We Can, of Course, Say for Comfort That the Allies Deceived Us: Ararat Mirzoyan

Ararat Mirzoyan writes on his Facebook page: “In our history, it is difficult to find a more brutal and loud contrast between naïve dreaminess or perhaps more accurately, dream-like naivety and stark reality than that which occurred exactly 100 years ago today.

On August 10, 1920, two different delegations from the Republic of Armenia signed two different documents. Avetis Aharonian, in Sèvres near Paris, with the victorious Allies and the defeated Sultanate government of Turkey. Arshak Jamalyan, in Tbilisi, with the Russian Bolshevik government. The first recognized Turkey as part of the Republic of Armenia which included most of the provinces of Erzurum, Trabzon, Van, and Bitlis. The second accepted that the “disputed” Artsakh, Zangezur, and almost all of Nakhichevan would be occupied by the Red Army of Soviet Russia. The Tbilisi Agreement was immediately acted upon. Of course, without Zangezur, where Nzhdeh fought stubbornly in battle, and this was a reality that the powerful had to reckon with. Even a year later, when all of Transcaucasia was already red, and the Bolshevik Caucasian Bureau headed by Stalin was drawing new borders, no one dared to touch Zangezur as Nzhdeh had not yet lowered his sword.

The other document, Sèvres, remained on paper and became the last confession of love from the departing allies, warming our souls as we rejected the proposal to negotiate with the Turks, thereby losing the chance to retain Kars, Surmalu (Igdir), and some other territories. And when, on November 22, by the decision of US President Woodrow Wilson, we were “given” 90,000 square kilometers of Western Armenia on paper, we were losing true Eastern Armenia. Turkish troops invaded the Republic of Armenia a month and a half after Sèvres, in September, and had already occupied Sarikamish, Kars, and Alexandrapol. Dro managed to hold Igdir, but after the fall of Alekpol, he too was forced to burn the bridges and retreat to this side of the Araks. The remaining part of Armenia inevitably fell to the Bolsheviks.

On December 2, 1920, two documents were signed again on behalf of Armenia, one of which confirmed Armenia's Sovietization, and even mentioning the second seems unworthy.

The Sèvres Treaty continued its homeless odyssey until 1923, when the world essentially recognized the power of Kemalist Turkey in Lausanne, not only over the territories promised to the Armenians in Sèvres but also over Kars, Ardahan, and Surmalu.

PS From a century's distance, we can, of course, as comfort, say that the Allies deceived us. And in saying so, we may not be wrong. But even if that is the case, we allowed ourselves to be deceived. It is understandable: the cloying sweetness of the promise was too great and the surrounding reality too bitter. The contrast, as different as the effervescence of fulfilled dreams and the exhaustion leading to despair. Different, as positive striving for infinity and negativity. However, the bitterness of this explanation does not fade. The Armenian flag does not wave in Kars and Igdir. We allowed it. We yielded. We were unable to calculate.”