their Bagdad army. Nevertheless, on August 5, -they landed at Baku 2,800 men to help the Armenians. The arrival of this -small British contingent caused great enthusiasm among the tired and -exhausted defenders of the city. But meanwhile the Turks had received -new forces from Batoum and renewed their attacks. After a series of -bloody battles the armed Armenian and British forces were forced to -leave Baku on September 14 and retreat toward Persia, taking with them -nearly 10,000 refugees from the inhabitants of the city. As to the -condition of those who were left behind, this much is certain; that on -the day the city was occupied by the Turco-Tartars, nearly 20,000 -Armenians were put to the sword, the greater portion of them being women -and children. According to the news received from Persia, after that -first terrible massacre, other massacres likewise have taken place. The -number of the losses is not known; but it may safely be surmised without -any exaggeration that out of the entire 80,000 Armenian inhabitants of -Baku, all those who were unable to leave the city in time were -slaughtered by the revengeful Turks and Tartars. Thus ended the -resistance of five months and a half by the Armenians at Baku against -the Turco-Germans. - -[Illustration: Young Armenian students in France, who took part in the -immortal defence of Verdun in 1916.] - -The remnants of the retreating Armenian garrison of Baku, at the time of -writing, are located in the Persian city of Enzeli, where, under the -command of their heroic leader, General Bagradouni, they are -recuperating before hastening to the aid of the Armenians in the eastern -Caucasus, who, as already mentioned, up to this very day are resisting -the forces of the Turco-Tartars in the mountains of Karabagh. - - -ARMENIA'S CO-OPERATION WITH THE ALLIES ON OTHER FRONTS. - -The Armenians, besides battling on the Caucasian front, where they have -been fighting in their own native land, have co-operated unreservedly -with the Allies on far distant fronts, as for example on the French -front. At the beginning of the war the young Armenian students living in -France--about 900 in number--volunteered to serve in the French army for -the defence of civilization and freedom. Today, scarcely 50 of them are -alive; the majority of the 850 others gave their lives in 1916 in the -immortal defence of Verdun. This small episode in this universal drama -will not be forgotten by either France or the Free Armenia of the -future. Glory to the memory of those immortal heroes! Beyond, on another -front of the war, by an extraordinary coincidence of fate, in the deadly -blow which fell on the head of the criminal Ottoman Empire in the Holy -Land, the sons of the sorrowful people whom it had ruthlessly -slaughtered had their just share of active participation. And indeed, in -General Allenby's victorious army, which saved Palestine and Syria from -Turkish tyranny in September, 1918, by General Allenby's own testimony, -the eight battalions of the Armenian volunteers (who took part in those -battles under the French flag) were conspicuous for their bravery. In -response to a congratulatory telegram from the chairman of the Armenian -National Union of Egypt for the victories on the Palestine front, -General Allenby said: "I thank you warmly for your congratulations, and -am proud of the fact that your Armenian compatriots in the Oriental -Legion took an active part in the fighting and shared in our victory." - - -CONCLUSION. - -If we wish to condense all we have said in a few pages, we shall have -the following picture: - -In 1914 both Turkey and Russia appealed to the Armenians by various -promises of a future autonomous Armenia to secure their assistance in -their respective military operations. Through their long and bitter -experience the Armenians knew very well that the imperialistic -governments of both Turkey and of Russia were opposed to their national -aspirations and therefore those promises had no value whatever. But, -realizing the universal significance of the present war, and considering -the fact that justice was on the side of the Entente, the Armenians, in -spite of their distrust of the Russian government, from the very -beginning, unreservedly bound themselves to the allied cause. - -This decision of the Armenians cost them the sacrifice of more than -1,000,000 men in Turkish Armenia, and complete devastation of their -native land even in the first year of the war. - -In spite of this terrible blow, the Armenians did not lose their vigor, -and, even though the autocratic Russian government, up to the time of -the Revolution, created all sorts of obstacles to impede their -activities, they still continued their assistance to the allied cause. -In bringing about the failure of the three Turkish offensives in 1914 -and 1915 the Armenians gave the allied cause important armed assistance, -on both sides of the Turco-Russian frontier. - -After the Russian Revolution, when, the Russian military forces fled -from the Caucasian front and left it unprotected from January, 1918, to -the middle of the following September, the Armenians were the only -people who resisted and delayed the Turco-German advance toward Baku. -Moreover, the Armenians accomplished all this with their own forces, all -alone, surrounded on all sides by hostile elements, without any means of -communication with their great Allies of the West. As an evidence of -this we may mention the fact that during the last eight months and a -half the Armenians have received from the Allies only 6,500,000 rubles -($3,250,000) of financial assistance, and the 2,800 British soldiers who -were too few and arrived too late to save Baku. - -[Illustration: Armenian volunteers who fought on the Palestine front in -September and October, 1918, under the command of Gen. Allenby.] - -Let us now look at the other side of the picture. - -Had the Armenians assumed an entirely opposite attitude from what they -actually did; in other words, had they bound their fate in 1914 to the -Turco-German cause, just as the Bulgarians did in 1915, what would have -been the trend of events in the Near East? Here is a question to which, -it is quite possible, our great Allies have had no time to give any -consideration. But that very question was put before the Armenians in -1914, and with no light heart did they answer it by their decision to -join the Allies. Each and every one of them had a clear presentiment of -the terrible responsibility they assumed. Those millions of corpses of -Armenian women and children which spotted the plains in the summer of -1915, rose like phantoms before our very eyes in the August of 1914 when -we decided to resist the wild Turkish revengefulness and its frightful -outcome. Now, in October, 1918, when we are so close to the hour of the -final victory, and feel quite safe and certain that the heavy and gloomy -days of the summer of 1914 will never return, I shall permit myself to -picture in a few words, before I finish, that which would have taken -place if the Armenians had sided with the Germano-Turks in the Near East -from the beginning of the war. - -First of all, those frightful Armenian massacres would not have taken -place. On the contrary, the Turks and the Germans would have tried to -win the sympathy of the Armenians in every possible way until the end of -the war. - -On the other hand, so long as the Georgians and Tartars of the Caucasian -peoples were only too eager to co-operate with the Germano-Turks, as the -events of 1918 fully demonstrate, had the Armenians likewise joined them -in 1914, by cutting the railroads, the backbone of the Caucasian Russian -army, all the Caucasian country would have slipped out of the hands of -the Russians in a few weeks, and the Turco-Germans would have reached -Baku in the autumn of the same year. The Armenians, Georgians, and -Tartars of the Caucasus, united, would have been able to form with the -greatest ease an army of 700,000 men, by which they would have been able -to defend the Caucasian mountain-ridge against the Russians. Meanwhile, -the entire Turkish army would have been available to advance -immediately toward the interior of Asia and join the 18,000,000 Moslems -of Asiatic Russia. We may safely say, neither Persia nor Afghanistan -could have remained neutral on seeing such successful achievements by -the Turks. - -In the course of such events Russia would have been compelled to remove -the greater portion of her forces to the East and would not have been -able to protect her Western frontiers as successfully as she did. -Therefore, quite probably, the Russian collapse would have taken place -in the summer of 1915, when the Germans occupied Russian Poland. On the -other hand, Great Britain would have been obliged to appropriate the -greater portion of her newly-formed land forces for the protection of -India, and would have been unable to rush as great a force to the -defence of heroic France as she actually did. Quite likely, under these -conditions, neither Italy nor Roumania would have abandoned her -neutrality, and thus the war might have ended in 1915 or 1916 with the -victory of the central Powers, at least on land. - -It was as clear as day to the Armenians that a Germano-Turkish victory -could never satisfy their national aspirations. The most that those -nations would have done for us would have been to grant nominal rights -to the Armenia of their own choice. But it was very plain to us also -that we should not have suffered such frightful human losses had we not -sided with the Allies. We consciously chose this last alternative, -namely: we tied our fate to the allied victory; we exposed our very -existence to danger in order to realize the complete fulfillment of our -national ambition, that is, to see the re-establishment of the United -Historic Independent Armenia. - -With our modest means, we have fulfilled our duty in full measure in -this great struggle in order to save civilization from an impending -doom. Now it is for our great Allies to act. - -The day is not very far distant when, gathered around the great tribunal -of justice, the representatives of all the nations of the globe--guilty -or just--are to receive their punishment or reward from the hands of the -four distinguished champions of democracy, President Wilson, Premiers -Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau, and Orlando. If the representatives -present themselves in the order of seniority, the first in the rank will -be the representative of the Armenian people--the aged Mother Armenia. -Behold! Into the Peace Congress Hall there enters an old woman, bathed -in blood, clothed in rags, her face covered with wrinkles 3,000 years -old, and completely exhausted. With her thoughtful eyes the venerable -Mother Armenia will survey the countenances of all those present, and -thus will she address the great figures of the world: - - - "Century after century my sons took part in all the strifes waged - to safeguard justice and the freedom of suffering humanity. Three - thousand years ago my sons struggled for seven hundred years - against the despotism of Babylon and Nineveh, which eventually - collapsed under the load of their own crimes. Fifteen centuries ago - the Armenians resisted for five hundred years the persecutions of - the mighty Persian Empire to preserve their Christian faith. Since - the eighth century my sons have been the vanguard of Christian - civilization in the East against Moslem invasions threatening for a - while the very existence of all Europe. If you doubt my statements, - ask the sacred mountain of Ararat; he will relate to you how all - the nations and empires, which attempted to possess by criminal - means the indisputable inheritance of my sons, have received their - just punishment. - - "Let us not go very far. Here, before you, stand the - representatives of those three nations which tried to destroy my - sons before your very eyes, in order to rule those parts of our - ancestral lands, so sanctified by blood, known as Armenia. Look at - this Turk; it was he who wished to wipe the very name of Armenia - off the face of the map; but today, foiled in his attempt, he - stands there like a criminal awaiting his sentence. And where is - today the Czar of Russia, who planned to occupy Armenia without the - Armenians,--the representative of that Empire before which the - world trembled. And what has remained of the policies of the German - Empire, in whose hands is the Bagdad railroad now, built at the - cost of the blood of hundreds of thousands of Armenian women and - children? Thus, those three modern malevolent empires, which tried - to attain happiness through the blood of my sons, have received - their just punishment. - - "Such will be the fate in the future of all those who shall attempt - similar crimes against Armenia. This is the message, gentlemen, - handed down to us through three thousand years of history. - - "I have nothing more to add. I await your verdict with confidence." - - - -***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHY ARMENIA SHOULD BE FREE*** - - -******* This file should be named 53976-8.txt or 53976-8.zip ******* - - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/5/3/9/7/53976 - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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(Garegin) Pasdermadjian</title> - <style type="text/css"> - - p { margin-top: 0em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .75em; - } - - p.bold {text-align: center; font-weight: bold;} - p.bold2 {text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-size: 150%;} - - h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; - } - h1 span, h2 span { display: block; text-align: center; } - #id1 { font-size: smaller } - - - hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; - } - - body{margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; - } - - table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 5px; border-collapse: collapse; border: none; text-align: right;} - - .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ - /* visibility: hidden; */ - position: absolute; - left: 92%; - font-size: smaller; - text-align: right; - text-indent: 0px; - } /* page numbers */ - - .center {text-align: center;} - .smaller {font-size: smaller;} - .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} - .box {max-width: 30em; margin: 1.5em auto;} - .space-above {margin-top: 3em;} - .right {text-align: right;} - .left {text-align: left;} - .s3 {display: inline; margin-left: 3em;} - - hr.full { width: 100%; - margin-top: 3em; - margin-bottom: 0em; - margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto; - height: 4px; - border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ - border-style: solid; - border-color: #000000; - clear: both; } - </style> -</head> -<body> -<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Why Armenia Should Be Free, by G. (Garegin) -Pasdermadjian</h1> -<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States -and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no -restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it -under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this -eBook or online at <a -href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you are not -located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this ebook.</p> -<p>Title: Why Armenia Should Be Free</p> -<p> Armenia's Role in the Present War</p> -<p>Author: G. (Garegin) Pasdermadjian</p> -<p>Release Date: January 16, 2017 [eBook #53976]</p> -<p>Language: English</p> -<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> -<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHY ARMENIA SHOULD BE FREE***</p> -<p> </p> -<h4>E-text prepared by Cindy Horton, Martin Pettit,<br /> - and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> - (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br /> - from page images generously made available by<br /> - Internet Archive<br /> - (<a href="https://archive.org">https://archive.org</a>)</h4> -<p> </p> -<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10"> - <tr> - <td valign="top"> - Note: - </td> - <td> - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - <a href="https://archive.org/details/whyarmeniashould00pasduoft"> - https://archive.org/details/whyarmeniashould00pasduoft</a> - </td> - </tr> -</table> -<p> </p> -<hr class="full" /> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> - -<div class="center"><a name="cover.jpg" id="cover.jpg"></a><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="cover" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p class="bold2">WHY ARMENIA SHOULD BE FREE</p> - -<p class="bold">ARMENIA'S RÔLE IN THE PRESENT WAR</p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/i004.jpg" alt="G. PASDERMADJIAN" /></div> - -<p class="bold">DR. G. PASDERMADJIAN (Armen Garo)</p> - -<hr /> - -<h1>WHY ARMENIA SHOULD BE FREE</h1> - -<p class="bold">ARMENIA'S RÔLE IN THE PRESENT WAR</p> - -<p class="bold space-above">BY</p> - -<p class="bold2"><span class="smcap">Dr.</span> G. PASDERMADJIAN</p> - -<p class="bold">(ARMEN GARO)</p> - -<p class="bold">EX-DEPUTY FROM ERZEROUM IN THE OTTOMAN PARLIAMENT<br /> -FORMER COMMANDER OF THE SECOND BATTALION OF THE ARMENIAN<br /> -VOLUNTEERS ON THE CAUCASIAN FRONT<br /> -REPRESENTATIVE IN AMERICA OF ARMENIAN NATIONAL COUNCIL OF THE<br />CAUCASUS.</p> - -<p class="bold space-above"><i>WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY</i></p> - -<p class="bold2">GEORGE NASMYTH, <span class="smcap">Ph. D.</span></p> - -<p class="bold">FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE INTERNATIONAL<br /> -FEDERATION OF STUDENTS<br />SECRETARY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS JOINT COMMITTEE<br /> -FOR A LEAGUE OF FREE NATIONS</p> - -<p class="bold space-above">ILLUSTRATED</p> - -<p class="bold space-above"><span class="smcap">Boston</span><br /> -HAIRENIK PUBLISHING COMPANY<br />1918.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="center">WRITTEN AT WASHINGTON, D. C., OCTOBER, 1918.<br />ALL RIGHTS RESERVED</p> - -<p class="center"><i>Published, December, 1918</i></p> - -<p class="center space-above">The Blanchard Printing Co.<br />Boston Massachusetts.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="center">TO THOSE WHO WERE MARTYRED<br /><br /> -AND<br /><br />TO THOSE WHO DIED ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE<br /><br /> -FOR THE LIBERATION OF ARMENIA</p> - -<hr /> - -<h2>CONTENTS</h2> - -<table summary="CONTENTS"> - <tr> - <td></td> - <td><span class="smaller"><i>Page</i></span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Introduction</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Translator's Preface</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Turkish and Russian Proposals to the Armenians in 1914</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Military Services Rendered by the Armenians on the Caucasian Front</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Armenian Resistance to the Turkish Massacres</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Attitude of Russian Czarism Toward the Armenians</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Rôle Played by the Armenians in the Caucasus After the Russian Collapse</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Armenia's Co-operation with the Allies on Other Fronts</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Conclusion</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> - -<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2> - -<p>Armenia has become a touchstone of victory in the great war for freedom -and humanity.</p> - -<p>If Armenia is granted national independence it will mean that in the -making of the peace treaty the forces of democracy and human progress -have triumphed over the forces of imperialism and short-sighted -reaction. It will mean that in the future the rights of the small -nations are to be recognized as well as those of the great. It will mean -that international justice is to be the foundation of the new world -order. The triumph of the principle that is involved will mean that the -war has been won because its moral aims have been achieved.</p> - -<p>But if the Armenians were to be thrust back under the yoke of Turkey, it -would mean that injustice, massacre and atrocity are to be permanent -features of the world of the future. It would mean that the -justice-loving nations of the world will prepare for inevitable -conflicts that are to come. It would mean that the war which was fought -to end war has been lost.</p> - -<p>National independence for Armenia will mean that the old order of secret -intrigue and orthodox diplomacy has given way to a new order of open -democratic diplomacy, based on the self-determination of nations and the -principles of international justice. It will mean that the peace which -ends this war will be a democratic peace, a peace of the peoples, a -peace that will last. It will mean that imperialistic aims, secret -treaties and selfish greedy interests have given way before the -conception of a world organized for righteousness and permanent peace.</p> - -<p>National independence for Armenia will mean that the Balance of Power, -which has always considered the subject nations of Turkey as mere pawns -in a diplomatic game, has been replaced by a League of Free Nations -opening the way towards a world federation and the parliament of man. It -will mean that the old chaos of international anarchy is to be replaced -by a new world order in which peoples and nations shall be free to live -their own lives, to speak their own language, to worship in their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> own -religion and to develop their own civilization, in the fullest -friendship and democratic co-operation with the other free nations of -mankind.</p> - -<p>National independence for Armenia is a touchstone of victory because it -will mean that mankind has come to recognize that there is a moral law -in the world, which applies to nations as well as to individuals. It -will mean the overthrow of imperialism, militarism and the philosophy of -force. It will mean an invaluable extension of the principle of -democracy in the world. It will mean that the way will be open to -develop the great highway between Europe and Asia amid political -conditions of a stable and durable peace. It will mean that mankind can -proceed to cultivate again the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates -and that once more after centuries of desolation this region will become -one of the garden spots of the earth.</p> - -<p>What should be the boundaries of the new Armenian nation? I have before -me Stanford's Linguistic Map of Europe, a map based upon the most -careful scientific research and conscientious scholarship. This map -shows the area in which the Armenian speaking population is dominant as -extending to Adana and Alexandretta on the Mediterranean, almost to the -Black Sea near Trebizond, to Tiflis in the Caucasus Mountains and to -Lake Urmia near the western boundary of Persia on the East.</p> - -<p>At the edges this Armenian territory shades over into regions occupied -by Turks and Kurds. In the interest of international justice and -permanent peace in the future, the boundaries of the new Armenia ought -to be extended as far as the Armenian race extends as an important -element of the population, because the Armenians have proved their -capacity for self-government even under the almost impossible conditions -of Turkish misrule, while Turks and Kurds have again and again proved -incapable of governing themselves, much less of governing others. The -hope for toleration of racial minorities, which is the indispensable -condition for peace in areas of mixed population, would be many times -greater in a government by the Armenians than in a government by Turks -and Kurds.</p> - -<p>Armenia is a touchstone of victory in this war because, unlike Belgium, -it lies so far beyond the range of accurate news reports and the -limelight of public opinion, that it is likely to be overlooked unless a -settlement is approached in a new spirit of international justice. The -horrors of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> Armenian massacres have been so unendurable that many -people have had to try to escape from thinking about Armenia in order to -keep their sanity in the midst of such wholesale horror. But oblivion is -no remedy for the problem of Armenia and the world of the future will -not be safe for democracy or for anything else unless Armenia and the -problem which it represents is permanently solved in the Peace -Conference. I do not believe that any indemnities or annexations of -territories or any imperialistic gain of this war is worth the life of a -single American soldier, but I do believe that only by giving Armenia -its independence, by establishing the principle of international -justice, of which Armenia is a concrete example, and by creating a -League of Free Nations as the basis of the new world order, will we be -enabled to say that the sacrifices of these young men shall not have -been in vain. Thus Armenia becomes the touchstone of victory in this -great war for freedom and humanity.</p> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">George Nasmyth.</span></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Boston, Mass.</span><br /><span class="smcap">December 12, 1918.</span></p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> - -<h2>TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE</h2> - -<p>Dr. Pasdermadjian, the author of this pamphlet, is a native of Erzeroum, -and a member of a family which, both in the past and in the present, has -been an object of barbarous persecution at the hands of the Turks. When -the Russians in 1829 captured Erzeroum for the first time, 96,000 -Armenians, with the encouragement of the Russian government, left that -city and the outlying villages with the Russian army, and emigrated -towards the Caucasus, where they founded three new cities, Alexandropol, -Akhalkalak, and Akhaltsikh. Only 300 Armenian families remained in -Erzeroum, refusing to leave their homes, even in face of the Turkish -despotism. Among these was the Pasdermadjian family.</p> - -<p>In 1872 the Turkish government had Khatchatour Pasdermadjian killed, -simply because he was a well-to-do and influential Armenian, and, -therefore, undesirable. In 1877 during the Russo-Turkish war, the -Pasdermadjian family was subjected to the basest kind of persecution by -the Turkish government, which still owes the Pasdermadjians 36,000 -Turkish <i>liras</i> ($180,000), the value of a quantity of wheat wrested -from them by the military authorities. During those same hostilities, -taking advantage of the war conditions, the Turkish government planned -to hang Haroutiun Pasdermadjian, on the ground that he was in -communication with the Russian army; but he was saved through the -intervention of the British consul. When the Russian army occupied -Erzeroum in 1878, the Pasdermadjians naturally gave a very hospitable -reception to the two Armenian Generals, Loris Melikoff and Lazareff. -After learning of the family's history, Loris Melikoff asked Haroutiun -Pasdermadjian to emigrate to the Caucasus. He promised to bring the -influence of the Russian government to bear on Turkey and to claim the -family's extensive real estate and various sums of money which the -Turkish government owed them. But Haroutiun Pasdermadjian refused the -kind offer, saying that he could not leave the country which contained -his martyred father's grave. When the Russians, in accordance with the -terms of the Berlin Treaty, were forced to evacuate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> Erzeroum, the Turks -came back and began anew to persecute the Pasdermadjians in every -possible way. In 1890 the Armenians of Erzeroum made a protest against -Turkish despotism, and demanded to have the reforms promised in the -Berlin Treaty carried out. The first bullet fired by the Turkish -soldiers during those disturbances was aimed at Haroutiun Pasdermadjian; -but he was saved through the heroism of a group of young Armenians. In -the massacres of 1895, the Pasdermadjians were again attacked by an -armed Turkish mob, but were saved from plunder and murder through the -stubborn resistance of all the members of the household, including the -servants. Afterwards, three members of the family, Hovhannes, Tigrane, -and Setrak, were imprisoned for a long time as revolutionists. In -reality, they were imprisoned simply because they had not allowed -themselves to be slaughtered like sheep by the Turkish mob. In February, -1915, when the present Turkish government began its organized slaughters -to eliminate the Armenians from the world, the first victim in Erzeroum -was Setrak Pasdermadjian, because he was an influential Armenian and had -had the courage several times to protest against the unlawful acts of -the government. The remnants of this numerous and ancient Armenian -family are now scattered throughout Mesopotamia.</p> - -<p>The author of this booklet, Garegin Pasdermadjian, is the son of -Haroutiun Pasdermadjian and the grand-son of Khatchatour Efendi. He was -born in 1873, and received his elementary education at the Sanasarian -College of Erzeroum, being one of its first graduates (1891). In 1894 he -went to France and studied agriculture in the college at Nancy, -intending to return and develop the lands belonging to his family -according to the modern agricultural methods of Europe, and in that way -give a practical lesson to the Armenian peasants. He had hardly begun -his course when the great massacres of 1895 revolutionized the plans of -the younger generation of Armenian students. Out of the 26 young -Armenians at the University of Nancy, four, Sarkis Srentz, Haik -Thirakian, Max Zevrouz, and Garegin Pasdermadjian, left their studies -and returned to participate in the effort at vengeance which the -Armenian Revolutionary Dashnaktzoutiun (Federation) had decided to -organize in Constantinople. In 1896, Garegin Pasdermadjian and Haik -Thirakian, under their assumed names of Armen Garo and Hratch -respectively, took part in the seizure of the Ottoman Bank. This -European <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>institution, with its 154 inmates and 300 million francs -($60,000,000) of capital, remained in the hands of the Armenian -revolutionists for fourteen hours as a pledge that the European -ambassadors should immediately stop the Armenian massacre in -Constantinople and give assurances that the reforms guaranteed to the -Armenians in the Treaty of Berlin should be carried out. On behalf of -the six great powers, signatories to the Berlin Treaty, the chief -interpreter of the Russian embassy, Mr. Maximoff, made a gentleman's -agreement with the young Armenian revolutionists to fulfill their -demands. Trusting to Mr. Maximoff's word of honor, the Armenians left -Constantinople. But immediately after their departure, the massacres -were resumed with more intensity, while the reforms have remained a dead -letter to this day. Such were international morals in 1895.</p> - -<p>After these events Garegin Pasdermadjian returned to Europe to continue -his unfinished studies. Mr. Hanoteau, however, the French foreign -minister at that time, would not allow the Armenians who had been -connected with this affair to remain in France, so young Pasdermadjian -went to Switzerland and studied the natural sciences at the University -of Geneva. In 1900 he completed his course and received the degree of -Doctor of Science. Unable to return to Turkish Armenia, as was his -desire, Dr. Pasdermadjian went to the Caucasus and settled at Tiflis in -1901. There he opened the first chemical laboratory, for the purpose of -investigating the rich mines of that region.</p> - -<p>National events, however, prevented him from pursuing his research work. -Having been a member of the responsible body of the Armenian -Revolutionary Dashnaktzoutiun (Federation) since 1896, he took part in -all the movements which aimed to protect the moral and physical well -being of the Armenian people from Turkish and Russian despotism. For -example, in 1905, when the Caucasian Tartars, with the approval of the -Russian government, began to massacre the Armenians in divers parts of -the Caucasus, Dr. Pasdermadjian became a member of the Committee created -by the Armenian Revolutionary Dashnaktzoutiun (Federation) to organize -defence work among the Armenian people. In November of the same year, -when the Armeno-Tartar hostilities began right in Tiflis, under the very -nose of the Russian administration, he was entrusted with the command of -the Armenian volunteers to protect Tiflis and its environs. During the -seven-day struggle which took<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> place in the streets of Tiflis, 500 -Armenian volunteers faced nearly 1400 armed Tartars, and drove them back -with heavy losses.</p> - -<p>The situation in the Caucasus was almost normal, and Dr. Pasdermadjian -and his idealistic colleagues were about to resume their main -object,—to carry arms and ammunition from the Caucasus to the Turkish -Armenians in order to prepare them for self-defense,—when the Turkish -revolution came in 1908. The Armenians in Erzeroum, as well as the party -to which he was a member, telegraphed to Dr. Pasdermadjian and strongly -urged him to become their candidate in the coming elections for -Representative to the Ottoman Parliament. After seven years of -professional studies, Dr. Pasdermadjian had been able to create for -himself in the Caucasus a life fairly prosperous financially. He had -just secured the right to develop a copper mine, and was about to work -it in partnership with a large company. His business required that he -should stay in the Caucasus to continue his successful enterprise, but -he yielded to the moral pressure of his comrades and left his personal -affairs to go to Constantinople as a deputy from Erzeroum.</p> - -<p>During his four years in Constantinople as a deputy, Dr. Pasdermadjian -devoted his entire time to better the economic conditions of the -Armenian vilayets, and especially worked for the railroad bill, of which -he was the real author, but which was known to the public as Chester's -bill. Its main object was to build railroads as soon as possible in -those vilayets of Armenia which were considered to be Russia's future -possessions. For that reason neither France nor Germany wished to -undertake it, lest they should arouse the enmity of Russia. Another -fundamental object was to build those lines with American capital, which -would make it possible to counteract the Russo-Franco-German policies -and financial intrigues, for the benefit of the Armenian people. But in -spite of all his efforts, Dr. Pasdermadjian was unable to overcome the -German opposition in Constantinople, although, as the outcome of the -struggle in connection with that bill, two ministers of public works -were forced to resign their post. Both of the ministers were absolute -German agents under the name of Turkish ministers. It may also be worth -mentioning that during his four years at Constantinople as a deputy from -Erzeroum, at three different times, Talaat Bey (who became the butcher -of the Armenian people in 1915), on behalf of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> "Committee of Union -and Progress," offered the portfolio of public works to Dr. -Pasdermadjian, as the most competent man for the post. Dr. -Pasdermadjian, however, refused these proposals, for the simple reason -that he did not wish to compromise in any way with the leaders of the -Turkish government, as long as they continued their chauvinistic and -anti-Armenian policy.</p> - -<p>In the parliamentary elections of 1914, the "Committee of Union and -Progress" used every means to defeat the election of Dr. Pasdermadjian -in Erzeroum. On account of this attitude of the Turks, all the Armenian -inhabitants of the Erzeroum vilayet refused to take part in the last -elections. This intense opposition of the Turks to the candidacy of Dr. -Pasdermadjian was due to the fact that he had taken too active a part in -1913 in the conferences held for the consideration of the Armenian -reforms, and especially because, while parliamentary elections were -going on in Turkish Armenia during April, 1914, he was in Paris and -Holland, as the delegate of the Armenian Revolutionary Dashnaktzoutiun -(Federation), to meet the inspectors general who were invited to carry -out the reforms in Turkish Armenia.</p> - -<p>In the autumn of 1914, a month and a half before the beginning of -Turco-Russian hostilities, Dr. Pasdermadjian went to the Caucasus on a -special mission, and joined the committee which had been appointed by -the Armenian National Council of the Caucasus to organize the Armenian -volunteer movement. In November of the same year, when the Russo-Turkish -war had begun, he accompanied the second battalion of the Armenian -volunteers, as the representative of the executive committee of Tiflis, -to prepare the local inhabitants of Turkish Armenia for self-defence, as -the Russian army was about to advance into the captured territories of -that country. On November 14 the second battalion of the Armenian -volunteers engaged in battle for the first time, near Bayazid, with the -Turkish soldiers and the Kurds. In the course of a bloody combat which -lasted twenty-four hours, Dro, the brave commander of the battalion, was -seriously wounded, and Dr. Pasdermadjian was forced immediately to take -his place. From that day to March of the following year, he remained at -the head of that battalion, and led it into eleven battles in the -neighborhood of Alashkert, Toutakh, and Malashkert, until Dro recovered -and returned to resume the command. In the summer of 1915, Dr. -Pasdermadjian (again as a representative<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> of the executive committee of -Tiflis) went to Van. He was there when the people migrated en masse to -the Caucasus (when the Russian army was forced to retreat to the old -Russo-Turkish frontiers) and shared their untold hardships.</p> - -<p>In the spring of 1917, when the Russian Revolution turned all the -defence work of the Caucasus up-side down, Dr. Pasdermadjian, with Dr. -Zavrieff, was sent from the Caucasus to Petrograd to negotiate with the -temporary Russian government concerning Caucasian affairs. From -Petrograd he left for America in June of the same year as the -representative of the Armenian National Council of Tiflis and as the -special Envoy of His Holiness the Catholicos of all the Armenians, to -lay before the American public and government the sorrows of the -Armenian people with the view of winning their sympathy and protection -for the indisputable rights of Armenia. He is still acting in that -capacity with all the energy at his command. His last effort has been -the preparation of this pamphlet, in which the reader will find a part -of these biographical facts under his assumed name of Armen Garo.</p> - -<p class="space-above">A word or two more about this booklet, which has been written in the -nick of time.</p> - -<p>The critical days in the spring of this year are over, and the complete -victory of the Allies and of the United States has been won. "The day is -not very far," in the words of the writer, "when ... the representatives -of all the nations of the world,—guilty or just,—are to receive their -punishment or reward...." It is the purpose of this pamphlet to -demonstrate beyond any shadow of doubt, with most authentic facts, that -Armenia has fulfilled her duty to the allied cause in full measure (and -suffered untold sacrifices in doing so), and, therefore, is entitled to -her just claims as an Independent Armenia.</p> - -<p>One other purpose the writer had in view in writing this booklet: to -make the great and generous American public realize that Armenians are -not an anaemic and unaggressive people, with no fighting blood in their -veins; that the Armenians have not been butchered like sheep, but, on -the contrary, have fought most bravely and resisted most stubbornly the -savage attacks of the Turks whenever they had an opportunity.</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p><p>If the translation can possibly convey the spirit of the original, the -sustained eloquence and suppressed emotion with which the author pleads -the cause of his unfortunate but brave people, should be intensely -effective because they are not mere words, but are based on actual, -real, undeniable facts, and are the expression of a soul wholly -dedicated to a sacred cause.</p> - -<p class="right">A. T.</p> - -<p>Cambridge, Mass.<br />December, 1918.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> - -<p class="bold2">WHY ARMENIA SHOULD BE FREE</p> - -<p class="bold">ARMENIA'S RÔLE IN THE PRESENT WAR</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> - -<div class="box"><p>"The interest of the weakest is as sacred as the interest of the strongest."</p> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">President Wilson.</span></p> - -<p>New York, Sept. 27, 1918.</p></div> - -<hr /> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/i026.jpg" alt="A seventy-year old Armenian priest leading the volunteers" /></div> - -<p class="bold">A seventy-year old Armenian priest leading the volunteers<br /> -to the battlefield.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> - -<p class="bold2">WHY ARMENIA SHOULD BE FREE</p> - -<p class="bold">ARMENIA'S RÔLE IN THE PRESENT WAR</p> - -<p>In the early days of August, 1914, when civilized nations took up arms -against the German aggression, only three of the smaller nations of -Europe and the Near East had the courage, from the very first days of -the war, to stand by the Allies without any bargaining or dickering, and -they still stand at their posts on the ramparts, in spite of the immense -sacrifices they have already made.</p> - -<p>The first member of this heroic triad was brave Serbia, which was the -first victim of Austrian aggression, and whose sons, after four years of -heroic struggle, are about to regain their lost native land. The second -member was little Belgium, whose three weeks of heroic resistance -delayed the German advance of 1914 and enabled gallant France to crown -with success the historic battle of the Marne. The third member of this -heroic triad was the Armenian people, who for four years and without an -organized government or a national army, played the same role in the -Near East by preventing the Turco-German advance toward the interior of -Asia as the Belgians played in the West by arresting the march of -Germany toward Paris. The Armenians, however, paid a higher price to the -God of War than either the Belgians or the Serbs. Out of four and -one-quarter millions of Armenians living in Turkey and Russia at the -beginning of the war, scarcely three millions remain at the present -time. What were the conditions under which the Armenians sided with the -Allies, and why were they forced to bear so great a sacrifice for their cause?</p> - -<h2><span class="smcap">Turkish and Russian Proposals to the Armenians in 1914.</span></h2> - -<p>In the beginning of this world conflagration, in 1914, both the Russian -and the Turkish governments officially appealed to various Armenian -national organizations with many promises in order to secure the active -participation of the Armenians in the military operations against each -other, the principal stage of which would be Armenia itself. Both<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> -Turkey and Russia were very anxious to win the co-operation of the -Armenians, because, judging from their past experience, they were -convinced that without such co-operation they would not be able to -accomplish the much desired military successes on the Armenian plateau.</p> - -<p>With such aims in view, Russia, through Count Varantzoff Dashkoff, -informed the Armenian National Council (then in existence at Tiflis) -that if the Armenians would unreservedly give their support to the -Russian armies during the course of the war, Russia would grant autonomy -to the six Armenian vilayets. The Russian Armenians, however, through -bitter experience, knew very well what little practical value could be -attached to the promises of Russian Czarism. During the course of the -19th century at three different times the Russians had made similar -promises to the Armenians when they waged war with Turkey and Persia, -and, although the self-sacrificing co-operation of the Russian Armenians -enabled the Russians to capture the districts of Elizavetpol, Erivan and -Kars in 1806, in 1828, and again in 1878, at the end of these wars their -flattering promises to the Armenians were promptly forgotten. But this -time the Armenians thought that Russia was not alone; the two great -liberal nations of the West, France and England, were her Allies. After -long and weighty consultation, with their hopes pinned on France and -England, the Armenians resolved to aid the Russian armies in every -possible way.</p> - -<p>While Russian diplomacy was in the midst of these diplomatic -negotiations at Tiflis, during the last days of August, 1914, a Turkish -mission of twenty-eight members (the object of which was to organize a -Pan-Islamic and a Pan-Turanian movement among all the races of the Near -East against Russia and her Allies) left Constantinople for Armenia. The -leaders of that mission were Omar Nadji Bey, Dr. Bahaeddin Shakir, and -Lieutenant Hilmy, all of them very influential members of the "Committee -of Union and Progress." The mission included representatives of all the -Eastern races, such as the Kurds, Persians, Georgians, Chechens, -Lezgies, Circassians, and the Caucasian Tartars, but not the Armenians. -During those same days the annual Congress of the Armenian National -Organization was in session at Erzeroum. In the name of the Turkish -government the above mentioned mission appealed to the Armenian -Organization with the following proposition:</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p><blockquote><p>"If the Armenians,—the Turkish as well as the Russian -Armenians—would give active co-operation to the Turkish armies, -the Turkish government under a German guarantee would promise to -create after the war an autonomous Armenia (made up of Russian -Armenia and the three Turkish vilayets of Erzeroum, Van, and -Bitlis) under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire."</p></blockquote> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/i030.jpg" alt="Armenians of Van defending themselves" /></div> - -<p class="bold">Armenians of Van defending themselves against the Turkish<br /> -and Kurdish raids in 1915. The volunteers in their trenches.</p> - -<p>The Turkish delegates, in order to persuade the Armenians to accept this -proposal, informed them also that they (the Turks) had already won the -co-operation of the Georgians and the Tartars, as well as the -mountaineers of the northern Caucasus, and therefore the noncompliance -of the Armenians under such circumstances would be very stupid and -fraught with danger for them on both sides of the boundary between -Turkey and Russia. In spite of these promises and threats, the executive -committee of the Dashnaktzoutiun (Federation) informed the Turks that -the Armenians could not accept the Turkish proposal, and on their behalf -advised the Turks not to participate in the present war, which would be -very disastrous to the Turks themselves. The Armenian members of this -parley were the well-known publicist, Mr. E. Aknouni, the representative -from Van, Mr. A. Vramian, and the director of the Armenian schools in -the district of Erzeroum, Mr. Rostom. Of these Mr. Aknouni and Mr. -Vramian were treacherously killed a few months later for their audacious -refusal of the Turkish proposals, while Mr. Rostom luckily escaped the -murderous plots against his life.</p> - -<p>The bold retort of the Armenians to the Turkish proposal mentioned -above, intensely angered the Turks, and from that very day the -extermination of the Armenians was determined upon by the Turkish -government. And in reality, arrests and persecutions within the Armenian -vilayets began in the early part of September, 1914, a month and a half -before the commencement of the Russo-Turkish war. The speed of the -persecutions gained greater momentum as the months rolled by and tens of -villages in different parts of Armenia were subjected to fire and sword. -In the district of Van alone, during February and March of 1915, -twenty-four villages were razed to their foundations and their -populations put to the sword. Early in April of the same year, they -attempted the massacre of the inhabitants of the city of Van as well, -but the Armenians took up arms, and, guided by their brave leader, Aram, -defended their lives and property for a whole month, until<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> the Armenian -volunteers from Erivan with Russian soldiers came to the rescue and -saved them from the impending doom. This resistance on the part of the -inhabitants of Van gave the Turkish government a pretext to deport in -June and July of the same year the entire Armenian population of Turkish -Armenia, with the pretended intention of transporting them to -Mesopotamia, but with the actual determination to exterminate them. Out -of the million and a half of Armenians deported, scarcely 400,000 to -500,000 reached the sandy deserts of Syria and Mesopotamia, and most of -these were women, old men, and children, who were subjected in those -desolate regions to the mortal pangs of famine. More than a million -defenceless Armenians were murdered at the hands of Turkish soldiers and -Turkish mobs. The gang of robbers, headed by Talaat and Enver, resorted -to this fiendish means to eliminate the Armenian question once for all, -because the Armenians had had the courage to oppose their Pan-Turanian -policies. The barbarities of Jenghiz Khan and Tamerlane pale in -comparison with the savageries which were perpetrated against the -Turkish Armenians in the summer of 1915 during this wholesale massacre -organized by the Turkish government. Mr. Morgenthau, who was the -American ambassador at Constantinople during those frightful months, has -proclaimed all these atrocities by his authentic pen to the civilized -nations. This was the price which the Armenian people paid within the -boundaries of Turkey for refusing to aid the Turco-German policies.</p> - -<p>Now let us see what positive services from a military point of view this -same martyred people rendered to the allied cause on both sides of the -Turco-Russian boundary line.</p> - -<h2><span class="smcap">Military Services Rendered by the Armenians<br />on the Caucasian Front</span></h2> - -<p>In order to have an adequate comprehension of the events which took -place on the Caucasian front, it would be well to bear in mind that all -the peoples of Trans-Caucasia, including the Armenians, felt great -enmity toward the government of the Czar, whose treatment of them in the -past had been very tyrannical and very brutal. For this very reason, the -Turco-German propaganda had easily won the sympathy of nearly 3,000,000 -Tartars and 2,000,000 Georgians. The dream of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> Tartars was to join -the Ottoman Turks and re-establish the old great Tartar Empire, which -was to extend from Constantinople to Samarkant, including all the lands -of the Caucasus and Trans-Caspia, while the Georgians, through their -alliance with the Turco-Germans, hoped to regain their lost independence -in the western Caucasus. Only the 2,000,000 Armenians of the Caucasus -were not influenced by the Turco-German propaganda, although they hated -the Russian despotism as much as their neighbors. But, on the other -hand, having very close acquaintance with the psychology of the Turkish -race and with their ulterior aspirations, the Armenians had the -political wisdom and courage to put aside their petty quarrels with -Russian Czarism and throw in their lot with the allied cause.</p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/i034.jpg" alt="Armenian volunteers of the Caucasus" /></div> - -<p class="bold">Armenian volunteers of the Caucasus taking the oath of -allegiance administered<br />by the church dignitaries before leaving for the -battlefield in October, 1914.</p> - -<p>These were the circumstances under which the mobilization of 1914 took -place in the Caucasus. The Armenian reservists, about 160,000 in number, -gladly responded to the call, for the simple reason that they were to -fight the arch enemy of their historic race. Besides the regular -soldiers, nearly 20,000 volunteers expressed their readiness to take up -arms against the Turks. The Georgians, on the other hand, answered the -call very reluctantly, and the Armenian-Georgian relations were greatly -strained from the very beginning. The attitude of the Armenians toward -the despotic Russian government was incomprehensible to the Georgians, -who thought that, because the Armenians sided with Russia,—the -oppressor of all the Caucasian races,—they must be unfriendly to the -Georgians. Many Georgian young men crossed the border from Batoum, went -to Trebizond, and prepared bands of volunteers under the leadership of -Prince Abashizé in order to aid the Turks. As to the Tartars, not being -subject to call, they assumed the role of spectators on the one hand, -and on the other used every means to arm themselves, impatiently -awaiting the arrival of the Turks. The great land-owners of the -provinces of Erivan, Elizavetpol, and Baku began to accumulate enormous -stores, and prepare a huge reserve of sugar and wheat. The price of one -rifle, which was 100 rubles ($50), rose to 1500 rubles ($750). Through -Persia, the Germans took to the Caucasus great sums of money in order to -push forward the task of arming the Tartars from the very first days of -the war. Great numbers of young Tartars went to Persia and joined the -Turkish armies. And all this was carried on in broad daylight under the -very eyes of the short-sighted Russian bureaucracy.</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p><p>The Russian administration of the Caucasus was more concerned with the -Armenian "danger" and had no time to pay attention to the Georgians and -the Tartars. Was it not a fact that officially no Georgian or Tartar -question was placed on the diplomatic table, whereas the Armenian -question was there? And for that very reason, before the commencement of -the Russo-Turkish hostilities, the second and third army corps of the -Caucasian army, the majority of which were Armenians, were transferred -to the German front and were replaced by Russian army corps. Moreover, -out of the 20,000 Armenian volunteers who responded to the call, only -7,000 were given arms; the authorities objected that they had no rifles -ready, while a few months later the same administration distributed -24,000 rifles to the Kurds in Persia and in the district of Van. It is -needless to say that all the Armenian officers and generals were -transferred to the Western front; only one Armenian general was left as -a specimen on the entire Caucasian front, General Nazarbekoff, and he -was transferred to Persia, away from the Armenian border. Under these -trying conditions commenced the Russo-Turkish war and the -Armenian-Russian co-operation on the Caucasian front in the autumn of -1914. But, in spite of this suspicious and crafty attitude assumed by -the Russian administration, the Armenian inhabitants of the Caucasus -spared nothing in their power for the success of the Russian armies. In -the three main unsuccessful Turkish offensives the battalions of -Armenian volunteers played a great role. Let us now see just what took -place during those offensives.</p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/i038.jpg" alt="Commanders of Armenian volunteers" /></div> - -<p class="bold"><span class="smcap">Keri</span><span class="s3"> </span> -<span class="smcap">Vartan</span><span class="s3"> </span><span class="smcap">Hamazasp</span></p> - -<p class="bold">Commanders of Armenian volunteers; Keri, of the 4th battalion;<br />Hamazasp, -of the 3rd battalion, and Vartan, of the<br />regiment of Ararat.</p> - -<p>The first serious Turkish offensive took place in the beginning of -December, 1914, when Enver Pasha attempted to reach Tiflis by shattering -the right wing of the Russian army. The Turkish "Napoleon" was anxious -to connect his name with that great victory which seemed certain to his -puny brain. And with that very purpose in view he boarded Goeben, the -German cruiser, and left Constantinople, amid great demonstrations. He -reached Erzeroum in three days, thanks to the German automobiles which -were ready for him at different stops between Trebizond and the -frontier. The offensive was planned with great care, and had great -chances of success if all the three wings of the Turkish army had -reached their objectives on time. Enver had under his command three army -corps—the ninth, the tenth, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> eleventh. The ninth army corps was -to advance toward Ardahan by way of Olti and from there to march on -Tiflis by way of Akhalkalag, when it should receive word that the tenth -army corps had already captured Sarikamish and cut off the retreat of -the Russian army of 60,000 men; while the eleventh army corps was to -attack the centre of the Russian army near the frontier. The ninth army -corps, in three days and without difficulty, reached Ardahan, where the -local Moslem inhabitants assisted it in every possible way. The tenth -army corps, during its march from Olti to Sarikamish, suffered a delay -of twenty-four hours in the Barduz Pass, due to the heroic resistance of -the fourth battalion of the Armenian volunteers which made up the -Russian reserve. This delay of twenty-four hours enabled the Russians to -concentrate a sufficient force around Sarikamish (which had been left -entirely undefended) and thereby force back the ninth corps of the -Turkish army. The Turks were so certain of the success of their plan -that they had no transports with them and no extra supply of provisions. -Opposite Sarikamish, where a battle was waged for three days and three -nights, the Turks suffered a loss of 30,000 men, mostly due to cold -rather than to the Russian arms. But if the Turkish army corps had -reached Sarikamish twenty-four hours earlier, as was expected, it would -have confronted only one battalion of Russian reserves, and that without -artillery. This was the invaluable service rendered to the Russian army -by the fourth battalion of the Armenian volunteers under the command of -the matchless Keri. Six hundred Armenian veterans fell in the Barduz -Pass, and at such a high price saved the 60,000 Russians from being -taken prisoners by the Turks. This great service of the Armenians to the -Russian army was announced at the time by Enver Pasha himself, when he -returned to Constantinople immediately after his defeat. From that time -on the government at Constantinople laid the blame of its defeat at the -door of the Armenians, as a preliminary step in its preparation for the -execution of its already-planned massacres of the Armenian people.</p> - -<p>After their defeat at Sarikamish, the Turks attempted in April of 1915 -to turn the extreme left wing of the Russian army by marching to Joulfa -through Persia, and from there (in case of success) moving on to Baku, -with the hope that the Tartar inhabitants of the eastern Caucasus would -immediately join them and enable them to cut the only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> communicating -line of railroad of the Russians, and thereby force the entire Russian -army to retreat toward the northern Caucasus. The work of the -intelligence department of the Turks was very well organized, especially -as the Tartar and Georgian officers of the Caucasus rendered them -invaluable services. The Turks knew very well that the Russians in -Persia at that time had only one brigade of Russian troops under the -command of the Armenian General Nazarbekoff and one battalion of -Armenian volunteers scattered throughout Salmast and Urmia, while their -own army was made up of one regular and well-drilled division of troops -(sent especially from Constantinople) under the command of Khalil Bey -and nearly 10,000 Kurds. Khalil Bey with his superior forces captured -the city of Urmia in a few hours (taking prisoner nearly a thousand -Russians) and victoriously marched on Salmast. Here took place one of -the fiercest battles between the Armenians and the Turks. The first -battalion of the Armenian volunteers, under the command of the veteran -Andranik, strongly enforced in its trenches, repulsed the attacks of -Khalil Bey for three days continuously, until the Russians, with the -newly-arrived forces from the Caucasus, were able to put to flight the -army of Khalil Bey. Thirty-six hundred Turkish soldiers lay dead before -the Armenian trenches in the course of those three days.</p> - -<p>In that very month of April, while Khalil Bey was confidently -attempting, as we have seen, to surround the left wing of the Russian -army in Persia, over in Van the Armenians had taken up arms in -self-defence, and for one whole month were fighting another division of -Turkish troops and thousands of Kurds until the first days of May, when -three other battalions of Armenian volunteers, under the command of -General Nikolaeff, came to the rescue, riding a distance of 250 -kilometers (155 miles)—from Erivan to Van—in ten days. For one who is -acquainted with the local conditions, it is an undisputed fact that if -the Armenians of Van in April, 1915, by their heroic resistance had not -kept busy that one division of regular Turkish troops and thousands of -Kurds, and had made it possible for them to join the army of Khalil Bey, -the Turks undoubtedly would have been able to crush the Russian forces -in Persia and reach Baku in a few weeks, for the simple reason that from -the banks of the Araxes to Baku the Russians had no forces at all, while -the local Tartar inhabitants, armed and ready, were awaiting the coming -of the Turks before rising en masse to join them. From the very -<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>beginning of the war, Baku has been the real objective of the Turks, -just as Paris has been the objective of the Germans, and that for two -reasons: first, as a fountain of wealth, the Turks knew very well that -the Russian government received from the oil wells of Baku an annual -income of more than 200,000,000 rubles ($100,000,000), a sum which is -more than all the revenues of the bankrupt Turkish government put -together, and they looked upon these financial resources as -indispensable for the accomplishment of their plan of a Pan-Turanian -Empire; second, because the very plan of their Pan-Turanism had been -introduced in Constantinople after 1908 by these very Tartars of Baku. -The commanders of the Turkish forces engaged in Persia and Van—Khalil -and Jevded—understood very well why their plans failed in the month of -April, 1915; and that failure is the explanation of those frightful -massacres which took place on the plains of Bitlis and Moush in June of -the same year, when the armies of the same Khalil and Jevded, defeated -in Persia and Van, were forced to retreat under the pressure of the -Armenian volunteers.</p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/i041.jpg" alt=">Andranik" /></div> - -<p class="bold"><span class="smcap">Andranik</span></p> - -<p class="bold">The commander of the first battalion of Armenian Volunteers</p> - -<p>The third Turkish offensive took place early in July, 1915. This time -the Turks, with all their available forces—eleven divisions of regular -troops, again under the command of Khalil Bey—attacked the very center -of the Caucasian army. In a few days they re-occupied Malashkert, -Toutakh, and the greater part of the plains of Alashkert. During one -week the center of the Russian army retreated more than 100 kilometers -(62 miles) leaving behind the district of Van entirely unprotected, and -in danger of being surrounded at any moment. If the Turks had had one or -two more divisions of troops at their service in those days, they would -have been able very easily to take prisoners the entire fourth army of -the Russian left wing and cut off their way of retreat. In order to -escape from this dangerous situation, the Russian left wing was forced -to retreat hastily toward the Russian frontier and sent a part of its -forces to aid the central army. Only at the end of July did the Russian -army, having received aid from its left wing, and under the leadership -of the Armenian General Nazarbekoff, succeed in forcing back the Turks -to their former line. These were the conditions under which nearly -150,000 Armenian inhabitants of the district of Van were compelled to -leave all their property at the mercy of the enemy's fire and flee -toward Erivan.</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span class="smcap">Armenian Resistance to the Turkish Massacres</span></h2> - -<p>It is true that the battalions of Armenian volunteers took no active -part in the battles of July, for they were then in the district of Van -and undertaking the heavy duty of rear guard work for the Russian army -and the Armenian refugees. But the Turkish Armenians behind the front, -who were being deported and massacred as early as the month of July, by -their heroic resistance, occupied the attention of four Turkish -divisions and tens of thousands of Kurds just at the time when the Turks -had such great need of those forces to aid them in their July drive. It -is worth while, therefore, to point out here that, during the -deportations and massacres of 1915, whenever the Armenians had any -possible means at all of resisting the criminal plans of the Turkish -government, they took up arms and organized resistance in different -parts of Armenia.</p> - -<p>Even before the deportations had begun, toward the latter part of 1914, -the Turkish government cunningly attempted to disarm the Zeitunians, the -brave Armenian mountaineers of Cilicia, who had taken up arms against -the Turkish government at three different times in the nineteenth -century, and each time had laid down their arms only on the intervention -of the European powers, believing that they would put an end to the -Turkish barbarities. This time the government filled the prisons with -the prominent Zeitunians and persuaded the young warriors to surrender, -promising to set them free if they did so. After accomplishing its -deceitful plan, the government put to death most of the young men, -deported the inhabitants, and made the mouhajirs from Balkans inhabit -Zeitun, even changing the name of the place to Soulaymania, in order to -erase the memory of those brave mountaineers. A group of warriors, -however, found means to take up their arms, climb the mountains, and -fight the Turkish soldiers. They are still free, and live among the -mountains of Giaur Dagh. In the following year the inhabitants of -Suediah were the first to defend themselves against the Turks. In April, -when the Turkish government ordered the Armenian peasants of Suediah to -leave their homes and emigrate toward Der-El-Zor, the inhabitants of -four or five villages, nearly 5,000 in number, refused to obey this -unlawful order of the Turkish government. With their families they -climbed the Amanos mountains and for forty-two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> days heroically resisted -the cannonading of the regular Turkish forces. Their situation was of -course critical. The desperate villagers sewed a large red cross on a -white sheet to inform the fleet of the Allies in the Mediterranean that -they were in danger. The French cruiser, Guechène, got in touch with the -Armenian peasants, informed its war department of the situation, and -obtained permission to remove them by transports to Port Said (Egypt). -Most of them are still there, cared for by the British, while the young -warriors went to join the French Oriental Legion, and fought on the -Palestine front under General Allenby.</p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/i046.jpg" alt=">Turkish cannons captured by the Armenians" /></div> - -<p class="bold">Turkish cannons captured by the Armenians of Van in April, 1915.</p> - -<p>The resistance at Van has already been spoken of. The next place of -importance must be given to the brave mountainous district of Sasoun, -that very Sasoun which had retained its semi-independent position in -Turkish Armenia up to the beginning of the last century, and had taken -up arms at three different times in the present generation to defend its -independence against the Ottoman troops—in 1894, in 1904, and again in -1915. This last time, toward the end of June, when the troops of Khalil -and Jevded began to lay waste with fire and sword the city of Moush and -the unprotected villages of the outlying district, the gallant -Sasounians, under the guidance of their two idealistic leaders, came -down from their mountains and made several raids on the city to drive -away the Turks. One of their leaders was Roupen, a self-sacrificing and -highly educated young man who had received his university training in -Geneva, Switzerland, and had shouldered his gun in 1904 and had -dedicated himself to the task of defending Sasoun. The name of the other -was Vahan Papazian (a native of Van, but educated in Russian -universities), who had been elected representative from Van to the -Ottoman parliament. This daring step on the part of Sasoun forced the -Turkish commanders to march on Sasoun with two divisions of troops and -with nearly 30,000 Kurds. From the first days of July to Sept. 8, the -Sasounians were able to resist the Turco-Kurdish attacks, always with -the hope that the Russian army would come to their assistance. During -that interval of time, the Sasounians sent several couriers to the -Russian army and asked for help, but the Russian commanders remained -indifferent, in spite of the fact that the extreme front line of the -Russian army was scarcely 50 kilometers (31 miles) away from Sasoun, and -the sound of the Turkish artillery aimed at the Sasounians could be -heard very distinctly by the Russian army. One of the commanders<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> of the -Armenian volunteers, Dro, appealed to the Russian commander and asked -for one battery of cannon and a score or two of machine guns, which -would have enabled his men to break the Turkish front and join the -Sasounians. That request likewise was refused by the heartless -commanders of despotic Russia. These were the conditions under which -fell the historic Verdun of Armenia, heroic little Sasoun which, with -its 10,000 mountaineers, succeeded in facing 50,000 Turks and Kurds for -two months, with antiquated weapons and without adequate food or -ammunition.</p> - -<p>Making all due allowance for the relative magnitude and importance of -the Near Eastern and the Western fronts, we may safely say without -exaggeration that Van and Sasoun, on the Caucasian front in the year -1915, played exactly the same role which Liege played in 1914 and Verdun -in 1916 on the Western front. Had it not been for these two points of -stubborn resistance against the Turkish troops in the summer of 1915, -the two Turkish offensives, already spoken of, would have had great -chances of success. This is an undisputed fact with all the inhabitants -of the Near East. And indeed, three months after these events, when the -Armenian volunteers together with the Russian troops recommenced their -drive and captured the cities of Moush and Bitlis, in the diary of a -Turkish officer, who was taken prisoner in Bitlis, was found the -following item, which appeared at the time in the Russian press:</p> - -<blockquote><p>"We are asked why we massacre the Armenians. The reason is quite -plain to me. Had not the Armenians fought against us, we should -have reached Tiflis and Baku long ago."</p></blockquote> - -<p>In addition to Van and Sasoun, during the same July when deportations -and organized massacres were going on, three other places might be -mentioned where hopeless attempts at resistance were made by the -Armenians against the savage Turks and Kurds. These places were Sivas, -Urfa, and Shabin-Karahissar. At Sivas the heroic resistance of Mourat -and his comrades and their escape were so full of thrilling events that -they have been likened to the adventures of Odysseus. Mourat is a brave -warrior who, together with his companion, Sepouh, had fought at Sasoun, -in 1904, and had taken part in the Armenian and Tartar clashes of 1905 -and 1906 in the Caucasus. When deportations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> and massacres commenced in -1915, Turkish gendarmes were sent to capture Mourat, who was living with -his wife and child in a village near Sivas. Realizing the coming danger, -Mourat climbed the mountains with his band of warriors and resisted the -raids of the enemy. After a year and a half of stubborn resistance, he -descended one day to the shore of the Black Sea, captured a Turkish -sail-boat near Samsoun, and, putting his comrades into it, ordered the -Turkish sailor to steer the boat toward Batoum, a Russian port. -According to cable messages, Mourat was chased by a Turkish gun-boat. -Several battles took place in which he lost a few of his men, but -finally repulsed the Turks and reached Batoum safe and sound. At Urfa -the Armenians were able for forty days to repulse the attacks of one -Turkish division, but finally fell heroically under the fire of Turkish -artillery, commanded by German officers, having previously destroyed all -their property so that it would not fall into the hands of their -enemies. In the ruined Armenian trenches at Urfa, by the side of -Armenian young men there had fallen dead also Armenian young women who, -arms in hand, were found all mangled by the German bombs. At -Shabin-Karahissar, nearly 5,000 Armenians, for twenty-seven days without -interruption, in the same month of July, kept busy another division of -Turkish troops with their artillery. There took place one of the most -tragic and heroic episodes of the present war. When the ammunition of -the Armenians was almost gone, on the last day of the struggle, nearly -3,000 Armenian women and girls drank poison and died in order not to -fall alive into the hands of the savage Turks. If the supply of poison -had not given out, all the women would have done likewise. An -eye-witness, one who had taken part in the struggle and who succeeded in -reaching the Caucasus in 1916, after wandering in the mountains and -valleys of Armenia for a whole year, related how on that last day -Armenian mothers and girls, with tears in their eyes and with hymns on -their lips, received poison from the Armenian physicians and -apothecaries for themselves and their little ones. When the supply of -poison gave out, those who were unable to obtain any uttered terrible -wailing, and many of the girls cast themselves down from the rocks of -the Karahissar citadel and committed suicide.</p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/i049.jpg" alt=">The commander of the second battalion" /></div> - -<p class="bold"><span class="smcap">Dro</span></p> - -<p class="bold">The commander of the second battalion of Armenian<br />volunteers.</p> - -<p>These events reveal the following facts: first, that in spite of all the -precautions which the Turkish government employed to disarm the -Armenians before carrying out its fiendish design, the Armenians<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> found -means to organize in the four corners of Armenia hopeless but serious -plans of resistance against the swords of their enemy; second, that in -order to eliminate these Armenian points of resistance during the summer -of 1915, five Turkish divisions and tens of thousands of Kurds were kept -employed, and were unable to add their immediate co-operation in those -very days to the other Turkish forces engaged in their two offensives on -the Caucasian front. These were the positive services which the martyred -Armenian people rendered to the allied cause in the Near East. Their -active resistance to the Turco-German plans, however, cost the Armenians -more than one million men massacred under the most savage conditions, -and the deprivation of their means of livelihood in Turkish Armenia. -But, to complete the description of the Armenian Calvary, it is -necessary to picture also in a few words the attitude assumed by the -government of the Russian Czar toward the very Armenian people whose -active participation on Russia's side enabled the Caucasian front to -repulse the Turkish attacks in 1914 and 1915, and, moreover, to -accomplish definite successes during the following year, 1916.</p> - -<h2><span class="smcap">Attitude of Russian Czarism toward the Armenians</span></h2> - -<p>As we have already mentioned, from the beginning of the war the Russian -bureaucracy tried on the one hand by various false promises to win over -the sympathy of the Armenians, while on the other it tried by every -means to keep the Armenian military forces away from the Caucasian -front. Only seven battalions of Armenian volunteers were kept on the -Caucasian front. As we have already seen, those few battalions even, in -1914 and 1915, rendered to the Russians invaluable services, twice -saving the right and left wings of the Russian army from an unavoidable -catastrophe by their heroic resistance; but the Russian official -communiqués do not contain one line in which the battalions of Armenian -volunteers are even mentioned. The same silence was maintained by the -Russian communiqués concerning the heroic resistance of the Armenians at -Van, and with regard to the assistance which the Armenian volunteers -rushed to that city. This was the policy of the government of Russian -Czarism from the beginning of the war to the end of its existence,—to -avoid in every way<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> speaking about the Armenians and Armenia. The -Russian press was even forbidden to speak about the massacres carried on -in Turkish Armenia at the hands of the Turkish government. Therefore, -when the capture of Erzeroum in 1916 made the immediate co-operation of -the Armenian volunteers unnecessary to the Russians, the -commander-in-chief of the Caucasian army at the time, Grand Duke Nicolas -Nicolaevitch, ordered the disbanding of all the battalions of the -Armenian volunteers. Besides this amazing treatment of the Armenian -military forces, the Czar's government removed from the Caucasus before -the war all the Armenian officers and replaced them by generals -(manifestly anti-Armenian in spirit) from the Russians, Georgians, and -other Caucasian races. The object of this move was to enable the -government to check the national aspirations of the Armenians, and to -give it a plausible opportunity at the end of the war to take over the -Armenian vilayets without gratifying the demands of the Armenians for autonomy.</p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/i053.jpg" alt=">The civilian Armenians of Urfa" /></div> - -<p class="bold">The civilian Armenians of Urfa who defended themselves -against<br />the Turks and the Kurds in July, 1915.</p> - -<p>From the third month of the war, it became clear to us that the Russian -government pursued unswervingly its Lobanoff-policy toward the -Armenians. What was that policy? In 1896, when an English correspondent -interviewed the Russian minister of foreign affairs, Count Lobanoff -Rostowsky, and asked him why Russia did not occupy the Armenian vilayets -of Turkey in order to save that Christian people from the Turkish -massacres, the Russian minister cynically replied: "We need Armenia, but -without the Armenians." It is worth while, then, to give here a few -actual facts which reveal this fiendish policy pursued by the Russian -government toward a people which was the only one of all the peoples of -the Caucasus and the Near East to help the Russian army by its -unreserved co-operation, and which was the only factor that saved the -Caucasian front from an unavoidable catastrophe in 1914 and 1915.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">One</span>. Every time that the Russian army was forced to retreat from the -recaptured parts of Turkish Armenia, no precautionary measures were -taken in order to save the local Armenian inhabitants from the -inevitable massacres. For example, in December, 1914, when the Turks -advanced as far as Sarikamish and Ardahan and forced the central Russian -army to retreat from the neighborhood of Alashkert and Bayazid, the -commander of the local forces, General Abatzieff (an Acétine Moslem who -had joined the Greek church) strictly ordered the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> local Armenian -inhabitants, nearly 32,000 in number, not to stir from their places, and -in order to have his command accurately carried out he placed mounted -Cossack patrols in the plains of Alashkert lest the Armenian peasants -should emigrate toward the Russian frontier, in which direction the -Russian army with its transports had already been moving since December -13. Three days later the second battalion of the Armenian volunteers, -which had been fighting in the first-line positions for over two months -under the command of the same general, returned to the army headquarters -for a well-earned rest, and there only it heard about the serious -happenings already mentioned, and the extraordinary attitude assumed by -the Russian general. The Armenian peasants from every side appealed to -the Armenian volunteers with tears in their eyes and begged to be saved -from an inevitable massacre. The commander of the Armenian volunteers, -Armen Garo, and his brave assistant, Khetcho, who died like a hero in -July, 1915, on the shores of Lake Van, went immediately to General -Abatzieff and asked him to revoke his order and permit the Armenian -inhabitants to move with the army toward Igdir. The hostile general -refused their request, his answer being that, if the people stirred from -the place, he would be unable to remove the army transports soon enough. -When he heard this answer, Armen Garo immediately telegraphed to Igdir -and appealed to the commander-in-chief of the fourth army, General -Oganowsky, and in touching words asked for his intervention. On the -following day only, thanks to the intervention of General Oganowsky, the -Armenian volunteers received permission to organize the retreat of the -Armenian inhabitants of the plains of Alashkert toward Igdir and to -defend them from the attacks of the Kurds. During the seven days that -the retreat lasted the Armenians lost only 400 persons, and most of -those on account of the severe cold. Another example of this hostile -treatment of the Armenians by the Russian authorities might be -mentioned,—the retreat from the Van district in July, 1915. There -General Nikolaeff for eight continuous days deceived the Armenian -leaders and made them remain idle (telling them every day that he would -not retreat under any circumstances, and that therefore it was entirely -needless to remove the people), until behold, one day, July 18, he -suddenly sent for the mayor of Van, Aram, and the commander-in-chief of -the Armenian volunteers, Vartan, and informed them that he had received<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> -orders to retreat immediately, but in order to make it possible for the -people to prepare for departure, he would wait until the 20th of the -month. Thus the Armenian leaders were forced to remove in two or three -days nearly 150,000 people of the Van region, and if those three -battalions of Armenian volunteers had not been there to protect the -people from Kurdish and Turkish raids, the loss of life during the -journey would have been tenfold more than it actually was. Whereas, if -the Russian general had not been so deceitful in his behavior but had -given an opportunity of seven or eight days to organize the retreat, it -would have been possible to direct the people to Erivan without the loss -of a single life. The Armenians suffered a loss of 8,000 to 10,000 men, -women, and children during the retreat.</p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/i057.jpg" alt=">The commander of the cavalry corps" /></div> - -<p class="bold"><span class="smcap">Khetcho</span></p> - -<p class="bold">The commander of the cavalry corps of the Armenian<br />volunteers, who was -killed in July, 1915, near Bitlis.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Two</span>. When Turkish Armenia was almost wholly emptied of its Armenian -inhabitants, due to these successive retreats, the Russian government -raised all sorts of barriers before the refugees to prevent them from -returning to their former homes when the Russian army recaptured the -Armenian vilayets. For example, in 1916-1917, scarcely 8,000 to 10,000 -Armenians were permitted to go back and inhabit the region of Van; the -rest were compelled to stay within the borders of the Caucasus as -refugees. Toward the latter part of 1916, even among Russian -governmental circles there was talk of transferring to Siberia nearly -250,000 Turkish Armenian immigrants who had sought refuge in the -Caucasus, because it was objected that no available lands existed there -for them. Russians considered it a settled question that even after the -war the Turkish Armenians would not be permitted to return to their own -homes.</p> - -<p>On the other hand, the same Russian bureaucracy resorted to every means -to win the sympathy of the Turkish and Kurdish inhabitants remaining in -Armenia. With that purpose in view, in the spring of 1916, on behalf of -the ministry for foreign affairs at Petrograd, Count Chakhowsky with his -own organization established himself in Bashkalé (a city in the district -of Van) and distributed nearly 24,000 rifles to the Kurds of the -neighboring regions. It is needless to say that not long after those -very rifles were used by the Kurds against the Russian army both in -Persia and Armenia. This amazing action of Count Chakhowsky was taken so -openly that it was even known to ordinary Russian soldiers, who were -extremely enraged against the Count, a fact<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> which accounts for the -murder of the same Count Chakhowsky in Persia by Russian soldiers, when -the discipline of the Russian army was relaxed on account of the -revolution which took place in the spring of 1917.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Three.</span> While the Russians were preventing the Turkish Armenian -immigrants from returning to their own lands, they, in the spring of -1916, commenced to organize in Turkish Armenia colonies of Cossacks. The -Russian administration sent special propagandists to the northern -Caucasus to persuade the Cossacks living there to move to Armenia, and -during that same year 5,000 of them, under the name of agricultural -battalions, were already cultivating the plains of Alashkert, lands -which rightly belonged to the Armenians. This last act of the Russian -government was so revolting that even the liberal organs of the Russian -press complained of the government for such inhuman proceedings, while -in the Russian Duma two Russian representatives, N. Milukoff and A. -Kerensky (both of whom played such great roles the following year in the -downfall of Czarism), publicly criticised the government of the Czar for -its base treatment of the Armenians. Documentary evidence relating to -this disgraceful action of the Russian government, which incensed the -ire of prominent liberals in the Duma, may be found in the July 28, -1916, issue of the <i>Retch</i>, the organ of the Constitutional Democrats in -Russia. In order to characterize this criminal action of the Russian -bureaucracy against the Armenian people who were martyred for the allied -cause, it may be worth while also to cite the following details:</p> - -<p>In the month of July, 1915, the Armenian inhabitants of Erzeroum, nearly -25,000 in number, were likewise deported by the Turkish government, -leaving all their real and personal property at the disposal of the -Turks. The governor of the place, Tahsin Bey, arranged a scheme by means -of which every Armenian before leaving the city could store his goods -and household furniture (with the name of the owner on each article) in -the cathedral, with the apparent purpose of returning them to their -owners after the war, but with the real purpose of preventing so much -riches from falling into the hands of the Turkish mob, in order to -appropriate them later for the government. The cathedral of Erzeroum was -packed with the goods of the exiled Armenians when the Russians captured -the city in February, 1916. Ordinary human decency demanded that the -Russians should not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> have touched the articles stored in that sacred -edifice, especially as they belonged to the very martyred people whose -professed sympathies for them (the Russians) were the cause of their -being exiled to the deserts of Mesopotamia. But the fact is that the -commander of the Russian army, General Kaledine himself, set the example -of desecration; he personally entered the cathedral first, and selected -for himself a few car-loads of rugs and sundry valuable articles. Then -the other officers of the Russian army followed his example, and in a -few days half of the contents of the church was already pillaged before -the representative of the Armenian Committee, Mr. Rostom, after repeated -telegrams, was able to receive an order from Tiflis to stop the plunder. -In that same summer of 1916, the Buxton brothers (representatives of the -Armenian Committee of London) and other English Armenophiles came to -Armenia. When they witnessed all these disgraceful particulars they -could not believe their own eyes, so monstrous was the attitude of the -Russian government toward the Armenians. The English and American -friends of Armenia consoled them by saying that on their return they -would have the privilege of explaining this state of affairs to their -government and that they would doubtless do all in their power to -protect the rights of the Armenians. These were the circumstances under -which the Armenian people joined its fate to the allied cause from the -very beginning of the war, and, having made colossal sacrifices during -three whole years, was almost crushed to death in the claws of Turkish -and Russian despotism.</p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/i062.jpg" alt=">The mounted troops of the second battalion" /></div> - -<p class="bold">The mounted troops of the second battalion of Armenian<br /> -volunteers of the Caucasus, November, 1914.</p> - -<p>In that same sorrowful summer of 1916 the Armenians heard the news that -England, France, and Russia had signed an agreement concerning Armenia. -According to that agreement Russia was to take over the three vilayets -of Turkish Armenia, Erzeroum, Bitlis, and Van, while southern Armenia -and Cilicia were to be put under the guardianship of France. One must be -an Armenian in order to feel the depth and intensity of the bitterness -and disappointment which filled the hearts of all the wandering -Armenians from the Caucasus to Mesopotamia. Every Armenian asked himself -or herself: Was this to be our recompense?</p> - -<p>In those very days (September, 1916) one of the agents of the German -government in Switzerland approached Dr. Zavrieff (one of the -representatives of the Armenian Committee of that place) with the -following proposal:</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p><blockquote><p>"You Armenians made a great mistake when you joined your fate to -that of the Allies. It is time for you to rectify your mistaken -policy. Your dreams with regard to the historic Armenia are -unrealizable. You may as well accustom yourselves to that fact, and -before it is too late you will do better to join the fate of your -people with the German policies, and remove the remnants of the -Armenian people to Mesopotamia, where the Germans will put at the -disposal of the Armenians every means which will enable them to -create for themselves a new and a more fortunate fatherland under -their (German) immediate protection."</p></blockquote> - -<p>In order to persuade his Armenian opponent, the German agent constantly -reminded him of the agreement (between England, France and Russia), and -especially of the hostile attitude of the Russians up to that time -towards the Armenians. The news of this German proposal reached the -Caucasus in December of the same year. It was made the subject of -serious consultation among the Armenian leaders. The writer of these -lines was present at those conferences, and his impression was this: Had -there not been that superhuman adoration (so peculiarly Armenian) which -every Armenian has for his ancestral home and recollections so -sanctified by blood, the German proposal would very likely have been -accepted by the Armenians at that psychological moment when their hearts -were overflowing with bitterness and disappointment toward the Russian -government,—a member of the allied nations. The outcome of those -conferences was that we decided to continue our former policy toward the -Entente, in spite of the base behavior of the Russians towards us, and -at the same time to invite the serious attention of our great Allies of -the west to our hopeless situation.</p> - -<h2><span class="smcap">Role Played By the Armenians in The Caucasus<br />After the Russian Collapse.</span></h2> - -<p>This was the state of affairs when there came the crash of the Russian -revolution. The heart of every Armenian was greatly relieved, thinking -that the greater part of their torments would come to an end. And in -truth, during the first few months of the revolution, the temporary -government of Kerensky made definite arrangements to rectify the unjust -treatment of the Armenians by the government of the Czar. But events -progressed in a precipitate manner. The demoralization of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> Russian -troops on all the fronts assumed greater proportions as the days went -by. Foreseeing the danger which threatened the Caucasus, the Armenian -National Organization of the Caucasus, as early as April, 1917, sent to -Petrograd on a special mission Dr. Zavrieff, already mentioned, and the -writer of these lines, in order to have them obtain permission to -transfer to the Caucasus some 150,000 Armenian officers and men -(scattered throughout the Russian army), by whose assistance the -Armenians might be able to protect their own native land against the -Turkish advance. Mr. Kerensky, who was well acquainted with the abnormal -conditions reigning in the Caucasus, agreed to grant the request of the -Armenian delegates, but, on the other hand, for fear of receiving -similar requests from the other races in case he granted an order -favorable to the Armenians, he decided to fulfill our request -unofficially, that is, without a general ordinance, to send the Armenian -soldiers to the Caucasus gradually, in small groups, in order not to -attract the attention of the other races. And he carried out this plan.</p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/i066.jpg" alt=">The staff of the second battalion" /></div> - -<p class="bold"><span class="s3"> </span><span class="s3"> </span><span class="smcap">Khetcho</span><span class="s3"> </span> -<span class="smcap">Dro</span><span class="s3"> </span><span class="smcap">Armen Garo</span></p> - -<p class="bold">The staff of the second battalion of Armenian volunteers<br />in the Caucasus -in November, 1914.</p> - -<p>But unfortunately, scarcely 35,000 Armenian soldiers had been able to -reach the Caucasus by November, 1917, when Kerensky himself fell at the -hands of the Bolsheviks, and there was created a chaotic condition the -result of which was the final demobilization of the Russian army. During -December, 1917, and January, 1918, the Russian army of 250,000 men on -the Caucasian front, without any orders, abandoned its positions and -moved into the interior of Russia, leaving entirely unprotected a front -about 970 kilometers (600 miles) in length, extending from the Black Sea -to Persia. As soon as the Russian army disbanded, the 3,000,000 Tartar -inhabitants of the Caucasus armed themselves and rose en masse. Toward -the end of January last, the Tartars had cut the Baku-Tiflis railroad -line as well as the Erivan-Joulfa line, and now began to raid and -plunder the Armenian cities and villages, while behind, on the frontier, -the regular Turkish army had commenced to advance in the first days of -February. Against all these Turks and Tartars the Armenians had one army -corps made up of some 35,000 regular troops under the command of General -Nazarbekoff, and nearly 20,000 Armenian volunteers under the command of -their experienced leaders. Armenia's only hope of assistance was their -neighbors, the Georgians, who were as much interested in the protection -of the Caucasus as the Armenians<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> were, because the Turkish demands of -the Brest-Litovsk treaty included definite portions of Georgia, as well -as of Armenia; for example, the port of Batoum. And in fact, during the -months of January and February they seemed quite inclined to help the -Armenians, but when the Turks captured Batoum on April 15 and came as -far as Usurgeti, the morale of the Georgians was completely broken, and -they immediately sent a delegation to Berlin and put Georgia under -German protection. From this time on the 2,000,000 Armenian inhabitants -of the Caucasus remained entirely alone to face, on the one hand, the -Turkish regular army of 100,000 men, and on the other hand, the armed -forces of hundreds of thousands of Tartars. From the end of February the -small number of Armenian forces commenced to retreat step by step before -the superior Turkish forces, from Erzingan, Baiburt, Khenous, -Mamakhatoun, Erzeroum, and Bayazid, and concentrated their forces on the -former Russian-Turkish frontier. Here commenced serious battles which -arrested for quite a long time the advance of the Turkish troops. It -took them until April 22 to arrive before the forts of Kars, where the -first serious resistance of the Armenians took place. The fierce Turkish -attack which continued for four days was easily repulsed by the -Armenians, owing to the guns on the ramparts of Kars.</p> - -<p>During these events a temporary government of the Caucasus existed in -Tiflis, composed of representatives of three Caucasian races—Georgian, -Armenian, and Tartar. This Caucasian government was formed immediately -after the <i>coup d'etat</i> of the Bolsheviks, and conducted Caucasian -affairs as an independent body. It refused to recognize the authority of -the Bolshevik government, or the terms of the Brest-Litovsk treaty -signed by its accredited delegates. The president of the government was -Chekhenkeli, a Georgian. Immediately after the capture of Batoum the -Caucasian government opened peace negotiations with Turkish delegates in -Batoum itself. The Turks, by their usual crafty tricks, persuaded the -Georgian delegates that they would return Batoum to the Georgians if -Kars surrendered without resistance. Feeling assured of this Turkish -promise, the Georgian president of the Caucasian government, -Chekhenkeli, on the night of April 25, without consultation with the -other members of the government, telegraphed the commander of Kars that -an armistice had been signed with the Turks on condition of surrendering -Kars, and therefore to give up the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> forts immediately and retreat as far -as Arpa-Chai. On the following day the commander of the Armenian -soldiers who were defending Kars delivered the fortress into the hands -of the Turks and retreated to Alexandropol. Then it became known that -Chekhenkeli had sent the fateful telegram on his own responsibility, but -it was already too late. This event occasioned very strained relations -between the Armenians and Georgians. Not long after, on the 26th of May, -the Georgians, assured of German protection, declared in Tiflis the -independence of Georgia. Thus the temporary Caucasian government -dissolved.</p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/i069.jpg" alt=">Mourat" /></div> - -<p class="bold"><span class="smcap">Mourat</span></p> - -<p class="bold">Who lead the volunteers at Erzingan after the Russian collapse<br />and died -heroically in the fighting at Baku.</p> - -<p>After the separation of the Georgians the Armenian National Council of -the Caucasus declared Armenian independence, under the name of the -Republic of Ararat, with Erivan as its capital. While the negotiations -were going on in Batoum—always between the delegates of the Turks and -the three Caucasian races comprising the Caucasian temporary -government,—the Turkish armies, after the occupation of Kars, became -more aggressive and commenced to advance toward Alexandropol and -Karakilissa. Concentrating their forces around Karakilissa and Erivan, -early in June, the Armenians in two fierce battles drove the Turks back -almost to their frontier. In the battle of Karakilissa, which lasted -four days, the Turks left 6,000 dead before the Armenian posts, and -escaped to Alexandropol. When the Turks felt that their position in the -face of the Armenian resistance was becoming more and more hopeless and -that it would cost them dear to continue the fight, they immediately -began to make concessions. Up to that time the Turks had not yet -recognized the right of Russian Armenia to independence, their objection -being that they only recognized in the Caucasus Georgian and Tartar -countries. But when they heard the news of the last military victory of -the Armenians, on June 14, in Batoum, the Turkish delegates, together -with the representatives of the Republic of Ararat, signed the first -terms of armistice, leaving the final peace signature to the congress of -Constantinople, where the final negotiations were to take place.</p> - -<p>The delegates of the three nations of the Caucasus reached -Constantinople on June 19. They were 32 in number. Among them were also -the representatives of the Republic of Ararat, Mr. A. Khatissoff, the -minister of foreign affairs, and Mr. A. Aharonian, the president of the -Armenian National Council. In that congress, which convened in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> presence -of the delegates of the German and Austrian governments, the Turks -signed peace treaties with each of the newly-formed Caucasian Republics. -It is needless to say that those treaties had as much value as that -which the Roumanian government was forced to sign a few months before by -the central powers. And, as was expected, the Turks and the Germans -rewarded the Georgians and the Tartars at the expense of the Armenians. -They gave the greater part of the Armenian territories to the other two -nations, and the remainder was claimed by Turkey, with the exception of -32,000 square kilometers (about 12,350 square miles), with 700,000 -Armenian inhabitants, which were left to the Republic of Ararat. -According to these terms only one-third of the Armenians of the Caucasus -are included within the Republic of Ararat, while the remaining -1,400,000 Armenians are left in territories allotted to the Tartars or -the Georgians.</p> - -<p>That portion of the Armenians which inhabits the mountainous regions of -Karabagh (which was assigned to the Tartars), up to this very day, -October, 1918, resists the Turco-Tartar hordes and refuses at any price -to be subjected to the unjust terms of the treaty of Constantinople, -while beyond, the Armenians at Van, when their military forces realized -that their retreat was cut off early last May, after being sheltered for -two whole months in Van, moved toward Persia, there joined the Christian -Assyrians in the neighborhood of Urmia, repulsed for a long time the -Turkish and Kurdish attacks, and only early in September succeeded in -shattering the Turkish lines and thereby reached the city of Hamadan in -Persia, where they entrusted to the care of the British forces the -protection of about 40,000 Armenian and Assyrian refugees. In order to -complete this picture of the heroic resistance of the Caucasian -Armenians, let me say a few words more about the struggle at Baku.</p> - -<p>As already mentioned, early in May, 1917, through the efforts of the -Armenian National Organization of the Caucasus, the Armenian soldiers -and officers scattered throughout Russia were gradually brought together -and mobilized on the Caucasian front. With that purpose in view an -Armenian Military Committee was formed in Petrograd with General -Bagradouni as president. Bagradouni was one of the most brilliant young -generals of the Russian army. He had received his military training at -the highest military academy of Petrograd, and, during Kerensky's -administration, was appointed Chief of the Staff of the military<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> forces -at Petrograd. When the Bolsheviks assumed power they ordered him to take -an oath of loyalty to the new government. General Bagradouni refused to -do so, and for that reason he was imprisoned, with many other high -military officials. After remaining in prison two months, through -repeated appeals by the Armenian National bodies, he was freed by the -Bolsheviks on condition that he should immediately leave Petrograd. -After his release from prison, General Bagradouni, accompanied by the -well known Armenian social worker, Mr. Rostom, with 200 Armenian -officers, left for the Caucasus to assume the duties of -commander-in-chief of the newly-formed Armenian army. This group of -Armenian officers reached Baku early in March, where it was forced to -wait, for the simple reason that the Baku-Tiflis railroad line was -already cut by the Tartars. During that same month of March from many -parts of Russia a large number of Armenians gathered at Baku and waited -to go to Erivan and Tiflis in response to the call issued by the -Armenian National Council. Toward the end of March nearly 110,000 -Armenian soldiers had come together at Baku.</p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/i073.jpg" alt=">Armenians valiantly defending Baku against the Tartars" /></div> - -<p class="bold">Armenians valiantly defending Baku against the Tartars.<br /><i>Taken from "Asia."</i></p> - -<p>By the 30th of March the news of German victories was spread throughout -the Caucasus by the Turco-German agents. On the same day in Baku and -other places appeared the following leaflets:</p> - -<blockquote><p>"Awake, Turkish brothers!</p> - -<p>"Protect your rights; union with the Turks means life.</p> - -<p>"Unite, O Children of the Turks!</p> - -<p>"Brothers of the noble Turkish nation, for hundreds of years our -blood has flowed like water, our motherland has been ruined, and we -have been under the heel of thousands of oppressors who have almost -crushed us. We have forgotten our nation. We do not know to whom to -appeal for help.</p> - -<p>"Countrymen, we consider ourselves free hereafter. Let us look into -our conscience! Let us not listen to the voice of plotters. We must -not lose the way to freedom; our freedom lies in union with the -Turks. It is necessary for us to unite and put ourselves under the -protection of the Turkish flag.</p> - -<p>"Forward, brothers! Let us gather ourselves under the flag of union -and stretch out our hands to our Turkish brothers. Long life to the -generous Turkish nation! By these words we shall never again bear a -foreign yoke, the chains of servitude."</p></blockquote> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p><p>And on the following day (March 31) from all sides of the Caucasus the -armed hordes of Tartars attacked the Armenians. The leaders of the -Tartars at Baku were convinced that they would easily disarm the -Armenian soldiers, because they were somewhat shut up in Baku, but they -were sadly mistaken in their calculations. After a bloody battle which -lasted a whole week the Armenians remained masters of the city and its -oil wells. They suffered a loss of nearly 2,500 killed, while the -Tartars lost more than 10,000. The commander of the military forces of -the Armenians was the same General Bagradouni, who, although he lost -both of his legs during the fight, continued his duties until September -14, when the Armenians and the small number of Englishmen who came to -their assistance were forced to abandon Baku to the superior forces of -the Turco-Tartars, and retreat toward the city of Enzeli in the northern -Caucasus.</p> - -<p>During these heroic struggles, which lasted five and a half months, the -small Armenian garrison of Baku, together with a few thousand Russians, -defended Baku and its oil wells against tens of thousands of Tartars, -the Caucasian mountaineers, and more than one division of regular -Turkish troops which had come to the assistance of the latter by way of -Batoum. Time after time the Turkish troops made fierce attacks to -capture the city, but each time they were repulsed with heavy losses by -the gallant Armenian garrison. The Armenians had built their hopes on -British assistance, since nothing was expected from the demoralized -Russian army. But, unfortunately, the British were unable to reach Baku -with large forces from their Bagdad army. Nevertheless, on August 5, -they landed at Baku 2,800 men to help the Armenians. The arrival of this -small British contingent caused great enthusiasm among the tired and -exhausted defenders of the city. But meanwhile the Turks had received -new forces from Batoum and renewed their attacks. After a series of -bloody battles the armed Armenian and British forces were forced to -leave Baku on September 14 and retreat toward Persia, taking with them -nearly 10,000 refugees from the inhabitants of the city. As to the -condition of those who were left behind, this much is certain; that on -the day the city was occupied by the Turco-Tartars, nearly 20,000 -Armenians were put to the sword, the greater portion of them being women -and children. According to the news received from Persia, after that -first terrible massacre, other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> massacres likewise have taken place. The -number of the losses is not known; but it may safely be surmised without -any exaggeration that out of the entire 80,000 Armenian inhabitants of -Baku, all those who were unable to leave the city in time were -slaughtered by the revengeful Turks and Tartars. Thus ended the -resistance of five months and a half by the Armenians at Baku against -the Turco-Germans.</p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/i078.jpg" alt=">Young Armenian students in France" /></div> - -<p class="bold">Young Armenian students in France, who took part in the<br /> -immortal defence of Verdun in 1916.</p> - -<p>The remnants of the retreating Armenian garrison of Baku, at the time of -writing, are located in the Persian city of Enzeli, where, under the -command of their heroic leader, General Bagradouni, they are -recuperating before hastening to the aid of the Armenians in the eastern -Caucasus, who, as already mentioned, up to this very day are resisting -the forces of the Turco-Tartars in the mountains of Karabagh.</p> - -<h2><span class="smcap">Armenia's Co-operation With the Allies on Other Fronts.</span></h2> - -<p>The Armenians, besides battling on the Caucasian front, where they have -been fighting in their own native land, have co-operated unreservedly -with the Allies on far distant fronts, as for example on the French -front. At the beginning of the war the young Armenian students living in -France—about 900 in number—volunteered to serve in the French army for -the defence of civilization and freedom. Today, scarcely 50 of them are -alive; the majority of the 850 others gave their lives in 1916 in the -immortal defence of Verdun. This small episode in this universal drama -will not be forgotten by either France or the Free Armenia of the -future. Glory to the memory of those immortal heroes! Beyond, on another -front of the war, by an extraordinary coincidence of fate, in the deadly -blow which fell on the head of the criminal Ottoman Empire in the Holy -Land, the sons of the sorrowful people whom it had ruthlessly -slaughtered had their just share of active participation. And indeed, in -General Allenby's victorious army, which saved Palestine and Syria from -Turkish tyranny in September, 1918, by General Allenby's own testimony, -the eight battalions of the Armenian volunteers (who took part in those -battles under the French flag) were conspicuous for their bravery. In -response to a congratulatory telegram from the chairman of the Armenian -National Union of Egypt for the victories on the Palestine front, -General Allenby said: "I thank<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> you warmly for your congratulations, and -am proud of the fact that your Armenian compatriots in the Oriental -Legion took an active part in the fighting and shared in our victory."</p> - -<h2><span class="smcap">Conclusion.</span></h2> - -<p>If we wish to condense all we have said in a few pages, we shall have -the following picture:</p> - -<p>In 1914 both Turkey and Russia appealed to the Armenians by various -promises of a future autonomous Armenia to secure their assistance in -their respective military operations. Through their long and bitter -experience the Armenians knew very well that the imperialistic -governments of both Turkey and of Russia were opposed to their national -aspirations and therefore those promises had no value whatever. But, -realizing the universal significance of the present war, and considering -the fact that justice was on the side of the Entente, the Armenians, in -spite of their distrust of the Russian government, from the very -beginning, unreservedly bound themselves to the allied cause.</p> - -<p>This decision of the Armenians cost them the sacrifice of more than -1,000,000 men in Turkish Armenia, and complete devastation of their -native land even in the first year of the war.</p> - -<p>In spite of this terrible blow, the Armenians did not lose their vigor, -and, even though the autocratic Russian government, up to the time of -the Revolution, created all sorts of obstacles to impede their -activities, they still continued their assistance to the allied cause. -In bringing about the failure of the three Turkish offensives in 1914 -and 1915 the Armenians gave the allied cause important armed assistance, -on both sides of the Turco-Russian frontier.</p> - -<p>After the Russian Revolution, when, the Russian military forces fled -from the Caucasian front and left it unprotected from January, 1918, to -the middle of the following September, the Armenians were the only -people who resisted and delayed the Turco-German advance toward Baku. -Moreover, the Armenians accomplished all this with their own forces, all -alone, surrounded on all sides by hostile elements, without any means of -communication with their great Allies of the West. As an evidence of -this we may mention the fact that during the last eight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> months and a -half the Armenians have received from the Allies only 6,500,000 rubles -($3,250,000) of financial assistance, and the 2,800 British soldiers who -were too few and arrived too late to save Baku.</p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/i081.jpg" alt=">Armenian volunteers who fought on the Palestine front" /></div> - -<p class="bold">Armenian volunteers who fought on the Palestine front in<br /> -September and October, 1918, under the command of Gen. Allenby.</p> - -<p>Let us now look at the other side of the picture.</p> - -<p>Had the Armenians assumed an entirely opposite attitude from what they -actually did; in other words, had they bound their fate in 1914 to the -Turco-German cause, just as the Bulgarians did in 1915, what would have -been the trend of events in the Near East? Here is a question to which, -it is quite possible, our great Allies have had no time to give any -consideration. But that very question was put before the Armenians in -1914, and with no light heart did they answer it by their decision to -join the Allies. Each and every one of them had a clear presentiment of -the terrible responsibility they assumed. Those millions of corpses of -Armenian women and children which spotted the plains in the summer of -1915, rose like phantoms before our very eyes in the August of 1914 when -we decided to resist the wild Turkish revengefulness and its frightful -outcome. Now, in October, 1918, when we are so close to the hour of the -final victory, and feel quite safe and certain that the heavy and gloomy -days of the summer of 1914 will never return, I shall permit myself to -picture in a few words, before I finish, that which would have taken -place if the Armenians had sided with the Germano-Turks in the Near East -from the beginning of the war.</p> - -<p>First of all, those frightful Armenian massacres would not have taken -place. On the contrary, the Turks and the Germans would have tried to -win the sympathy of the Armenians in every possible way until the end of -the war.</p> - -<p>On the other hand, so long as the Georgians and Tartars of the Caucasian -peoples were only too eager to co-operate with the Germano-Turks, as the -events of 1918 fully demonstrate, had the Armenians likewise joined them -in 1914, by cutting the railroads, the backbone of the Caucasian Russian -army, all the Caucasian country would have slipped out of the hands of -the Russians in a few weeks, and the Turco-Germans would have reached -Baku in the autumn of the same year. The Armenians, Georgians, and -Tartars of the Caucasus, united, would have been able to form with the -greatest ease an army of 700,000 men, by which they would have been able -to defend the Caucasian mountain-ridge against the Russians. Meanwhile, -the entire Turkish army would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> have been available to advance -immediately toward the interior of Asia and join the 18,000,000 Moslems -of Asiatic Russia. We may safely say, neither Persia nor Afghanistan -could have remained neutral on seeing such successful achievements by -the Turks.</p> - -<p>In the course of such events Russia would have been compelled to remove -the greater portion of her forces to the East and would not have been -able to protect her Western frontiers as successfully as she did. -Therefore, quite probably, the Russian collapse would have taken place -in the summer of 1915, when the Germans occupied Russian Poland. On the -other hand, Great Britain would have been obliged to appropriate the -greater portion of her newly-formed land forces for the protection of -India, and would have been unable to rush as great a force to the -defence of heroic France as she actually did. Quite likely, under these -conditions, neither Italy nor Roumania would have abandoned her -neutrality, and thus the war might have ended in 1915 or 1916 with the -victory of the central Powers, at least on land.</p> - -<p>It was as clear as day to the Armenians that a Germano-Turkish victory -could never satisfy their national aspirations. The most that those -nations would have done for us would have been to grant nominal rights -to the Armenia of their own choice. But it was very plain to us also -that we should not have suffered such frightful human losses had we not -sided with the Allies. We consciously chose this last alternative, -namely: we tied our fate to the allied victory; we exposed our very -existence to danger in order to realize the complete fulfillment of our -national ambition, that is, to see the re-establishment of the United -Historic Independent Armenia.</p> - -<p>With our modest means, we have fulfilled our duty in full measure in -this great struggle in order to save civilization from an impending -doom. Now it is for our great Allies to act.</p> - -<p>The day is not very far distant when, gathered around the great tribunal -of justice, the representatives of all the nations of the globe—guilty -or just—are to receive their punishment or reward from the hands of the -four distinguished champions of democracy, President Wilson, Premiers -Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau, and Orlando. If the representatives -present themselves in the order of seniority, the first in the rank will -be the representative of the Armenian people—the aged Mother Armenia. -Behold! Into the Peace Congress Hall there enters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> an old woman, bathed -in blood, clothed in rags, her face covered with wrinkles 3,000 years -old, and completely exhausted. With her thoughtful eyes the venerable -Mother Armenia will survey the countenances of all those present, and -thus will she address the great figures of the world:</p> - -<blockquote><p>"Century after century my sons took part in all the strifes waged -to safeguard justice and the freedom of suffering humanity. Three -thousand years ago my sons struggled for seven hundred years -against the despotism of Babylon and Nineveh, which eventually -collapsed under the load of their own crimes. Fifteen centuries ago -the Armenians resisted for five hundred years the persecutions of -the mighty Persian Empire to preserve their Christian faith. Since -the eighth century my sons have been the vanguard of Christian -civilization in the East against Moslem invasions threatening for a -while the very existence of all Europe. If you doubt my statements, -ask the sacred mountain of Ararat; he will relate to you how all -the nations and empires, which attempted to possess by criminal -means the indisputable inheritance of my sons, have received their -just punishment.</p> - -<p>"Let us not go very far. Here, before you, stand the -representatives of those three nations which tried to destroy my -sons before your very eyes, in order to rule those parts of our -ancestral lands, so sanctified by blood, known as Armenia. Look at -this Turk; it was he who wished to wipe the very name of Armenia -off the face of the map; but today, foiled in his attempt, he -stands there like a criminal awaiting his sentence. And where is -today the Czar of Russia, who planned to occupy Armenia without the -Armenians,—the representative of that Empire before which the -world trembled. And what has remained of the policies of the German -Empire, in whose hands is the Bagdad railroad now, built at the -cost of the blood of hundreds of thousands of Armenian women and -children? Thus, those three modern malevolent empires, which tried -to attain happiness through the blood of my sons, have received -their just punishment.</p> - -<p>"Such will be the fate in the future of all those who shall attempt -similar crimes against Armenia. This is the message, gentlemen, -handed down to us through three thousand years of history.</p> - -<p>"I have nothing more to add. I await your verdict with confidence."</p></blockquote> - -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<hr class="full" /> -<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHY ARMENIA SHOULD BE FREE***</p> -<p>******* This file should be named 53976-h.htm or 53976-h.zip *******</p> -<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> -<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/5/3/9/7/53976">http://www.gutenberg.org/5/3/9/7/53976</a></p> -<p> -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed.</p> - -<p>Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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(Garegin) -Pasdermadjian - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - - -Title: Why Armenia Should Be Free - Armenia's Role in the Present War - - -Author: G. (Garegin) Pasdermadjian - - - -Release Date: January 16, 2017 [eBook #53976] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHY ARMENIA SHOULD BE FREE*** - - -E-text prepared by Cindy Horton, Martin Pettit, and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made -available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) - - - -Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this - file which includes the original illustrations. - See 53976-h.htm or 53976-h.zip: - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/53976/53976-h/53976-h.htm) - or - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/53976/53976-h.zip) - - - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/whyarmeniashould00pasduoft - - - - - -WHY ARMENIA SHOULD BE FREE - -Armenia's Role in the Present War - - -[Illustration: DR. G. PASDERMADJIAN (Armen Garo)] - - -WHY ARMENIA SHOULD BE FREE - -Armenia's Role in the Present War - -by - -DR. G. PASDERMADJIAN -(ARMEN GARO) - -Ex-Deputy from Erzeroum in the Ottoman Parliament -Former Commander of the Second Battalion of the Armenian -Volunteers on the Caucasian Front -Representative in America of Armenian National Council of the -Caucasus. - -With an Introduction by George Nasmyth, Ph. D. - -Former President of the Central Committee of the International -Federation of Students -Secretary of the Massachusetts Joint Committee -for a League of Free Nations - -Illustrated - - - - - - - -Boston -Hairenik Publishing Company -1918. - -Written at Washington, D. C., October, 1918. -All Rights Reserved - -Published, December, 1918 - -The Blanchard Printing Co. -Boston Massachusetts. - - -TO THOSE WHO WERE MARTYRED -AND -TO THOSE WHO DIED ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE -FOR THE LIBERATION OF ARMENIA - - - - -CONTENTS - - _Page_ -INTRODUCTION 1 - -TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE 5 - -TURKISH AND RUSSIAN PROPOSALS TO THE ARMENIANS IN 1914 15 - -MILITARY SERVICES RENDERED BY THE ARMENIANS ON THE CAUCASIAN FRONT 18 - -ARMENIAN RESISTANCE TO THE TURKISH MASSACRES 24 - -ATTITUDE OF RUSSIAN CZARISM TOWARD THE ARMENIANS 28 - -ROLE PLAYED BY THE ARMENIANS IN THE CAUCASUS AFTER THE RUSSIAN - COLLAPSE 34 - -ARMENIA'S CO-OPERATION WITH THE ALLIES ON OTHER FRONTS 41 - -CONCLUSION 42 - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -Armenia has become a touchstone of victory in the great war for freedom -and humanity. - -If Armenia is granted national independence it will mean that in the -making of the peace treaty the forces of democracy and human progress -have triumphed over the forces of imperialism and short-sighted -reaction. It will mean that in the future the rights of the small -nations are to be recognized as well as those of the great. It will mean -that international justice is to be the foundation of the new world -order. The triumph of the principle that is involved will mean that the -war has been won because its moral aims have been achieved. - -But if the Armenians were to be thrust back under the yoke of Turkey, it -would mean that injustice, massacre and atrocity are to be permanent -features of the world of the future. It would mean that the -justice-loving nations of the world will prepare for inevitable -conflicts that are to come. It would mean that the war which was fought -to end war has been lost. - -National independence for Armenia will mean that the old order of secret -intrigue and orthodox diplomacy has given way to a new order of open -democratic diplomacy, based on the self-determination of nations and the -principles of international justice. It will mean that the peace which -ends this war will be a democratic peace, a peace of the peoples, a -peace that will last. It will mean that imperialistic aims, secret -treaties and selfish greedy interests have given way before the -conception of a world organized for righteousness and permanent peace. - -National independence for Armenia will mean that the Balance of Power, -which has always considered the subject nations of Turkey as mere pawns -in a diplomatic game, has been replaced by a League of Free Nations -opening the way towards a world federation and the parliament of man. It -will mean that the old chaos of international anarchy is to be replaced -by a new world order in which peoples and nations shall be free to live -their own lives, to speak their own language, to worship in their own -religion and to develop their own civilization, in the fullest -friendship and democratic co-operation with the other free nations of -mankind. - -National independence for Armenia is a touchstone of victory because it -will mean that mankind has come to recognize that there is a moral law -in the world, which applies to nations as well as to individuals. It -will mean the overthrow of imperialism, militarism and the philosophy of -force. It will mean an invaluable extension of the principle of -democracy in the world. It will mean that the way will be open to -develop the great highway between Europe and Asia amid political -conditions of a stable and durable peace. It will mean that mankind can -proceed to cultivate again the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates -and that once more after centuries of desolation this region will become -one of the garden spots of the earth. - -What should be the boundaries of the new Armenian nation? I have before -me Stanford's Linguistic Map of Europe, a map based upon the most -careful scientific research and conscientious scholarship. This map -shows the area in which the Armenian speaking population is dominant as -extending to Adana and Alexandretta on the Mediterranean, almost to the -Black Sea near Trebizond, to Tiflis in the Caucasus Mountains and to -Lake Urmia near the western boundary of Persia on the East. - -At the edges this Armenian territory shades over into regions occupied -by Turks and Kurds. In the interest of international justice and -permanent peace in the future, the boundaries of the new Armenia ought -to be extended as far as the Armenian race extends as an important -element of the population, because the Armenians have proved their -capacity for self-government even under the almost impossible conditions -of Turkish misrule, while Turks and Kurds have again and again proved -incapable of governing themselves, much less of governing others. The -hope for toleration of racial minorities, which is the indispensable -condition for peace in areas of mixed population, would be many times -greater in a government by the Armenians than in a government by Turks -and Kurds. - -Armenia is a touchstone of victory in this war because, unlike Belgium, -it lies so far beyond the range of accurate news reports and the -limelight of public opinion, that it is likely to be overlooked unless a -settlement is approached in a new spirit of international justice. The -horrors of the Armenian massacres have been so unendurable that many -people have had to try to escape from thinking about Armenia in order to -keep their sanity in the midst of such wholesale horror. But oblivion is -no remedy for the problem of Armenia and the world of the future will -not be safe for democracy or for anything else unless Armenia and the -problem which it represents is permanently solved in the Peace -Conference. I do not believe that any indemnities or annexations of -territories or any imperialistic gain of this war is worth the life of a -single American soldier, but I do believe that only by giving Armenia -its independence, by establishing the principle of international -justice, of which Armenia is a concrete example, and by creating a -League of Free Nations as the basis of the new world order, will we be -enabled to say that the sacrifices of these young men shall not have -been in vain. Thus Armenia becomes the touchstone of victory in this -great war for freedom and humanity. - -GEORGE NASMYTH. - -BOSTON, MASS. -DECEMBER 12, 1918. - - - - -TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE - - -Dr. Pasdermadjian, the author of this pamphlet, is a native of Erzeroum, -and a member of a family which, both in the past and in the present, has -been an object of barbarous persecution at the hands of the Turks. When -the Russians in 1829 captured Erzeroum for the first time, 96,000 -Armenians, with the encouragement of the Russian government, left that -city and the outlying villages with the Russian army, and emigrated -towards the Caucasus, where they founded three new cities, Alexandropol, -Akhalkalak, and Akhaltsikh. Only 300 Armenian families remained in -Erzeroum, refusing to leave their homes, even in face of the Turkish -despotism. Among these was the Pasdermadjian family. - -In 1872 the Turkish government had Khatchatour Pasdermadjian killed, -simply because he was a well-to-do and influential Armenian, and, -therefore, undesirable. In 1877 during the Russo-Turkish war, the -Pasdermadjian family was subjected to the basest kind of persecution by -the Turkish government, which still owes the Pasdermadjians 36,000 -Turkish _liras_ ($180,000), the value of a quantity of wheat wrested -from them by the military authorities. During those same hostilities, -taking advantage of the war conditions, the Turkish government planned -to hang Haroutiun Pasdermadjian, on the ground that he was in -communication with the Russian army; but he was saved through the -intervention of the British consul. When the Russian army occupied -Erzeroum in 1878, the Pasdermadjians naturally gave a very hospitable -reception to the two Armenian Generals, Loris Melikoff and Lazareff. -After learning of the family's history, Loris Melikoff asked Haroutiun -Pasdermadjian to emigrate to the Caucasus. He promised to bring the -influence of the Russian government to bear on Turkey and to claim the -family's extensive real estate and various sums of money which the -Turkish government owed them. But Haroutiun Pasdermadjian refused the -kind offer, saying that he could not leave the country which contained -his martyred father's grave. When the Russians, in accordance with the -terms of the Berlin Treaty, were forced to evacuate Erzeroum, the Turks -came back and began anew to persecute the Pasdermadjians in every -possible way. In 1890 the Armenians of Erzeroum made a protest against -Turkish despotism, and demanded to have the reforms promised in the -Berlin Treaty carried out. The first bullet fired by the Turkish -soldiers during those disturbances was aimed at Haroutiun Pasdermadjian; -but he was saved through the heroism of a group of young Armenians. In -the massacres of 1895, the Pasdermadjians were again attacked by an -armed Turkish mob, but were saved from plunder and murder through the -stubborn resistance of all the members of the household, including the -servants. Afterwards, three members of the family, Hovhannes, Tigrane, -and Setrak, were imprisoned for a long time as revolutionists. In -reality, they were imprisoned simply because they had not allowed -themselves to be slaughtered like sheep by the Turkish mob. In February, -1915, when the present Turkish government began its organized slaughters -to eliminate the Armenians from the world, the first victim in Erzeroum -was Setrak Pasdermadjian, because he was an influential Armenian and had -had the courage several times to protest against the unlawful acts of -the government. The remnants of this numerous and ancient Armenian -family are now scattered throughout Mesopotamia. - -The author of this booklet, Garegin Pasdermadjian, is the son of -Haroutiun Pasdermadjian and the grand-son of Khatchatour Efendi. He was -born in 1873, and received his elementary education at the Sanasarian -College of Erzeroum, being one of its first graduates (1891). In 1894 he -went to France and studied agriculture in the college at Nancy, -intending to return and develop the lands belonging to his family -according to the modern agricultural methods of Europe, and in that way -give a practical lesson to the Armenian peasants. He had hardly begun -his course when the great massacres of 1895 revolutionized the plans of -the younger generation of Armenian students. Out of the 26 young -Armenians at the University of Nancy, four, Sarkis Srentz, Haik -Thirakian, Max Zevrouz, and Garegin Pasdermadjian, left their studies -and returned to participate in the effort at vengeance which the -Armenian Revolutionary Dashnaktzoutiun (Federation) had decided to -organize in Constantinople. In 1896, Garegin Pasdermadjian and Haik -Thirakian, under their assumed names of Armen Garo and Hratch -respectively, took part in the seizure of the Ottoman Bank. This -European institution, with its 154 inmates and 300 million francs -($60,000,000) of capital, remained in the hands of the Armenian -revolutionists for fourteen hours as a pledge that the European -ambassadors should immediately stop the Armenian massacre in -Constantinople and give assurances that the reforms guaranteed to the -Armenians in the Treaty of Berlin should be carried out. On behalf of -the six great powers, signatories to the Berlin Treaty, the chief -interpreter of the Russian embassy, Mr. Maximoff, made a gentleman's -agreement with the young Armenian revolutionists to fulfill their -demands. Trusting to Mr. Maximoff's word of honor, the Armenians left -Constantinople. But immediately after their departure, the massacres -were resumed with more intensity, while the reforms have remained a dead -letter to this day. Such were international morals in 1895. - -After these events Garegin Pasdermadjian returned to Europe to continue -his unfinished studies. Mr. Hanoteau, however, the French foreign -minister at that time, would not allow the Armenians who had been -connected with this affair to remain in France, so young Pasdermadjian -went to Switzerland and studied the natural sciences at the University -of Geneva. In 1900 he completed his course and received the degree of -Doctor of Science. Unable to return to Turkish Armenia, as was his -desire, Dr. Pasdermadjian went to the Caucasus and settled at Tiflis in -1901. There he opened the first chemical laboratory, for the purpose of -investigating the rich mines of that region. - -National events, however, prevented him from pursuing his research work. -Having been a member of the responsible body of the Armenian -Revolutionary Dashnaktzoutiun (Federation) since 1896, he took part in -all the movements which aimed to protect the moral and physical well -being of the Armenian people from Turkish and Russian despotism. For -example, in 1905, when the Caucasian Tartars, with the approval of the -Russian government, began to massacre the Armenians in divers parts of -the Caucasus, Dr. Pasdermadjian became a member of the Committee created -by the Armenian Revolutionary Dashnaktzoutiun (Federation) to organize -defence work among the Armenian people. In November of the same year, -when the Armeno-Tartar hostilities began right in Tiflis, under the very -nose of the Russian administration, he was entrusted with the command of -the Armenian volunteers to protect Tiflis and its environs. During the -seven-day struggle which took place in the streets of Tiflis, 500 -Armenian volunteers faced nearly 1400 armed Tartars, and drove them back -with heavy losses. - -The situation in the Caucasus was almost normal, and Dr. Pasdermadjian -and his idealistic colleagues were about to resume their main -object,--to carry arms and ammunition from the Caucasus to the Turkish -Armenians in order to prepare them for self-defense,--when the Turkish -revolution came in 1908. The Armenians in Erzeroum, as well as the party -to which he was a member, telegraphed to Dr. Pasdermadjian and strongly -urged him to become their candidate in the coming elections for -Representative to the Ottoman Parliament. After seven years of -professional studies, Dr. Pasdermadjian had been able to create for -himself in the Caucasus a life fairly prosperous financially. He had -just secured the right to develop a copper mine, and was about to work -it in partnership with a large company. His business required that he -should stay in the Caucasus to continue his successful enterprise, but -he yielded to the moral pressure of his comrades and left his personal -affairs to go to Constantinople as a deputy from Erzeroum. - -During his four years in Constantinople as a deputy, Dr. Pasdermadjian -devoted his entire time to better the economic conditions of the -Armenian vilayets, and especially worked for the railroad bill, of which -he was the real author, but which was known to the public as Chester's -bill. Its main object was to build railroads as soon as possible in -those vilayets of Armenia which were considered to be Russia's future -possessions. For that reason neither France nor Germany wished to -undertake it, lest they should arouse the enmity of Russia. Another -fundamental object was to build those lines with American capital, which -would make it possible to counteract the Russo-Franco-German policies -and financial intrigues, for the benefit of the Armenian people. But in -spite of all his efforts, Dr. Pasdermadjian was unable to overcome the -German opposition in Constantinople, although, as the outcome of the -struggle in connection with that bill, two ministers of public works -were forced to resign their post. Both of the ministers were absolute -German agents under the name of Turkish ministers. It may also be worth -mentioning that during his four years at Constantinople as a deputy from -Erzeroum, at three different times, Talaat Bey (who became the butcher -of the Armenian people in 1915), on behalf of the "Committee of Union -and Progress," offered the portfolio of public works to Dr. -Pasdermadjian, as the most competent man for the post. Dr. -Pasdermadjian, however, refused these proposals, for the simple reason -that he did not wish to compromise in any way with the leaders of the -Turkish government, as long as they continued their chauvinistic and -anti-Armenian policy. - -In the parliamentary elections of 1914, the "Committee of Union and -Progress" used every means to defeat the election of Dr. Pasdermadjian -in Erzeroum. On account of this attitude of the Turks, all the Armenian -inhabitants of the Erzeroum vilayet refused to take part in the last -elections. This intense opposition of the Turks to the candidacy of Dr. -Pasdermadjian was due to the fact that he had taken too active a part in -1913 in the conferences held for the consideration of the Armenian -reforms, and especially because, while parliamentary elections were -going on in Turkish Armenia during April, 1914, he was in Paris and -Holland, as the delegate of the Armenian Revolutionary Dashnaktzoutiun -(Federation), to meet the inspectors general who were invited to carry -out the reforms in Turkish Armenia. - -In the autumn of 1914, a month and a half before the beginning of -Turco-Russian hostilities, Dr. Pasdermadjian went to the Caucasus on a -special mission, and joined the committee which had been appointed by -the Armenian National Council of the Caucasus to organize the Armenian -volunteer movement. In November of the same year, when the Russo-Turkish -war had begun, he accompanied the second battalion of the Armenian -volunteers, as the representative of the executive committee of Tiflis, -to prepare the local inhabitants of Turkish Armenia for self-defence, as -the Russian army was about to advance into the captured territories of -that country. On November 14 the second battalion of the Armenian -volunteers engaged in battle for the first time, near Bayazid, with the -Turkish soldiers and the Kurds. In the course of a bloody combat which -lasted twenty-four hours, Dro, the brave commander of the battalion, was -seriously wounded, and Dr. Pasdermadjian was forced immediately to take -his place. From that day to March of the following year, he remained at -the head of that battalion, and led it into eleven battles in the -neighborhood of Alashkert, Toutakh, and Malashkert, until Dro recovered -and returned to resume the command. In the summer of 1915, Dr. -Pasdermadjian (again as a representative of the executive committee of -Tiflis) went to Van. He was there when the people migrated en masse to -the Caucasus (when the Russian army was forced to retreat to the old -Russo-Turkish frontiers) and shared their untold hardships. - -In the spring of 1917, when the Russian Revolution turned all the -defence work of the Caucasus up-side down, Dr. Pasdermadjian, with Dr. -Zavrieff, was sent from the Caucasus to Petrograd to negotiate with the -temporary Russian government concerning Caucasian affairs. From -Petrograd he left for America in June of the same year as the -representative of the Armenian National Council of Tiflis and as the -special Envoy of His Holiness the Catholicos of all the Armenians, to -lay before the American public and government the sorrows of the -Armenian people with the view of winning their sympathy and protection -for the indisputable rights of Armenia. He is still acting in that -capacity with all the energy at his command. His last effort has been -the preparation of this pamphlet, in which the reader will find a part -of these biographical facts under his assumed name of Armen Garo. - - -A word or two more about this booklet, which has been written in the -nick of time. - -The critical days in the spring of this year are over, and the complete -victory of the Allies and of the United States has been won. "The day is -not very far," in the words of the writer, "when ... the representatives -of all the nations of the world,--guilty or just,--are to receive their -punishment or reward...." It is the purpose of this pamphlet to -demonstrate beyond any shadow of doubt, with most authentic facts, that -Armenia has fulfilled her duty to the allied cause in full measure (and -suffered untold sacrifices in doing so), and, therefore, is entitled to -her just claims as an Independent Armenia. - -One other purpose the writer had in view in writing this booklet: to -make the great and generous American public realize that Armenians are -not an anaemic and unaggressive people, with no fighting blood in their -veins; that the Armenians have not been butchered like sheep, but, on -the contrary, have fought most bravely and resisted most stubbornly the -savage attacks of the Turks whenever they had an opportunity. - -If the translation can possibly convey the spirit of the original, the -sustained eloquence and suppressed emotion with which the author pleads -the cause of his unfortunate but brave people, should be intensely -effective because they are not mere words, but are based on actual, -real, undeniable facts, and are the expression of a soul wholly -dedicated to a sacred cause. - -A. T. - -Cambridge, Mass. -December, 1918. - - - - -WHY ARMENIA SHOULD BE FREE -ARMENIA'S ROLE IN THE PRESENT WAR - - -"The interest of the weakest is as sacred as the interest of the -strongest." - -PRESIDENT WILSON. -New York, Sept. 27, 1918. - -[Illustration: A seventy-year old Armenian priest leading the volunteers -to the battlefield.] - - - - -WHY ARMENIA SHOULD BE FREE ARMENIA'S ROLE IN THE PRESENT WAR - - -In the early days of August, 1914, when civilized nations took up arms -against the German aggression, only three of the smaller nations of -Europe and the Near East had the courage, from the very first days of -the war, to stand by the Allies without any bargaining or dickering, and -they still stand at their posts on the ramparts, in spite of the immense -sacrifices they have already made. - -The first member of this heroic triad was brave Serbia, which was the -first victim of Austrian aggression, and whose sons, after four years of -heroic struggle, are about to regain their lost native land. The second -member was little Belgium, whose three weeks of heroic resistance -delayed the German advance of 1914 and enabled gallant France to crown -with success the historic battle of the Marne. The third member of this -heroic triad was the Armenian people, who for four years and without an -organized government or a national army, played the same role in the -Near East by preventing the Turco-German advance toward the interior of -Asia as the Belgians played in the West by arresting the march of -Germany toward Paris. The Armenians, however, paid a higher price to the -God of War than either the Belgians or the Serbs. Out of four and -one-quarter millions of Armenians living in Turkey and Russia at the -beginning of the war, scarcely three millions remain at the present -time. What were the conditions under which the Armenians sided with the -Allies, and why were they forced to bear so great a sacrifice for their -cause? - - -TURKISH AND RUSSIAN PROPOSALS TO THE ARMENIANS IN 1914. - -In the beginning of this world conflagration, in 1914, both the Russian -and the Turkish governments officially appealed to various Armenian -national organizations with many promises in order to secure the active -participation of the Armenians in the military operations against each -other, the principal stage of which would be Armenia itself. Both -Turkey and Russia were very anxious to win the co-operation of the -Armenians, because, judging from their past experience, they were -convinced that without such co-operation they would not be able to -accomplish the much desired military successes on the Armenian plateau. - -With such aims in view, Russia, through Count Varantzoff Dashkoff, -informed the Armenian National Council (then in existence at Tiflis) -that if the Armenians would unreservedly give their support to the -Russian armies during the course of the war, Russia would grant autonomy -to the six Armenian vilayets. The Russian Armenians, however, through -bitter experience, knew very well what little practical value could be -attached to the promises of Russian Czarism. During the course of the -19th century at three different times the Russians had made similar -promises to the Armenians when they waged war with Turkey and Persia, -and, although the self-sacrificing co-operation of the Russian Armenians -enabled the Russians to capture the districts of Elizavetpol, Erivan and -Kars in 1806, in 1828, and again in 1878, at the end of these wars their -flattering promises to the Armenians were promptly forgotten. But this -time the Armenians thought that Russia was not alone; the two great -liberal nations of the West, France and England, were her Allies. After -long and weighty consultation, with their hopes pinned on France and -England, the Armenians resolved to aid the Russian armies in every -possible way. - -While Russian diplomacy was in the midst of these diplomatic -negotiations at Tiflis, during the last days of August, 1914, a Turkish -mission of twenty-eight members (the object of which was to organize a -Pan-Islamic and a Pan-Turanian movement among all the races of the Near -East against Russia and her Allies) left Constantinople for Armenia. The -leaders of that mission were Omar Nadji Bey, Dr. Bahaeddin Shakir, and -Lieutenant Hilmy, all of them very influential members of the "Committee -of Union and Progress." The mission included representatives of all the -Eastern races, such as the Kurds, Persians, Georgians, Chechens, -Lezgies, Circassians, and the Caucasian Tartars, but not the Armenians. -During those same days the annual Congress of the Armenian National -Organization was in session at Erzeroum. In the name of the Turkish -government the above mentioned mission appealed to the Armenian -Organization with the following proposition: - -[Illustration: Armenians of Van defending themselves against the Turkish -and Kurdish raids in 1915. The volunteers in their trenches.] - - - "If the Armenians,--the Turkish as well as the Russian - Armenians--would give active co-operation to the Turkish armies, - the Turkish government under a German guarantee would promise to - create after the war an autonomous Armenia (made up of Russian - Armenia and the three Turkish vilayets of Erzeroum, Van, and - Bitlis) under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire." - - -The Turkish delegates, in order to persuade the Armenians to accept this -proposal, informed them also that they (the Turks) had already won the -co-operation of the Georgians and the Tartars, as well as the -mountaineers of the northern Caucasus, and therefore the noncompliance -of the Armenians under such circumstances would be very stupid and -fraught with danger for them on both sides of the boundary between -Turkey and Russia. In spite of these promises and threats, the executive -committee of the Dashnaktzoutiun (Federation) informed the Turks that -the Armenians could not accept the Turkish proposal, and on their behalf -advised the Turks not to participate in the present war, which would be -very disastrous to the Turks themselves. The Armenian members of this -parley were the well-known publicist, Mr. E. Aknouni, the representative -from Van, Mr. A. Vramian, and the director of the Armenian schools in -the district of Erzeroum, Mr. Rostom. Of these Mr. Aknouni and Mr. -Vramian were treacherously killed a few months later for their audacious -refusal of the Turkish proposals, while Mr. Rostom luckily escaped the -murderous plots against his life. - -The bold retort of the Armenians to the Turkish proposal mentioned -above, intensely angered the Turks, and from that very day the -extermination of the Armenians was determined upon by the Turkish -government. And in reality, arrests and persecutions within the Armenian -vilayets began in the early part of September, 1914, a month and a half -before the commencement of the Russo-Turkish war. The speed of the -persecutions gained greater momentum as the months rolled by and tens of -villages in different parts of Armenia were subjected to fire and sword. -In the district of Van alone, during February and March of 1915, -twenty-four villages were razed to their foundations and their -populations put to the sword. Early in April of the same year, they -attempted the massacre of the inhabitants of the city of Van as well, -but the Armenians took up arms, and, guided by their brave leader, Aram, -defended their lives and property for a whole month, until the Armenian -volunteers from Erivan with Russian soldiers came to the rescue and -saved them from the impending doom. This resistance on the part of the -inhabitants of Van gave the Turkish government a pretext to deport in -June and July of the same year the entire Armenian population of Turkish -Armenia, with the pretended intention of transporting them to -Mesopotamia, but with the actual determination to exterminate them. Out -of the million and a half of Armenians deported, scarcely 400,000 to -500,000 reached the sandy deserts of Syria and Mesopotamia, and most of -these were women, old men, and children, who were subjected in those -desolate regions to the mortal pangs of famine. More than a million -defenceless Armenians were murdered at the hands of Turkish soldiers and -Turkish mobs. The gang of robbers, headed by Talaat and Enver, resorted -to this fiendish means to eliminate the Armenian question once for all, -because the Armenians had had the courage to oppose their Pan-Turanian -policies. The barbarities of Jenghiz Khan and Tamerlane pale in -comparison with the savageries which were perpetrated against the -Turkish Armenians in the summer of 1915 during this wholesale massacre -organized by the Turkish government. Mr. Morgenthau, who was the -American ambassador at Constantinople during those frightful months, has -proclaimed all these atrocities by his authentic pen to the civilized -nations. This was the price which the Armenian people paid within the -boundaries of Turkey for refusing to aid the Turco-German policies. - -Now let us see what positive services from a military point of view this -same martyred people rendered to the allied cause on both sides of the -Turco-Russian boundary line. - - -MILITARY SERVICES RENDERED BY THE ARMENIANS ON THE CAUCASIAN FRONT - -In order to have an adequate comprehension of the events which took -place on the Caucasian front, it would be well to bear in mind that all -the peoples of Trans-Caucasia, including the Armenians, felt great -enmity toward the government of the Czar, whose treatment of them in the -past had been very tyrannical and very brutal. For this very reason, the -Turco-German propaganda had easily won the sympathy of nearly 3,000,000 -Tartars and 2,000,000 Georgians. The dream of the Tartars was to join -the Ottoman Turks and re-establish the old great Tartar Empire, which -was to extend from Constantinople to Samarkant, including all the lands -of the Caucasus and Trans-Caspia, while the Georgians, through their -alliance with the Turco-Germans, hoped to regain their lost independence -in the western Caucasus. Only the 2,000,000 Armenians of the Caucasus -were not influenced by the Turco-German propaganda, although they hated -the Russian despotism as much as their neighbors. But, on the other -hand, having very close acquaintance with the psychology of the Turkish -race and with their ulterior aspirations, the Armenians had the -political wisdom and courage to put aside their petty quarrels with -Russian Czarism and throw in their lot with the allied cause. - -[Illustration: Armenian volunteers of the Caucasus taking the oath of -allegiance administered by the church dignitaries before leaving for the -battlefield in October, 1914.] - -These were the circumstances under which the mobilization of 1914 took -place in the Caucasus. The Armenian reservists, about 160,000 in number, -gladly responded to the call, for the simple reason that they were to -fight the arch enemy of their historic race. Besides the regular -soldiers, nearly 20,000 volunteers expressed their readiness to take up -arms against the Turks. The Georgians, on the other hand, answered the -call very reluctantly, and the Armenian-Georgian relations were greatly -strained from the very beginning. The attitude of the Armenians toward -the despotic Russian government was incomprehensible to the Georgians, -who thought that, because the Armenians sided with Russia,--the -oppressor of all the Caucasian races,--they must be unfriendly to the -Georgians. Many Georgian young men crossed the border from Batoum, went -to Trebizond, and prepared bands of volunteers under the leadership of -Prince Abashize in order to aid the Turks. As to the Tartars, not being -subject to call, they assumed the role of spectators on the one hand, -and on the other used every means to arm themselves, impatiently -awaiting the arrival of the Turks. The great land-owners of the -provinces of Erivan, Elizavetpol, and Baku began to accumulate enormous -stores, and prepare a huge reserve of sugar and wheat. The price of one -rifle, which was 100 rubles ($50), rose to 1500 rubles ($750). Through -Persia, the Germans took to the Caucasus great sums of money in order to -push forward the task of arming the Tartars from the very first days of -the war. Great numbers of young Tartars went to Persia and joined the -Turkish armies. And all this was carried on in broad daylight under the -very eyes of the short-sighted Russian bureaucracy. - -The Russian administration of the Caucasus was more concerned with the -Armenian "danger" and had no time to pay attention to the Georgians and -the Tartars. Was it not a fact that officially no Georgian or Tartar -question was placed on the diplomatic table, whereas the Armenian -question was there? And for that very reason, before the commencement of -the Russo-Turkish hostilities, the second and third army corps of the -Caucasian army, the majority of which were Armenians, were transferred -to the German front and were replaced by Russian army corps. Moreover, -out of the 20,000 Armenian volunteers who responded to the call, only -7,000 were given arms; the authorities objected that they had no rifles -ready, while a few months later the same administration distributed -24,000 rifles to the Kurds in Persia and in the district of Van. It is -needless to say that all the Armenian officers and generals were -transferred to the Western front; only one Armenian general was left as -a specimen on the entire Caucasian front, General Nazarbekoff, and he -was transferred to Persia, away from the Armenian border. Under these -trying conditions commenced the Russo-Turkish war and the -Armenian-Russian co-operation on the Caucasian front in the autumn of -1914. But, in spite of this suspicious and crafty attitude assumed by -the Russian administration, the Armenian inhabitants of the Caucasus -spared nothing in their power for the success of the Russian armies. In -the three main unsuccessful Turkish offensives the battalions of -Armenian volunteers played a great role. Let us now see just what took -place during those offensives. - -[Illustration: KERI VARTAN HAMAZASP - -Commanders of Armenian volunteers; Keri, of the 4th battalion; Hamazasp, -of the 3rd battalion, and Vartan, of the regiment of Ararat.] - -The first serious Turkish offensive took place in the beginning of -December, 1914, when Enver Pasha attempted to reach Tiflis by shattering -the right wing of the Russian army. The Turkish "Napoleon" was anxious -to connect his name with that great victory which seemed certain to his -puny brain. And with that very purpose in view he boarded Goeben, the -German cruiser, and left Constantinople, amid great demonstrations. He -reached Erzeroum in three days, thanks to the German automobiles which -were ready for him at different stops between Trebizond and the -frontier. The offensive was planned with great care, and had great -chances of success if all the three wings of the Turkish army had -reached their objectives on time. Enver had under his command three army -corps--the ninth, the tenth, and the eleventh. The ninth army corps was -to advance toward Ardahan by way of Olti and from there to march on -Tiflis by way of Akhalkalag, when it should receive word that the tenth -army corps had already captured Sarikamish and cut off the retreat of -the Russian army of 60,000 men; while the eleventh army corps was to -attack the centre of the Russian army near the frontier. The ninth army -corps, in three days and without difficulty, reached Ardahan, where the -local Moslem inhabitants assisted it in every possible way. The tenth -army corps, during its march from Olti to Sarikamish, suffered a delay -of twenty-four hours in the Barduz Pass, due to the heroic resistance of -the fourth battalion of the Armenian volunteers which made up the -Russian reserve. This delay of twenty-four hours enabled the Russians to -concentrate a sufficient force around Sarikamish (which had been left -entirely undefended) and thereby force back the ninth corps of the -Turkish army. The Turks were so certain of the success of their plan -that they had no transports with them and no extra supply of provisions. -Opposite Sarikamish, where a battle was waged for three days and three -nights, the Turks suffered a loss of 30,000 men, mostly due to cold -rather than to the Russian arms. But if the Turkish army corps had -reached Sarikamish twenty-four hours earlier, as was expected, it would -have confronted only one battalion of Russian reserves, and that without -artillery. This was the invaluable service rendered to the Russian army -by the fourth battalion of the Armenian volunteers under the command of -the matchless Keri. Six hundred Armenian veterans fell in the Barduz -Pass, and at such a high price saved the 60,000 Russians from being -taken prisoners by the Turks. This great service of the Armenians to the -Russian army was announced at the time by Enver Pasha himself, when he -returned to Constantinople immediately after his defeat. From that time -on the government at Constantinople laid the blame of its defeat at the -door of the Armenians, as a preliminary step in its preparation for the -execution of its already-planned massacres of the Armenian people. - -After their defeat at Sarikamish, the Turks attempted in April of 1915 -to turn the extreme left wing of the Russian army by marching to Joulfa -through Persia, and from there (in case of success) moving on to Baku, -with the hope that the Tartar inhabitants of the eastern Caucasus would -immediately join them and enable them to cut the only communicating -line of railroad of the Russians, and thereby force the entire Russian -army to retreat toward the northern Caucasus. The work of the -intelligence department of the Turks was very well organized, especially -as the Tartar and Georgian officers of the Caucasus rendered them -invaluable services. The Turks knew very well that the Russians in -Persia at that time had only one brigade of Russian troops under the -command of the Armenian General Nazarbekoff and one battalion of -Armenian volunteers scattered throughout Salmast and Urmia, while their -own army was made up of one regular and well-drilled division of troops -(sent especially from Constantinople) under the command of Khalil Bey -and nearly 10,000 Kurds. Khalil Bey with his superior forces captured -the city of Urmia in a few hours (taking prisoner nearly a thousand -Russians) and victoriously marched on Salmast. Here took place one of -the fiercest battles between the Armenians and the Turks. The first -battalion of the Armenian volunteers, under the command of the veteran -Andranik, strongly enforced in its trenches, repulsed the attacks of -Khalil Bey for three days continuously, until the Russians, with the -newly-arrived forces from the Caucasus, were able to put to flight the -army of Khalil Bey. Thirty-six hundred Turkish soldiers lay dead before -the Armenian trenches in the course of those three days. - -In that very month of April, while Khalil Bey was confidently -attempting, as we have seen, to surround the left wing of the Russian -army in Persia, over in Van the Armenians had taken up arms in -self-defence, and for one whole month were fighting another division of -Turkish troops and thousands of Kurds until the first days of May, when -three other battalions of Armenian volunteers, under the command of -General Nikolaeff, came to the rescue, riding a distance of 250 -kilometers (155 miles)--from Erivan to Van--in ten days. For one who is -acquainted with the local conditions, it is an undisputed fact that if -the Armenians of Van in April, 1915, by their heroic resistance had not -kept busy that one division of regular Turkish troops and thousands of -Kurds, and had made it possible for them to join the army of Khalil Bey, -the Turks undoubtedly would have been able to crush the Russian forces -in Persia and reach Baku in a few weeks, for the simple reason that from -the banks of the Araxes to Baku the Russians had no forces at all, while -the local Tartar inhabitants, armed and ready, were awaiting the coming -of the Turks before rising en masse to join them. From the very -beginning of the war, Baku has been the real objective of the Turks, -just as Paris has been the objective of the Germans, and that for two -reasons: first, as a fountain of wealth, the Turks knew very well that -the Russian government received from the oil wells of Baku an annual -income of more than 200,000,000 rubles ($100,000,000), a sum which is -more than all the revenues of the bankrupt Turkish government put -together, and they looked upon these financial resources as -indispensable for the accomplishment of their plan of a Pan-Turanian -Empire; second, because the very plan of their Pan-Turanism had been -introduced in Constantinople after 1908 by these very Tartars of Baku. -The commanders of the Turkish forces engaged in Persia and Van--Khalil -and Jevded--understood very well why their plans failed in the month of -April, 1915; and that failure is the explanation of those frightful -massacres which took place on the plains of Bitlis and Moush in June of -the same year, when the armies of the same Khalil and Jevded, defeated -in Persia and Van, were forced to retreat under the pressure of the -Armenian volunteers. - -[Illustration: ANDRANIK - -The commander of the first battalion of Armenian Volunteers] - -The third Turkish offensive took place early in July, 1915. This time -the Turks, with all their available forces--eleven divisions of regular -troops, again under the command of Khalil Bey--attacked the very center -of the Caucasian army. In a few days they re-occupied Malashkert, -Toutakh, and the greater part of the plains of Alashkert. During one -week the center of the Russian army retreated more than 100 kilometers -(62 miles) leaving behind the district of Van entirely unprotected, and -in danger of being surrounded at any moment. If the Turks had had one or -two more divisions of troops at their service in those days, they would -have been able very easily to take prisoners the entire fourth army of -the Russian left wing and cut off their way of retreat. In order to -escape from this dangerous situation, the Russian left wing was forced -to retreat hastily toward the Russian frontier and sent a part of its -forces to aid the central army. Only at the end of July did the Russian -army, having received aid from its left wing, and under the leadership -of the Armenian General Nazarbekoff, succeed in forcing back the Turks -to their former line. These were the conditions under which nearly -150,000 Armenian inhabitants of the district of Van were compelled to -leave all their property at the mercy of the enemy's fire and flee -toward Erivan. - - -ARMENIAN RESISTANCE TO THE TURKISH MASSACRES - -It is true that the battalions of Armenian volunteers took no active -part in the battles of July, for they were then in the district of Van -and undertaking the heavy duty of rear guard work for the Russian army -and the Armenian refugees. But the Turkish Armenians behind the front, -who were being deported and massacred as early as the month of July, by -their heroic resistance, occupied the attention of four Turkish -divisions and tens of thousands of Kurds just at the time when the Turks -had such great need of those forces to aid them in their July drive. It -is worth while, therefore, to point out here that, during the -deportations and massacres of 1915, whenever the Armenians had any -possible means at all of resisting the criminal plans of the Turkish -government, they took up arms and organized resistance in different -parts of Armenia. - -Even before the deportations had begun, toward the latter part of 1914, -the Turkish government cunningly attempted to disarm the Zeitunians, the -brave Armenian mountaineers of Cilicia, who had taken up arms against -the Turkish government at three different times in the nineteenth -century, and each time had laid down their arms only on the intervention -of the European powers, believing that they would put an end to the -Turkish barbarities. This time the government filled the prisons with -the prominent Zeitunians and persuaded the young warriors to surrender, -promising to set them free if they did so. After accomplishing its -deceitful plan, the government put to death most of the young men, -deported the inhabitants, and made the mouhajirs from Balkans inhabit -Zeitun, even changing the name of the place to Soulaymania, in order to -erase the memory of those brave mountaineers. A group of warriors, -however, found means to take up their arms, climb the mountains, and -fight the Turkish soldiers. They are still free, and live among the -mountains of Giaur Dagh. In the following year the inhabitants of -Suediah were the first to defend themselves against the Turks. In April, -when the Turkish government ordered the Armenian peasants of Suediah to -leave their homes and emigrate toward Der-El-Zor, the inhabitants of -four or five villages, nearly 5,000 in number, refused to obey this -unlawful order of the Turkish government. With their families they -climbed the Amanos mountains and for forty-two days heroically resisted -the cannonading of the regular Turkish forces. Their situation was of -course critical. The desperate villagers sewed a large red cross on a -white sheet to inform the fleet of the Allies in the Mediterranean that -they were in danger. The French cruiser, Guechene, got in touch with the -Armenian peasants, informed its war department of the situation, and -obtained permission to remove them by transports to Port Said (Egypt). -Most of them are still there, cared for by the British, while the young -warriors went to join the French Oriental Legion, and fought on the -Palestine front under General Allenby. - -[Illustration: Turkish cannons captured by the Armenians of Van in -April, 1915.] - -The resistance at Van has already been spoken of. The next place of -importance must be given to the brave mountainous district of Sasoun, -that very Sasoun which had retained its semi-independent position in -Turkish Armenia up to the beginning of the last century, and had taken -up arms at three different times in the present generation to defend its -independence against the Ottoman troops--in 1894, in 1904, and again in -1915. This last time, toward the end of June, when the troops of Khalil -and Jevded began to lay waste with fire and sword the city of Moush and -the unprotected villages of the outlying district, the gallant -Sasounians, under the guidance of their two idealistic leaders, came -down from their mountains and made several raids on the city to drive -away the Turks. One of their leaders was Roupen, a self-sacrificing and -highly educated young man who had received his university training in -Geneva, Switzerland, and had shouldered his gun in 1904 and had -dedicated himself to the task of defending Sasoun. The name of the other -was Vahan Papazian (a native of Van, but educated in Russian -universities), who had been elected representative from Van to the -Ottoman parliament. This daring step on the part of Sasoun forced the -Turkish commanders to march on Sasoun with two divisions of troops and -with nearly 30,000 Kurds. From the first days of July to Sept. 8, the -Sasounians were able to resist the Turco-Kurdish attacks, always with -the hope that the Russian army would come to their assistance. During -that interval of time, the Sasounians sent several couriers to the -Russian army and asked for help, but the Russian commanders remained -indifferent, in spite of the fact that the extreme front line of the -Russian army was scarcely 50 kilometers (31 miles) away from Sasoun, and -the sound of the Turkish artillery aimed at the Sasounians could be -heard very distinctly by the Russian army. One of the commanders of the -Armenian volunteers, Dro, appealed to the Russian commander and asked -for one battery of cannon and a score or two of machine guns, which -would have enabled his men to break the Turkish front and join the -Sasounians. That request likewise was refused by the heartless -commanders of despotic Russia. These were the conditions under which -fell the historic Verdun of Armenia, heroic little Sasoun which, with -its 10,000 mountaineers, succeeded in facing 50,000 Turks and Kurds for -two months, with antiquated weapons and without adequate food or -ammunition. - -Making all due allowance for the relative magnitude and importance of -the Near Eastern and the Western fronts, we may safely say without -exaggeration that Van and Sasoun, on the Caucasian front in the year -1915, played exactly the same role which Liege played in 1914 and Verdun -in 1916 on the Western front. Had it not been for these two points of -stubborn resistance against the Turkish troops in the summer of 1915, -the two Turkish offensives, already spoken of, would have had great -chances of success. This is an undisputed fact with all the inhabitants -of the Near East. And indeed, three months after these events, when the -Armenian volunteers together with the Russian troops recommenced their -drive and captured the cities of Moush and Bitlis, in the diary of a -Turkish officer, who was taken prisoner in Bitlis, was found the -following item, which appeared at the time in the Russian press: - - - "We are asked why we massacre the Armenians. The reason is quite - plain to me. Had not the Armenians fought against us, we should - have reached Tiflis and Baku long ago." - - -In addition to Van and Sasoun, during the same July when deportations -and organized massacres were going on, three other places might be -mentioned where hopeless attempts at resistance were made by the -Armenians against the savage Turks and Kurds. These places were Sivas, -Urfa, and Shabin-Karahissar. At Sivas the heroic resistance of Mourat -and his comrades and their escape were so full of thrilling events that -they have been likened to the adventures of Odysseus. Mourat is a brave -warrior who, together with his companion, Sepouh, had fought at Sasoun, -in 1904, and had taken part in the Armenian and Tartar clashes of 1905 -and 1906 in the Caucasus. When deportations and massacres commenced in -1915, Turkish gendarmes were sent to capture Mourat, who was living with -his wife and child in a village near Sivas. Realizing the coming danger, -Mourat climbed the mountains with his band of warriors and resisted the -raids of the enemy. After a year and a half of stubborn resistance, he -descended one day to the shore of the Black Sea, captured a Turkish -sail-boat near Samsoun, and, putting his comrades into it, ordered the -Turkish sailor to steer the boat toward Batoum, a Russian port. -According to cable messages, Mourat was chased by a Turkish gun-boat. -Several battles took place in which he lost a few of his men, but -finally repulsed the Turks and reached Batoum safe and sound. At Urfa -the Armenians were able for forty days to repulse the attacks of one -Turkish division, but finally fell heroically under the fire of Turkish -artillery, commanded by German officers, having previously destroyed all -their property so that it would not fall into the hands of their -enemies. In the ruined Armenian trenches at Urfa, by the side of -Armenian young men there had fallen dead also Armenian young women who, -arms in hand, were found all mangled by the German bombs. At -Shabin-Karahissar, nearly 5,000 Armenians, for twenty-seven days without -interruption, in the same month of July, kept busy another division of -Turkish troops with their artillery. There took place one of the most -tragic and heroic episodes of the present war. When the ammunition of -the Armenians was almost gone, on the last day of the struggle, nearly -3,000 Armenian women and girls drank poison and died in order not to -fall alive into the hands of the savage Turks. If the supply of poison -had not given out, all the women would have done likewise. An -eye-witness, one who had taken part in the struggle and who succeeded in -reaching the Caucasus in 1916, after wandering in the mountains and -valleys of Armenia for a whole year, related how on that last day -Armenian mothers and girls, with tears in their eyes and with hymns on -their lips, received poison from the Armenian physicians and -apothecaries for themselves and their little ones. When the supply of -poison gave out, those who were unable to obtain any uttered terrible -wailing, and many of the girls cast themselves down from the rocks of -the Karahissar citadel and committed suicide. - -[Illustration: DRO - -The commander of the second battalion of Armenian volunteers.] - -These events reveal the following facts: first, that in spite of all the -precautions which the Turkish government employed to disarm the -Armenians before carrying out its fiendish design, the Armenians found -means to organize in the four corners of Armenia hopeless but serious -plans of resistance against the swords of their enemy; second, that in -order to eliminate these Armenian points of resistance during the summer -of 1915, five Turkish divisions and tens of thousands of Kurds were kept -employed, and were unable to add their immediate co-operation in those -very days to the other Turkish forces engaged in their two offensives on -the Caucasian front. These were the positive services which the martyred -Armenian people rendered to the allied cause in the Near East. Their -active resistance to the Turco-German plans, however, cost the Armenians -more than one million men massacred under the most savage conditions, -and the deprivation of their means of livelihood in Turkish Armenia. -But, to complete the description of the Armenian Calvary, it is -necessary to picture also in a few words the attitude assumed by the -government of the Russian Czar toward the very Armenian people whose -active participation on Russia's side enabled the Caucasian front to -repulse the Turkish attacks in 1914 and 1915, and, moreover, to -accomplish definite successes during the following year, 1916. - - -ATTITUDE OF RUSSIAN CZARISM TOWARD THE ARMENIANS - -As we have already mentioned, from the beginning of the war the Russian -bureaucracy tried on the one hand by various false promises to win over -the sympathy of the Armenians, while on the other it tried by every -means to keep the Armenian military forces away from the Caucasian -front. Only seven battalions of Armenian volunteers were kept on the -Caucasian front. As we have already seen, those few battalions even, in -1914 and 1915, rendered to the Russians invaluable services, twice -saving the right and left wings of the Russian army from an unavoidable -catastrophe by their heroic resistance; but the Russian official -communiques do not contain one line in which the battalions of Armenian -volunteers are even mentioned. The same silence was maintained by the -Russian communiques concerning the heroic resistance of the Armenians at -Van, and with regard to the assistance which the Armenian volunteers -rushed to that city. This was the policy of the government of Russian -Czarism from the beginning of the war to the end of its existence,--to -avoid in every way speaking about the Armenians and Armenia. The -Russian press was even forbidden to speak about the massacres carried on -in Turkish Armenia at the hands of the Turkish government. Therefore, -when the capture of Erzeroum in 1916 made the immediate co-operation of -the Armenian volunteers unnecessary to the Russians, the -commander-in-chief of the Caucasian army at the time, Grand Duke Nicolas -Nicolaevitch, ordered the disbanding of all the battalions of the -Armenian volunteers. Besides this amazing treatment of the Armenian -military forces, the Czar's government removed from the Caucasus before -the war all the Armenian officers and replaced them by generals -(manifestly anti-Armenian in spirit) from the Russians, Georgians, and -other Caucasian races. The object of this move was to enable the -government to check the national aspirations of the Armenians, and to -give it a plausible opportunity at the end of the war to take over the -Armenian vilayets without gratifying the demands of the Armenians for -autonomy. - -[Illustration: The civilian Armenians of Urfa who defended themselves -against the Turks and the Kurds in July, 1915.] - -From the third month of the war, it became clear to us that the Russian -government pursued unswervingly its Lobanoff-policy toward the -Armenians. What was that policy? In 1896, when an English correspondent -interviewed the Russian minister of foreign affairs, Count Lobanoff -Rostowsky, and asked him why Russia did not occupy the Armenian vilayets -of Turkey in order to save that Christian people from the Turkish -massacres, the Russian minister cynically replied: "We need Armenia, but -without the Armenians." It is worth while, then, to give here a few -actual facts which reveal this fiendish policy pursued by the Russian -government toward a people which was the only one of all the peoples of -the Caucasus and the Near East to help the Russian army by its -unreserved co-operation, and which was the only factor that saved the -Caucasian front from an unavoidable catastrophe in 1914 and 1915. - -ONE. Every time that the Russian army was forced to retreat from the -recaptured parts of Turkish Armenia, no precautionary measures were -taken in order to save the local Armenian inhabitants from the -inevitable massacres. For example, in December, 1914, when the Turks -advanced as far as Sarikamish and Ardahan and forced the central Russian -army to retreat from the neighborhood of Alashkert and Bayazid, the -commander of the local forces, General Abatzieff (an Acetine Moslem who -had joined the Greek church) strictly ordered the local Armenian -inhabitants, nearly 32,000 in number, not to stir from their places, and -in order to have his command accurately carried out he placed mounted -Cossack patrols in the plains of Alashkert lest the Armenian peasants -should emigrate toward the Russian frontier, in which direction the -Russian army with its transports had already been moving since December -13. Three days later the second battalion of the Armenian volunteers, -which had been fighting in the first-line positions for over two months -under the command of the same general, returned to the army headquarters -for a well-earned rest, and there only it heard about the serious -happenings already mentioned, and the extraordinary attitude assumed by -the Russian general. The Armenian peasants from every side appealed to -the Armenian volunteers with tears in their eyes and begged to be saved -from an inevitable massacre. The commander of the Armenian volunteers, -Armen Garo, and his brave assistant, Khetcho, who died like a hero in -July, 1915, on the shores of Lake Van, went immediately to General -Abatzieff and asked him to revoke his order and permit the Armenian -inhabitants to move with the army toward Igdir. The hostile general -refused their request, his answer being that, if the people stirred from -the place, he would be unable to remove the army transports soon enough. -When he heard this answer, Armen Garo immediately telegraphed to Igdir -and appealed to the commander-in-chief of the fourth army, General -Oganowsky, and in touching words asked for his intervention. On the -following day only, thanks to the intervention of General Oganowsky, the -Armenian volunteers received permission to organize the retreat of the -Armenian inhabitants of the plains of Alashkert toward Igdir and to -defend them from the attacks of the Kurds. During the seven days that -the retreat lasted the Armenians lost only 400 persons, and most of -those on account of the severe cold. Another example of this hostile -treatment of the Armenians by the Russian authorities might be -mentioned,--the retreat from the Van district in July, 1915. There -General Nikolaeff for eight continuous days deceived the Armenian -leaders and made them remain idle (telling them every day that he would -not retreat under any circumstances, and that therefore it was entirely -needless to remove the people), until behold, one day, July 18, he -suddenly sent for the mayor of Van, Aram, and the commander-in-chief of -the Armenian volunteers, Vartan, and informed them that he had received -orders to retreat immediately, but in order to make it possible for the -people to prepare for departure, he would wait until the 20th of the -month. Thus the Armenian leaders were forced to remove in two or three -days nearly 150,000 people of the Van region, and if those three -battalions of Armenian volunteers had not been there to protect the -people from Kurdish and Turkish raids, the loss of life during the -journey would have been tenfold more than it actually was. Whereas, if -the Russian general had not been so deceitful in his behavior but had -given an opportunity of seven or eight days to organize the retreat, it -would have been possible to direct the people to Erivan without the loss -of a single life. The Armenians suffered a loss of 8,000 to 10,000 men, -women, and children during the retreat. - -[Illustration: KHETCHO - -The commander of the cavalry corps of the Armenian volunteers, who was -killed in July, 1915, near Bitlis.] - -TWO. When Turkish Armenia was almost wholly emptied of its Armenian -inhabitants, due to these successive retreats, the Russian government -raised all sorts of barriers before the refugees to prevent them from -returning to their former homes when the Russian army recaptured the -Armenian vilayets. For example, in 1916-1917, scarcely 8,000 to 10,000 -Armenians were permitted to go back and inhabit the region of Van; the -rest were compelled to stay within the borders of the Caucasus as -refugees. Toward the latter part of 1916, even among Russian -governmental circles there was talk of transferring to Siberia nearly -250,000 Turkish Armenian immigrants who had sought refuge in the -Caucasus, because it was objected that no available lands existed there -for them. Russians considered it a settled question that even after the -war the Turkish Armenians would not be permitted to return to their own -homes. - -On the other hand, the same Russian bureaucracy resorted to every means -to win the sympathy of the Turkish and Kurdish inhabitants remaining in -Armenia. With that purpose in view, in the spring of 1916, on behalf of -the ministry for foreign affairs at Petrograd, Count Chakhowsky with his -own organization established himself in Bashkale (a city in the district -of Van) and distributed nearly 24,000 rifles to the Kurds of the -neighboring regions. It is needless to say that not long after those -very rifles were used by the Kurds against the Russian army both in -Persia and Armenia. This amazing action of Count Chakhowsky was taken so -openly that it was even known to ordinary Russian soldiers, who were -extremely enraged against the Count, a fact which accounts for the -murder of the same Count Chakhowsky in Persia by Russian soldiers, when -the discipline of the Russian army was relaxed on account of the -revolution which took place in the spring of 1917. - -THREE. While the Russians were preventing the Turkish Armenian -immigrants from returning to their own lands, they, in the spring of -1916, commenced to organize in Turkish Armenia colonies of Cossacks. The -Russian administration sent special propagandists to the northern -Caucasus to persuade the Cossacks living there to move to Armenia, and -during that same year 5,000 of them, under the name of agricultural -battalions, were already cultivating the plains of Alashkert, lands -which rightly belonged to the Armenians. This last act of the Russian -government was so revolting that even the liberal organs of the Russian -press complained of the government for such inhuman proceedings, while -in the Russian Duma two Russian representatives, N. Milukoff and A. -Kerensky (both of whom played such great roles the following year in the -downfall of Czarism), publicly criticised the government of the Czar for -its base treatment of the Armenians. Documentary evidence relating to -this disgraceful action of the Russian government, which incensed the -ire of prominent liberals in the Duma, may be found in the July 28, -1916, issue of the _Retch_, the organ of the Constitutional Democrats in -Russia. In order to characterize this criminal action of the Russian -bureaucracy against the Armenian people who were martyred for the allied -cause, it may be worth while also to cite the following details: - -In the month of July, 1915, the Armenian inhabitants of Erzeroum, nearly -25,000 in number, were likewise deported by the Turkish government, -leaving all their real and personal property at the disposal of the -Turks. The governor of the place, Tahsin Bey, arranged a scheme by means -of which every Armenian before leaving the city could store his goods -and household furniture (with the name of the owner on each article) in -the cathedral, with the apparent purpose of returning them to their -owners after the war, but with the real purpose of preventing so much -riches from falling into the hands of the Turkish mob, in order to -appropriate them later for the government. The cathedral of Erzeroum was -packed with the goods of the exiled Armenians when the Russians captured -the city in February, 1916. Ordinary human decency demanded that the -Russians should not have touched the articles stored in that sacred -edifice, especially as they belonged to the very martyred people whose -professed sympathies for them (the Russians) were the cause of their -being exiled to the deserts of Mesopotamia. But the fact is that the -commander of the Russian army, General Kaledine himself, set the example -of desecration; he personally entered the cathedral first, and selected -for himself a few car-loads of rugs and sundry valuable articles. Then -the other officers of the Russian army followed his example, and in a -few days half of the contents of the church was already pillaged before -the representative of the Armenian Committee, Mr. Rostom, after repeated -telegrams, was able to receive an order from Tiflis to stop the plunder. -In that same summer of 1916, the Buxton brothers (representatives of the -Armenian Committee of London) and other English Armenophiles came to -Armenia. When they witnessed all these disgraceful particulars they -could not believe their own eyes, so monstrous was the attitude of the -Russian government toward the Armenians. The English and American -friends of Armenia consoled them by saying that on their return they -would have the privilege of explaining this state of affairs to their -government and that they would doubtless do all in their power to -protect the rights of the Armenians. These were the circumstances under -which the Armenian people joined its fate to the allied cause from the -very beginning of the war, and, having made colossal sacrifices during -three whole years, was almost crushed to death in the claws of Turkish -and Russian despotism. - -[Illustration: The mounted troops of the second battalion of Armenian -volunteers of the Caucasus, November, 1914.] - -In that same sorrowful summer of 1916 the Armenians heard the news that -England, France, and Russia had signed an agreement concerning Armenia. -According to that agreement Russia was to take over the three vilayets -of Turkish Armenia, Erzeroum, Bitlis, and Van, while southern Armenia -and Cilicia were to be put under the guardianship of France. One must be -an Armenian in order to feel the depth and intensity of the bitterness -and disappointment which filled the hearts of all the wandering -Armenians from the Caucasus to Mesopotamia. Every Armenian asked himself -or herself: Was this to be our recompense? - -In those very days (September, 1916) one of the agents of the German -government in Switzerland approached Dr. Zavrieff (one of the -representatives of the Armenian Committee of that place) with the -following proposal: - - - "You Armenians made a great mistake when you joined your fate to - that of the Allies. It is time for you to rectify your mistaken - policy. Your dreams with regard to the historic Armenia are - unrealizable. You may as well accustom yourselves to that fact, and - before it is too late you will do better to join the fate of your - people with the German policies, and remove the remnants of the - Armenian people to Mesopotamia, where the Germans will put at the - disposal of the Armenians every means which will enable them to - create for themselves a new and a more fortunate fatherland under - their (German) immediate protection." - - -In order to persuade his Armenian opponent, the German agent constantly -reminded him of the agreement (between England, France and Russia), and -especially of the hostile attitude of the Russians up to that time -towards the Armenians. The news of this German proposal reached the -Caucasus in December of the same year. It was made the subject of -serious consultation among the Armenian leaders. The writer of these -lines was present at those conferences, and his impression was this: Had -there not been that superhuman adoration (so peculiarly Armenian) which -every Armenian has for his ancestral home and recollections so -sanctified by blood, the German proposal would very likely have been -accepted by the Armenians at that psychological moment when their hearts -were overflowing with bitterness and disappointment toward the Russian -government,--a member of the allied nations. The outcome of those -conferences was that we decided to continue our former policy toward the -Entente, in spite of the base behavior of the Russians towards us, and -at the same time to invite the serious attention of our great Allies of -the west to our hopeless situation. - - -ROLE PLAYED BY THE ARMENIANS IN THE CAUCASUS AFTER THE RUSSIAN COLLAPSE. - -This was the state of affairs when there came the crash of the Russian -revolution. The heart of every Armenian was greatly relieved, thinking -that the greater part of their torments would come to an end. And in -truth, during the first few months of the revolution, the temporary -government of Kerensky made definite arrangements to rectify the unjust -treatment of the Armenians by the government of the Czar. But events -progressed in a precipitate manner. The demoralization of the Russian -troops on all the fronts assumed greater proportions as the days went -by. Foreseeing the danger which threatened the Caucasus, the Armenian -National Organization of the Caucasus, as early as April, 1917, sent to -Petrograd on a special mission Dr. Zavrieff, already mentioned, and the -writer of these lines, in order to have them obtain permission to -transfer to the Caucasus some 150,000 Armenian officers and men -(scattered throughout the Russian army), by whose assistance the -Armenians might be able to protect their own native land against the -Turkish advance. Mr. Kerensky, who was well acquainted with the abnormal -conditions reigning in the Caucasus, agreed to grant the request of the -Armenian delegates, but, on the other hand, for fear of receiving -similar requests from the other races in case he granted an order -favorable to the Armenians, he decided to fulfill our request -unofficially, that is, without a general ordinance, to send the Armenian -soldiers to the Caucasus gradually, in small groups, in order not to -attract the attention of the other races. And he carried out this plan. - -[Illustration: KHETCHO DRO ARMEN GARO - -The staff of the second battalion of Armenian volunteers in the Caucasus -in November, 1914.] - -But unfortunately, scarcely 35,000 Armenian soldiers had been able to -reach the Caucasus by November, 1917, when Kerensky himself fell at the -hands of the Bolsheviks, and there was created a chaotic condition the -result of which was the final demobilization of the Russian army. During -December, 1917, and January, 1918, the Russian army of 250,000 men on -the Caucasian front, without any orders, abandoned its positions and -moved into the interior of Russia, leaving entirely unprotected a front -about 970 kilometers (600 miles) in length, extending from the Black Sea -to Persia. As soon as the Russian army disbanded, the 3,000,000 Tartar -inhabitants of the Caucasus armed themselves and rose en masse. Toward -the end of January last, the Tartars had cut the Baku-Tiflis railroad -line as well as the Erivan-Joulfa line, and now began to raid and -plunder the Armenian cities and villages, while behind, on the frontier, -the regular Turkish army had commenced to advance in the first days of -February. Against all these Turks and Tartars the Armenians had one army -corps made up of some 35,000 regular troops under the command of General -Nazarbekoff, and nearly 20,000 Armenian volunteers under the command of -their experienced leaders. Armenia's only hope of assistance was their -neighbors, the Georgians, who were as much interested in the protection -of the Caucasus as the Armenians were, because the Turkish demands of -the Brest-Litovsk treaty included definite portions of Georgia, as well -as of Armenia; for example, the port of Batoum. And in fact, during the -months of January and February they seemed quite inclined to help the -Armenians, but when the Turks captured Batoum on April 15 and came as -far as Usurgeti, the morale of the Georgians was completely broken, and -they immediately sent a delegation to Berlin and put Georgia under -German protection. From this time on the 2,000,000 Armenian inhabitants -of the Caucasus remained entirely alone to face, on the one hand, the -Turkish regular army of 100,000 men, and on the other hand, the armed -forces of hundreds of thousands of Tartars. From the end of February the -small number of Armenian forces commenced to retreat step by step before -the superior Turkish forces, from Erzingan, Baiburt, Khenous, -Mamakhatoun, Erzeroum, and Bayazid, and concentrated their forces on the -former Russian-Turkish frontier. Here commenced serious battles which -arrested for quite a long time the advance of the Turkish troops. It -took them until April 22 to arrive before the forts of Kars, where the -first serious resistance of the Armenians took place. The fierce Turkish -attack which continued for four days was easily repulsed by the -Armenians, owing to the guns on the ramparts of Kars. - -During these events a temporary government of the Caucasus existed in -Tiflis, composed of representatives of three Caucasian races--Georgian, -Armenian, and Tartar. This Caucasian government was formed immediately -after the _coup d'etat_ of the Bolsheviks, and conducted Caucasian -affairs as an independent body. It refused to recognize the authority of -the Bolshevik government, or the terms of the Brest-Litovsk treaty -signed by its accredited delegates. The president of the government was -Chekhenkeli, a Georgian. Immediately after the capture of Batoum the -Caucasian government opened peace negotiations with Turkish delegates in -Batoum itself. The Turks, by their usual crafty tricks, persuaded the -Georgian delegates that they would return Batoum to the Georgians if -Kars surrendered without resistance. Feeling assured of this Turkish -promise, the Georgian president of the Caucasian government, -Chekhenkeli, on the night of April 25, without consultation with the -other members of the government, telegraphed the commander of Kars that -an armistice had been signed with the Turks on condition of surrendering -Kars, and therefore to give up the forts immediately and retreat as far -as Arpa-Chai. On the following day the commander of the Armenian -soldiers who were defending Kars delivered the fortress into the hands -of the Turks and retreated to Alexandropol. Then it became known that -Chekhenkeli had sent the fateful telegram on his own responsibility, but -it was already too late. This event occasioned very strained relations -between the Armenians and Georgians. Not long after, on the 26th of May, -the Georgians, assured of German protection, declared in Tiflis the -independence of Georgia. Thus the temporary Caucasian government -dissolved. - -[Illustration: MOURAT - -Who lead the volunteers at Erzingan after the Russian collapse and died -heroically in the fighting at Baku.] - -After the separation of the Georgians the Armenian National Council of -the Caucasus declared Armenian independence, under the name of the -Republic of Ararat, with Erivan as its capital. While the negotiations -were going on in Batoum--always between the delegates of the Turks and -the three Caucasian races comprising the Caucasian temporary -government,--the Turkish armies, after the occupation of Kars, became -more aggressive and commenced to advance toward Alexandropol and -Karakilissa. Concentrating their forces around Karakilissa and Erivan, -early in June, the Armenians in two fierce battles drove the Turks back -almost to their frontier. In the battle of Karakilissa, which lasted -four days, the Turks left 6,000 dead before the Armenian posts, and -escaped to Alexandropol. When the Turks felt that their position in the -face of the Armenian resistance was becoming more and more hopeless and -that it would cost them dear to continue the fight, they immediately -began to make concessions. Up to that time the Turks had not yet -recognized the right of Russian Armenia to independence, their objection -being that they only recognized in the Caucasus Georgian and Tartar -countries. But when they heard the news of the last military victory of -the Armenians, on June 14, in Batoum, the Turkish delegates, together -with the representatives of the Republic of Ararat, signed the first -terms of armistice, leaving the final peace signature to the congress of -Constantinople, where the final negotiations were to take place. - -The delegates of the three nations of the Caucasus reached -Constantinople on June 19. They were 32 in number. Among them were also -the representatives of the Republic of Ararat, Mr. A. Khatissoff, the -minister of foreign affairs, and Mr. A. Aharonian, the president of the -Armenian National Council. In that congress, which convened in presence -of the delegates of the German and Austrian governments, the Turks -signed peace treaties with each of the newly-formed Caucasian Republics. -It is needless to say that those treaties had as much value as that -which the Roumanian government was forced to sign a few months before by -the central powers. And, as was expected, the Turks and the Germans -rewarded the Georgians and the Tartars at the expense of the Armenians. -They gave the greater part of the Armenian territories to the other two -nations, and the remainder was claimed by Turkey, with the exception of -32,000 square kilometers (about 12,350 square miles), with 700,000 -Armenian inhabitants, which were left to the Republic of Ararat. -According to these terms only one-third of the Armenians of the Caucasus -are included within the Republic of Ararat, while the remaining -1,400,000 Armenians are left in territories allotted to the Tartars or -the Georgians. - -That portion of the Armenians which inhabits the mountainous regions of -Karabagh (which was assigned to the Tartars), up to this very day, -October, 1918, resists the Turco-Tartar hordes and refuses at any price -to be subjected to the unjust terms of the treaty of Constantinople, -while beyond, the Armenians at Van, when their military forces realized -that their retreat was cut off early last May, after being sheltered for -two whole months in Van, moved toward Persia, there joined the Christian -Assyrians in the neighborhood of Urmia, repulsed for a long time the -Turkish and Kurdish attacks, and only early in September succeeded in -shattering the Turkish lines and thereby reached the city of Hamadan in -Persia, where they entrusted to the care of the British forces the -protection of about 40,000 Armenian and Assyrian refugees. In order to -complete this picture of the heroic resistance of the Caucasian -Armenians, let me say a few words more about the struggle at Baku. - -As already mentioned, early in May, 1917, through the efforts of the -Armenian National Organization of the Caucasus, the Armenian soldiers -and officers scattered throughout Russia were gradually brought together -and mobilized on the Caucasian front. With that purpose in view an -Armenian Military Committee was formed in Petrograd with General -Bagradouni as president. Bagradouni was one of the most brilliant young -generals of the Russian army. He had received his military training at -the highest military academy of Petrograd, and, during Kerensky's -administration, was appointed Chief of the Staff of the military forces -at Petrograd. When the Bolsheviks assumed power they ordered him to take -an oath of loyalty to the new government. General Bagradouni refused to -do so, and for that reason he was imprisoned, with many other high -military officials. After remaining in prison two months, through -repeated appeals by the Armenian National bodies, he was freed by the -Bolsheviks on condition that he should immediately leave Petrograd. -After his release from prison, General Bagradouni, accompanied by the -well known Armenian social worker, Mr. Rostom, with 200 Armenian -officers, left for the Caucasus to assume the duties of -commander-in-chief of the newly-formed Armenian army. This group of -Armenian officers reached Baku early in March, where it was forced to -wait, for the simple reason that the Baku-Tiflis railroad line was -already cut by the Tartars. During that same month of March from many -parts of Russia a large number of Armenians gathered at Baku and waited -to go to Erivan and Tiflis in response to the call issued by the -Armenian National Council. Toward the end of March nearly 110,000 -Armenian soldiers had come together at Baku. - -[Illustration: Armenians valiantly defending Baku against the Tartars. - -_Taken from "Asia."_] - -By the 30th of March the news of German victories was spread throughout -the Caucasus by the Turco-German agents. On the same day in Baku and -other places appeared the following leaflets: - - - "Awake, Turkish brothers! - - "Protect your rights; union with the Turks means life. - - "Unite, O Children of the Turks! - - "Brothers of the noble Turkish nation, for hundreds of years our - blood has flowed like water, our motherland has been ruined, and we - have been under the heel of thousands of oppressors who have almost - crushed us. We have forgotten our nation. We do not know to whom to - appeal for help. - - "Countrymen, we consider ourselves free hereafter. Let us look into - our conscience! Let us not listen to the voice of plotters. We must - not lose the way to freedom; our freedom lies in union with the - Turks. It is necessary for us to unite and put ourselves under the - protection of the Turkish flag. - - "Forward, brothers! Let us gather ourselves under the flag of union - and stretch out our hands to our Turkish brothers. Long life to the - generous Turkish nation! By these words we shall never again bear a - foreign yoke, the chains of servitude." - - -And on the following day (March 31) from all sides of the Caucasus the -armed hordes of Tartars attacked the Armenians. The leaders of the -Tartars at Baku were convinced that they would easily disarm the -Armenian soldiers, because they were somewhat shut up in Baku, but they -were sadly mistaken in their calculations. After a bloody battle which -lasted a whole week the Armenians remained masters of the city and its -oil wells. They suffered a loss of nearly 2,500 killed, while the -Tartars lost more than 10,000. The commander of the military forces of -the Armenians was the same General Bagradouni, who, although he lost -both of his legs during the fight, continued his duties until September -14, when the Armenians and the small number of Englishmen who came to -their assistance were forced to abandon Baku to the superior forces of -the Turco-Tartars, and retreat toward the city of Enzeli in the northern -Caucasus. - -During these heroic struggles, which lasted five and a half months, the -small Armenian garrison of Baku, together with a few thousand Russians, -defended Baku and its oil wells against tens of thousands of Tartars, -the Caucasian mountaineers, and more than one division of regular -Turkish troops which had come to the assistance of the latter by way of -Batoum. Time after time the Turkish troops made fierce attacks to -capture the city, but each time they were repulsed with heavy losses by -the gallant Armenian garrison. The Armenians had built their hopes on -British assistance, since nothing was expected from the demoralized -Russian army. But, unfortunately, the British were unable to reach Baku -with large forces from their Bagdad army. Nevertheless, on August 5, -they landed at Baku 2,800 men to help the Armenians. The arrival of this -small British contingent caused great enthusiasm among the tired and -exhausted defenders of the city. But meanwhile the Turks had received -new forces from Batoum and renewed their attacks. After a series of -bloody battles the armed Armenian and British forces were forced to -leave Baku on September 14 and retreat toward Persia, taking with them -nearly 10,000 refugees from the inhabitants of the city. As to the -condition of those who were left behind, this much is certain; that on -the day the city was occupied by the Turco-Tartars, nearly 20,000 -Armenians were put to the sword, the greater portion of them being women -and children. According to the news received from Persia, after that -first terrible massacre, other massacres likewise have taken place. The -number of the losses is not known; but it may safely be surmised without -any exaggeration that out of the entire 80,000 Armenian inhabitants of -Baku, all those who were unable to leave the city in time were -slaughtered by the revengeful Turks and Tartars. Thus ended the -resistance of five months and a half by the Armenians at Baku against -the Turco-Germans. - -[Illustration: Young Armenian students in France, who took part in the -immortal defence of Verdun in 1916.] - -The remnants of the retreating Armenian garrison of Baku, at the time of -writing, are located in the Persian city of Enzeli, where, under the -command of their heroic leader, General Bagradouni, they are -recuperating before hastening to the aid of the Armenians in the eastern -Caucasus, who, as already mentioned, up to this very day are resisting -the forces of the Turco-Tartars in the mountains of Karabagh. - - -ARMENIA'S CO-OPERATION WITH THE ALLIES ON OTHER FRONTS. - -The Armenians, besides battling on the Caucasian front, where they have -been fighting in their own native land, have co-operated unreservedly -with the Allies on far distant fronts, as for example on the French -front. At the beginning of the war the young Armenian students living in -France--about 900 in number--volunteered to serve in the French army for -the defence of civilization and freedom. Today, scarcely 50 of them are -alive; the majority of the 850 others gave their lives in 1916 in the -immortal defence of Verdun. This small episode in this universal drama -will not be forgotten by either France or the Free Armenia of the -future. Glory to the memory of those immortal heroes! Beyond, on another -front of the war, by an extraordinary coincidence of fate, in the deadly -blow which fell on the head of the criminal Ottoman Empire in the Holy -Land, the sons of the sorrowful people whom it had ruthlessly -slaughtered had their just share of active participation. And indeed, in -General Allenby's victorious army, which saved Palestine and Syria from -Turkish tyranny in September, 1918, by General Allenby's own testimony, -the eight battalions of the Armenian volunteers (who took part in those -battles under the French flag) were conspicuous for their bravery. In -response to a congratulatory telegram from the chairman of the Armenian -National Union of Egypt for the victories on the Palestine front, -General Allenby said: "I thank you warmly for your congratulations, and -am proud of the fact that your Armenian compatriots in the Oriental -Legion took an active part in the fighting and shared in our victory." - - -CONCLUSION. - -If we wish to condense all we have said in a few pages, we shall have -the following picture: - -In 1914 both Turkey and Russia appealed to the Armenians by various -promises of a future autonomous Armenia to secure their assistance in -their respective military operations. Through their long and bitter -experience the Armenians knew very well that the imperialistic -governments of both Turkey and of Russia were opposed to their national -aspirations and therefore those promises had no value whatever. But, -realizing the universal significance of the present war, and considering -the fact that justice was on the side of the Entente, the Armenians, in -spite of their distrust of the Russian government, from the very -beginning, unreservedly bound themselves to the allied cause. - -This decision of the Armenians cost them the sacrifice of more than -1,000,000 men in Turkish Armenia, and complete devastation of their -native land even in the first year of the war. - -In spite of this terrible blow, the Armenians did not lose their vigor, -and, even though the autocratic Russian government, up to the time of -the Revolution, created all sorts of obstacles to impede their -activities, they still continued their assistance to the allied cause. -In bringing about the failure of the three Turkish offensives in 1914 -and 1915 the Armenians gave the allied cause important armed assistance, -on both sides of the Turco-Russian frontier. - -After the Russian Revolution, when, the Russian military forces fled -from the Caucasian front and left it unprotected from January, 1918, to -the middle of the following September, the Armenians were the only -people who resisted and delayed the Turco-German advance toward Baku. -Moreover, the Armenians accomplished all this with their own forces, all -alone, surrounded on all sides by hostile elements, without any means of -communication with their great Allies of the West. As an evidence of -this we may mention the fact that during the last eight months and a -half the Armenians have received from the Allies only 6,500,000 rubles -($3,250,000) of financial assistance, and the 2,800 British soldiers who -were too few and arrived too late to save Baku. - -[Illustration: Armenian volunteers who fought on the Palestine front in -September and October, 1918, under the command of Gen. Allenby.] - -Let us now look at the other side of the picture. - -Had the Armenians assumed an entirely opposite attitude from what they -actually did; in other words, had they bound their fate in 1914 to the -Turco-German cause, just as the Bulgarians did in 1915, what would have -been the trend of events in the Near East? Here is a question to which, -it is quite possible, our great Allies have had no time to give any -consideration. But that very question was put before the Armenians in -1914, and with no light heart did they answer it by their decision to -join the Allies. Each and every one of them had a clear presentiment of -the terrible responsibility they assumed. Those millions of corpses of -Armenian women and children which spotted the plains in the summer of -1915, rose like phantoms before our very eyes in the August of 1914 when -we decided to resist the wild Turkish revengefulness and its frightful -outcome. Now, in October, 1918, when we are so close to the hour of the -final victory, and feel quite safe and certain that the heavy and gloomy -days of the summer of 1914 will never return, I shall permit myself to -picture in a few words, before I finish, that which would have taken -place if the Armenians had sided with the Germano-Turks in the Near East -from the beginning of the war. - -First of all, those frightful Armenian massacres would not have taken -place. On the contrary, the Turks and the Germans would have tried to -win the sympathy of the Armenians in every possible way until the end of -the war. - -On the other hand, so long as the Georgians and Tartars of the Caucasian -peoples were only too eager to co-operate with the Germano-Turks, as the -events of 1918 fully demonstrate, had the Armenians likewise joined them -in 1914, by cutting the railroads, the backbone of the Caucasian Russian -army, all the Caucasian country would have slipped out of the hands of -the Russians in a few weeks, and the Turco-Germans would have reached -Baku in the autumn of the same year. The Armenians, Georgians, and -Tartars of the Caucasus, united, would have been able to form with the -greatest ease an army of 700,000 men, by which they would have been able -to defend the Caucasian mountain-ridge against the Russians. Meanwhile, -the entire Turkish army would have been available to advance -immediately toward the interior of Asia and join the 18,000,000 Moslems -of Asiatic Russia. We may safely say, neither Persia nor Afghanistan -could have remained neutral on seeing such successful achievements by -the Turks. - -In the course of such events Russia would have been compelled to remove -the greater portion of her forces to the East and would not have been -able to protect her Western frontiers as successfully as she did. -Therefore, quite probably, the Russian collapse would have taken place -in the summer of 1915, when the Germans occupied Russian Poland. On the -other hand, Great Britain would have been obliged to appropriate the -greater portion of her newly-formed land forces for the protection of -India, and would have been unable to rush as great a force to the -defence of heroic France as she actually did. Quite likely, under these -conditions, neither Italy nor Roumania would have abandoned her -neutrality, and thus the war might have ended in 1915 or 1916 with the -victory of the central Powers, at least on land. - -It was as clear as day to the Armenians that a Germano-Turkish victory -could never satisfy their national aspirations. The most that those -nations would have done for us would have been to grant nominal rights -to the Armenia of their own choice. But it was very plain to us also -that we should not have suffered such frightful human losses had we not -sided with the Allies. We consciously chose this last alternative, -namely: we tied our fate to the allied victory; we exposed our very -existence to danger in order to realize the complete fulfillment of our -national ambition, that is, to see the re-establishment of the United -Historic Independent Armenia. - -With our modest means, we have fulfilled our duty in full measure in -this great struggle in order to save civilization from an impending -doom. Now it is for our great Allies to act. - -The day is not very far distant when, gathered around the great tribunal -of justice, the representatives of all the nations of the globe--guilty -or just--are to receive their punishment or reward from the hands of the -four distinguished champions of democracy, President Wilson, Premiers -Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau, and Orlando. If the representatives -present themselves in the order of seniority, the first in the rank will -be the representative of the Armenian people--the aged Mother Armenia. -Behold! Into the Peace Congress Hall there enters an old woman, bathed -in blood, clothed in rags, her face covered with wrinkles 3,000 years -old, and completely exhausted. With her thoughtful eyes the venerable -Mother Armenia will survey the countenances of all those present, and -thus will she address the great figures of the world: - - - "Century after century my sons took part in all the strifes waged - to safeguard justice and the freedom of suffering humanity. Three - thousand years ago my sons struggled for seven hundred years - against the despotism of Babylon and Nineveh, which eventually - collapsed under the load of their own crimes. Fifteen centuries ago - the Armenians resisted for five hundred years the persecutions of - the mighty Persian Empire to preserve their Christian faith. Since - the eighth century my sons have been the vanguard of Christian - civilization in the East against Moslem invasions threatening for a - while the very existence of all Europe. If you doubt my statements, - ask the sacred mountain of Ararat; he will relate to you how all - the nations and empires, which attempted to possess by criminal - means the indisputable inheritance of my sons, have received their - just punishment. - - "Let us not go very far. Here, before you, stand the - representatives of those three nations which tried to destroy my - sons before your very eyes, in order to rule those parts of our - ancestral lands, so sanctified by blood, known as Armenia. Look at - this Turk; it was he who wished to wipe the very name of Armenia - off the face of the map; but today, foiled in his attempt, he - stands there like a criminal awaiting his sentence. And where is - today the Czar of Russia, who planned to occupy Armenia without the - Armenians,--the representative of that Empire before which the - world trembled. And what has remained of the policies of the German - Empire, in whose hands is the Bagdad railroad now, built at the - cost of the blood of hundreds of thousands of Armenian women and - children? Thus, those three modern malevolent empires, which tried - to attain happiness through the blood of my sons, have received - their just punishment. - - "Such will be the fate in the future of all those who shall attempt - similar crimes against Armenia. This is the message, gentlemen, - handed down to us through three thousand years of history. - - "I have nothing more to add. I await your verdict with confidence." - - - -***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHY ARMENIA SHOULD BE FREE*** - - -******* This file should be named 53976.txt or 53976.zip ******* - - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/5/3/9/7/53976 - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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