First Republic of Armenia: Encyclopedia II - First Republic of Armenia - Establishment

First Republic of Armenia - Establishment

With 1916 Russian offensive the occupation of eastern half of the Anatolia, including most of the provinces Van, Bitlis, and Erzurum and costal regions of black sea Trabzon the visions of liberation were flourished. Armenian visions of liberation with Russian help from the Ottoman Empire were the main reason Armenians in these provinces was helping Russian army. As soon as the imperial army reached its goals, they disbanded the Armenian volunteer regiments that had participated to the offenses. To prevent regrouping the Armenians who were migrated to the deep Russian territories (Caucasus) were disbanded to return to their newly freed homelands from the Ottoman Empire. Armenians in the Caucasus were faced with the Russian censorship.

Armenians learned the logic of all these activities over them after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. (see: mainly London Pact, also Sykes-Picot Agreement) Tsarist regime had secret wartime agreements with the Triple Entente on the partition of the Ottoman Empire. While Tsarist regime was giving consent to the share of Middle East, Western Anatolia, and Cilicia, they will replace the Muslim residents of the Northern Anatolia and Istanbul with the more reliable Cossack settlers. The Armenian Plateau was never intended to be Armenians. These documents were made public by the February/March revolution in 1917 to gain the support of the Armenian public. Armenians hailed the end of the Romanov dynasty.

Armenians learned, again that Grand Duke Nicholas with the OZACOM committee and their promise in helping Armenians to move back to their homeland from Caucasus refugee camps was again to be left on cold. The ones (in thousands) who moved to their hometowns with their own resources found out that Russian soldiers left their posts and return their hometowns.

This is the first time Armenians recognized that they have to build their own control system. Bolshevik slogan of the time ‘peace without annexations and indemnities’ was turning into ‘land, peace, and bread’. The Armenians under the Russian control devised a national congress at October of 1917. The convention in Tiflis was concluded in September of 1917 with delagates from former Romanov realm (203), which 103 belonged to the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun.

The Congress devised policies to control (direct) the war efforts, the relief and repatriation of refuges. The council pass the law to organize the defense of the Caucasus against the Turks using the vast quantity of supplies and ammunition left from the Russian army. The congress specifically devised a local control and administrative structure of the Transcaucasia. Even if the Congress did not devised specific solutions for the soldiers left in Baku, Tiflis and Kars and many militias in eastern Anatolia, they did not resist the ongoing reality of these soldiers serving for the other forces. The Congress also selected a fifteen member permanent executive committee, known as the Armenian National Council. The leader was Avetis Aharonian. This committee’s first task was set the stage and then declare The Republic of Armenia.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Establishment", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki