Journal ArticleOpen Access
Virabyan, Vanik · Virabyan, Hrant, 2024
Fundamental Armenology, Issue 1(19) 2024, History section (National Academy of Sciences of RA / All Armenian Foundation Financing Armenological Studies); ISSN 1829-4618
At independence the Republic of Armenia believed it had reliable British backing and expected diplomatic and military support from the victorious Allies in settling its borders and securing its sovereignty. The authors argue those hopes were unfounded and that Allied statements were purely declarative. The Allies entered the Caucasus for their own reasons and left for their own reasons, abandoning Armenia at its most difficult moment. With no Allied willingness to help resolve territorial questions by force, the government attempted to act alone, which led to the Turkish-Armenian war and the destruction of the First Republic in December 1920. The study works through the Sèvres framework, the capitulation, and the Treaty of Alexandropol.
Journal ArticleOpen Access
Hovhannisyan, Gegham, 2024
Fundamental Armenology, No. 2 (20) (2024), pp. 31–41 (National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, Yerevan)
This article examines the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party's approach to the restoration and preservation of Armenian statehood in the critical years 1918-1921. Hovhannisyan traces the party's positions primarily through its organ Young Armenia and the writings of ideologue Stepan Sapah-Gyulyan. The study analyzes how international political events, the Paris Peace Assembly, the mandate discussions, and the resurgence of Russian power, shaped Hunchakian assessments of the Republic of Armenia's prospects. It follows the party's evolving stance from the First Republic through the establishment of Soviet Armenia, showing how regional threats forced pragmatic recalculations of the statehood question. Hovhannisyan draws explicit historical parallels between the dilemmas of 1918-1921 and contemporary challenges facing Armenian statehood. The article was translated from Armenian by Gevorg Harutyunyan and is freely available.
BookPaywalled
Hovannisian, Richard G., 1971
University of California Press (Near Eastern Center, UCLA, vol. 8); 547 pp.; ISBN 0520018052
The first volume of the standard four-volume history of the First Republic of Armenia, the state governed by the ARF. It covers the road to independence in May 1918, the first steps of the new government, the Armeno-Georgian conflict, the first winter of famine and refugees, the struggle for Artsakh and Zangezur, the annexation of Kars, expansion toward Nakhichevan, Armenia at the Paris Peace Conference, Caucasian diplomacy with the White armies, and the first Bolshevik horizons. Built on Armenian, Russian, British and American archival sources, with sustained engagement with the Dashnaktsutyun and with Kachaznuni, Khatisian, Vratsyan and Aharonian.
