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    "title": "American Committee for the Independence of Armenia",
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        "Pre-Presidential Papers of Richard M. Nixon",
        "General Correspondence"
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    "ocrText": "6\nCOMMUNIST TAKEOVER AND OCCUPATION OF ARMENIA\nCOMMUNIST TAKEOVER AND OCCUPATION OF ARMENIA\n7\nFortunately, the war soon ended, and Armenia commenced her\nIn January of 1919, the Big Four-England, the United States,\nrapid regeneration in the latter part of 1918. The Turkish troops\nFrance, and Italy-drafted a general formula defining the Allied war\nvacated their occupied positions and the boundaries of Armenia were\naims, which included the following paragraph concerning the fate of\nenlarged somewhat. Then came the influx of refugees and food from\nsubject races of the Turkish Empire:\nthe outside world. America in particular played a saving role in\nBecause of the historic misgovernment of the Turks of their subject peoples\nthose tragic days. On May 20, 1920, the first American ship, loaded\nand the terrible massacres of the Armenians and others in recent years, the Allied\nwith 2,000 tons of flour, arrived in Batum; a week later, another ship\nand Associated Powers are agreed that Armenia, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Arabia\ncame into port with 10,000 tons of the same commodities. Other\nmust be completely severed from the Turkish Empire.\nships followed regularly, bearing food supplies, clothing, and medicine.\nThe peace treaty with Turkey, delayed for 16-months, was signed\nThe greater part of these goods was sent by the Near East Relief,\nat Sevres on August 10, 1920. It was during this interval of 16\nthe American Red Cross, and other charitable organizations; the re-\nmonths that the nationalist movement of Mustafa Kemal, actively\nmainder was sent by the American Relief Administration.\nsupported by France, Italy, and Soviet Russia, became a power to\nOne year after its founding, Armenia already was an organized\ncontend with.\nstate, equipped with an efficient administrative machinery. A large\nAs a de jure government, Armenia was represented at the Sevres\nnumber of nations recognized her independence and exchanged dip-\nConference and was a signatory of the treaty through its delegation,\nlomatic representatives. A delegation of the Armenian Government\nheaded by Avetis Aharonian. The Sevres Treaty was the climactic\nproceeded to Paris to take part in the Peace Conference.\nact of a long and bloody struggle for Armenia's emancipation, as well\nOn January 19, 1920, the Allied Supreme Council recognized\nas the reward of Armenian contribution to the Allied war effort.\nArmenia's independence and her de facto government, with the pro-\nThe Sevres Treaty contained the following articles pertaining to\nvision, however, that such recognition did not predetermine the\nArmenia:\nquestion of that state's future boundaries.\nARTICLE 88. Turkey recognizes Armenia as already organized by the Allied\nThe creation of the independent republic was the signal of a patriotic\nPowers, as a free, independent state.\nwave, rallying Armenians from all corners of the world-Russia, the\nARTICLE 89. Turkey and Armenia, as well as the other High Contracting Parties,\nagree to submit to the arbitration of the President of the United States the de-\nBalkans, Europe, America, Egypt, Persia, and India-all of whom\ntermination of the boundary between Turkey and Armenia, in the provinces of\npoured in their voluntary contributions to rebuild the fatherland.\nErzeroum, Trebizond, Van and Bitlis, and to accept his decision, as well as other\nThe American Armenians alone raised a sum of $2 million.\nconditions that may be prescribed by him relative to access of Armenia to the\nSimultaneously, as Mr. B. Navassardian testified:\nsea and relative to the demilitarization of the Ottoman territory adjacent to said\nboundary\nThe Armenian Republic was recognized\nby\nthe\nUnited\nStates\nGovern-\nTHE ARMENIAN QUESTION IS SHELVED\nment, in a communication addressed by the Secretary of State, Bainbridge Colby,\nto the Armenian Minister Plenipotentiary in Washington, Dr. Armen Paster-\nThe Treaty of Sevres, however, was never destined to be enforced.\nmadjian, on April 23, 1920.\nSubsequent events made its ratification by the powers impossible.\nThe Armenians of Egypt founded a special fund for an Armenian\nThe Kemalist movement, vitalized by the mutual rivalries of the\nair force, and the Melkonian brothers bequeathed their entire wealth of\npowers and with the Soviet's active support, not only killed it, but\nnearly $10 million for the needs of Armenia. A \"gold fund\" designed\nfrustrated all the Allied plans concerning the Near East. Scarcely 1\nto establish Armenia's monetary system was supported with exemplary\nmonth after the signing of the Sevres Treaty, in September of 1920,\nzeal. A $20 million loan, floated for government needs, was likewise\nKemalist Turkey in collaboration with the Soviet attacked the Re-\ngenerously supported by all Armenians.\npublic of Armenia. Unaided by the Allied Powers, and unable to\nPresently, there was a great homecoming of Armenians from all\nresist the combined Turco-Soviet assault, after a valiant defense,\nparts of the world, bringing with them capital and machinery with\nArmenia succumbed on December 2, 1920.\nwhich to develop industry and agriculture. Then followed an influx\nof Armenian intellectuals-professors doctors, engineers, agronomists,\nHOW THE SOVIET WRECKED THE INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA\neconomists, writers, artists, and specialists-whose presence helped\ntransform Armenia within a short period.\n\"The external enemies of Armenia,\" writes Simon Vratzian, the man\nThe next question was the final determination of Armenia's boun-\nwho was Prime Minister in the days of the destruction of the Inde-\ndaries, namely, the annexation of Turkish Armenia, and the Republic's\npendent Republic of Armenia, \"were the Bolsheviks and the Turks,\nrecognition as a de jure state, a matter which depended largely upon\nand of these two the Bolsheviks must be ranked first, because without\nthe future treaty between Turkey and the Allies.\nthe encouragement and the active support of Soviet Russia, Kemalist\nPresident Wilson, an ardent champion of international cooperation,\nTurkey would never have dared attack Armenia.\"\nand author of the League of Nations, was inclined toward an American\nAlthough \"champions\" of small, oppressed peoples and professed\nprotectorate over Armenia. The Allies welcomed and supported this\nadvocates of the principle of national self-determinationthere was\nplan, meanwhile trying to tie up the final solution with decisions which\na time when Lenin demanded the immediate withdrawal of Russian\nthe American President was to render and which, unfortunately, were\noccupational armies and the outright independence of Ukraine, Fin-\nunduly delayed.\nland, and Armenia-liberation and independence of enslaved peoples,\nas later events have proved, was never the supreme ideal of the Bcl-\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum"
}