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The Second Phase of Territorial
Formation: Insurgencies, Destabilization and
Decrease of Western Support By Andrew Andersen and Georg Egge
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Muslim
Uprisings in Kars and Sharur-Nakhichevan and the failure of American Mediation,
07/1919 – 10/1919 The fragile status quo followed by the
abolition of South-West Caucasian Republic (SWCR) and Arasdayan Republic as
well as the establishment of Armenian administration in Kars territory and
Nakhichevan county in April-May, 1919, did not last long. Extensive
anti-Armenian campaign based on pan-Islamic and pan-Turanic agenda launched
by numerous emissaries of Turkish nationalists and Azerbaijani government in
combination with massive arms deliveries to the areas of Muslim majority from
Erzurum through Barduz and from Baku via Northern Persia, triggered a series
of well-organized uprisings against Armenian rule in July, 1919, in the
province of Erevan (in the counties of Surmala, Sharur, Nakhichevan and
Erevan[1])
and all over the Kars territory[2]. By the beginning of August, Armenian
administration was expelled from the Araxes valley between Ordubad and Davalu
in the province of Erevan[3],
and most of Nakhichevan county was lost except the eastern foothills. The
area of Sharur-Nakhichevan taken over by the Muslim rebels commanded by Samed
Bey Jamalinsky was hoisting Azerbaijani and Turkish flags, and the majority
of local Armenians, who still resided there in June, 1919, were either wiped
out or forced to flee[4].
In Kars territory fierce fighting that
occurred throughout July and August around Karaurghan, Karakurt and Bashkey
west of Kaghyzman[5] and in
the area of Merdenek - Novo-Selim - Beghli Akhmed west of Kars, resulted in a
series of Armenian successes against Kurdish and Turco-Tatar tribes enforced
by regular Turkish troops and often commanded by Turkish officers[6].
By September, 1919, the Armenian control was re-established in most of the
Kars territory excluding the Georgian-controlled northern sector of Ardahan
district and the British-protected district of Olti still controlled by the
Muslim militiamen of Ayyub-Khan and Server Beg[7].
At the same time, in Surmala Armenian control remained limited to the plain
of Ararat while the strategic heights dominating the areas around Kulp, Orgov
and Aralikh remained firmly in the hands of Kurdo-Tatars[8]. All the above events occurred against the
background of British withdrawal from the South Caucasus that started with
the evacuation of Baku between August 15 and 23, 1919, and by September 11,
there was only a small British contingent remaining in Batum still
administered by the United Kingdom[9]. Meanwhile, a US Colonel William Haskell who
arrived to the Caucasus as an Allied High Commissioner for Armenia in August,
1919, made an attempt to arrange a truce between the conflicting parties.
After having met with Armenian and Azerbaijani officials, Haskell proposed a
creation of a Neutral Zone between the two “sister republics” that would
encompass the counties of Nakhichevan and Sharur-Daralaghez and be
administered by a US governor. The American proposal was met with reserved
satisfaction in Azerbaijan and indignation in Armenia due to the fact that both
governments clearly understood that the fulfillment of Haskell’s proposal
would be another step towards absorption by Azerbaijan of the territory that
was considered to be inalienable part of Armenia in Erevan and was referred
to as “South-Western Azerbaijan” in Baku[10].
The proposed Neutral Zone would also cut Zanghezur off the rest of Armenia
thus making it more vulnerable to the Azerbaijani expansion. By the end of
October, 1919, it became clear that all efforts of Haskell’s mission ended up
in vain. No agreement was
reached on the disputed territory most of which remained under de-facto
control of Azerbaijan and Turkey until March, 1920. Azerbaijani
invasion of Zanghezur, the Truce and the Fall of Goghtan, 11-12/1919 Within a week and a half after the invasion
began, Armenian forces under Njdeh took action against the armed Muslim
villages that reportedly supported the invaders in Meghri and Ghapan cantons
in the very the centre of Zanghezur. That operation resulted in the capture
of Kajaran, Shabadin, Okhchi, Piroudan and a few other Muslim villages its
defendants wiped out and inhabitants expelled, and in re-opening the mountain
pass to the still fighting northern Goghtan in the foothills of Ordubad
sector of Nakhichevan county. In the middle of November US and British
representatives in the Caucasus Sir Oliver Wardrop (British Chief
Commissioner since July, 1919) and Colonel James Rhea addressed the
governments of Azerbaijan and Armenia and demanded that the undeclared war
between the two republics should be stopped immediately. The
Armenian-Azerbaijani talks started on November 20 in Tiflis (Georgia) and
came to an end three days later with no breakthrough. On November 23, 1919 the Prime Ministers of
the two countries (Alexandre Khatisian and Nasib Bek Usubbekov) signed an
agreement that was in fact nothing more but a declaration of intent[13].
Meanwhile, military operations and ethnic cleansing went on in Zanghezur and
Goghtan. Goghtan, a very small Armenian historical
province with its centre in Akulis in size and location roughly corresponding
to Ordubad sector, managed to withstand the Ottoman invasion of 1918 and
attempted to survive the Muslim uprising of July-August of 1919 through the
declaration of its loyalty to the de-facto authorities in Nakhichevan and
Ordubad. Nevertheless, most of the southern villages of Goghtan were
devastated by the rebels. Facing the massacre, the northern villages took up
arms to defend themselves and asked Erevan for help. The Armenian government
could sent only a small relief detachment that reached Goghtan only in
October to help local militiamen to hold against the offensive of Ordubad
militiamen and regular Turkish troops. In November Lieutenant Colonel Njdeh
was planning to lift the siege of Akulis and launch an offensive in the
direction of Ordubad in order to secure the flank of Zanghezur. However he
was ordered to postpone the Goghtan operation until his troops would finish
the pacification of the last Muslim communities in the Barkushat mountains.
The hero of Zanghezur had to obey orders but by the time when the last Muslim
village of Ajibaj in the heart of Zanghezur was put to sword and fire it was
too late to save what was left of Goghtan. By December 18, 1919 the
resistance of Goghtan was crushed and a week later the last surviving
Armenians left the area for Zanghezur. That marked the completion of ethnic
cleansing both in Zanghezur and in the southernmost sector of Nakhichevan[14]. Georgian-Armenian Accords, 07/1919-11/1919 Georgian government though failed to see
any major concession in the above proposal largely due to the fact that most
of the disputed territory “granted” to her by Amenia was already under firm Georgian
control. Nevertheless, the official Tiflis came out with a counter-proposal
reflected in a foreign ministry memorandum stating that Georgia could be
satisfied with the northern half of the Neutral Zone (with Alaverdi copper
plants) and was prepared to drop her claims to the district of Olti (Kars
territ.). Georgia was not prepared to cede any part of Akhalkalaki to Armenia
and claimed not just the northern part of Ardahan district but the whole of
it[16]. Despite the above disagreement, the leaders
of the two sister republics of the South Caucasus facing numerous internal
and external problems kept looking for some settlement. An Armeno-Georgian
conference that took place in Tiflis in September, 1919, was marked by the
spirit of reconciliation and resulted in signing of a number of agreements
vital to both countries in November, 1919. However, it resulted in no
territorial settlement that would be mutually satisfactory despite the fact
that at the very last moment Armenian delegation agreed to drop all claims to
Akhalkalaki in exchange for Alaverdi copper mines[17].
Map 5. Click on the map for better resolution Cilicia,
09/1919 - 02/1920 Immediately after the Armistice of Mudros
the inter-Allied command headed by Field Marshal Edmund Allenby established special
occupational administration for all the above-mentioned territory with the
exception of Cilicia and Taurus zone where for some reasons the analysis of
which goes beyond the framework of this essay, all Ottoman civil officials
were left in their places[19]. Largely because of that policy and also due
to the fact that the Allied force in the area was too small even to occupy
the major key-cities, the Armenian repatriation could not proceed properly
and the attempts to establish some elements of Armenian statehood produced
quite miserable results. In the fall the British started evacuation
of Syria and Cilicia in accordance with the provisions of Sykes-Picot
Agreement leaving the area within the French sphere of influence. On November
4 the region was officially transferred under the jurisdiction of the
Beirut-based French High Commissioner for Syria and Cilicia whose title had
been a month earlier changed from “the High Commissioner for Syria and
Armenia”[20]. This
change of the title signaled the shift in the French policy that was vital
for the Armenian case. In the fall of 1919 the government of Clemenceau
clearly distanced itself from all the projects that involved the creation of
an “Integral Armenia” from the Caucasus to the Mediterranean Sea and aimed at
incorporation of Cilicia into “the Greater Syria” under French protectorate.
At the same time, the idea of building up a sort of an “Armenian national
home” in Cilicia was not completely rejected, and Armenian flags were flying
next to French ones at least in the cities of Adana and Mersina. At the same time, encouraged by the Allies’
indecisiveness and the paucity of their forces in the region, the Turkish
nationalists started violent campaign against all attempts of Armenian
re-establishment in Cilicia and Western Taurus. Their plans for the
re-conquest of Cilicia became even more realistic after the two-day
conference between Francois Georges-Picot (French High Commissioner for Syria
and Cilicia) ant the nationalist leader Mustapha Kemal that occurred in Sivas
in early December, 1919. During that conference Kemal got assurance that
although France still intended to keep a “special position” in Cilicia, the
province was not going to be permanently torn from the “Turkish heartland”[21].
Keeping in mind further development of the
events in Cilicia and Taurus It would be hardly an exaggeration to conclude
that the French overture in Sivas provoked pro-Kemalist insurgency in that
sparsely garrisoned territory under nominal French protection that resulted in
the new Armenian massacres in Marash in January-February, 1920, and finally
led to total abandonment of Cilician Armenians by the French in October, 1921[22].
Berthelot Memorandum and British reaction, 12/1919-01/1920 The shift in the Allied
approach to the Armenian question was reflected in the outline for the Near
Eastern Settlement submitted to Lord Curzon by Philippe Joseph Berthelot on
December 12, 1919. The Berthelot memorandum clearly stated that the creation
of an “Integral Armenia from sea to sea” was both unrealistic and even
disadvantageous towards the Armenians for that project would make them a tiny
minority in their own country. Instead, Berthelot proposed to grant Armenia
all the territories she claimed in the Caucasus excluding Akhalkalaki and
additionally-the basin o Lake Van, the plains of Mush and Bitlis and the
eastern sector of the vilayat of
Erzerum not including the city of Ezerum. According to Berthelot Armenia was
supposed to remain landlocked providing her access to the seaports of Batum,
Constantinople, Trebizond and Adana is secured by the Allies’ guarantees[23]. The British Foreign Office’s
commentary on Berthelot Memorandum prepared by Robert Vansittart and Eric
Adam supported the ideas of the memorandum in general, and on December 22 an
accord was reached between Curzon and Berthlot both on the borders of the
Armenian Republic and on the exclusion of French-occupied Taurus area from any
form of Armenian rule. The agreement also acknowledged nominal suzerainty of
the Sultan government over Cilicia and did not specify any form of “Armenian
home” in that province. Later adjustments to the Berthelot plan (January, 1920) awarded Armenia with the
city of Erzerum and offered to compensate Georgia with Lazistan east of
Trebizond for giving Borchalo to Armenia[24]
(see Fig. 3.2.).
Figure 3.2 The London conference and San-Remo Deadlock , 02 - 04/1920 The first half of 1920
saw the two Allied conferences (in London and San-Remo) where major conditions
of the long-delayed piece treaty with Turkey were pre-approved by the Allied
Supreme Council. The London Conference that started in
February, 1920, was marked by the end of the project of the “Integral Armenia
from sea to sea”, majorly due to withdrawal of the USA from active
involvement in the Near East and French plans to include Cilicia into greater
Syria[25].
Despite the Allies’ moral obligations “to secure Armenian national existence”[26]
vocalized by Lord Curzon and confirmed by chief British representative Robert
Vansittart conference was marked with the spirit of pandering to Turkish
ambitions in the eastern vilayats
and not forcing the Turks “to bear a burden which is too heavy”[27]. At the very beginning of the conference the
Armenian representatives Aharonian and Nubar were advised to give up the vilayats of Sivas and Diarbekir as
well as to forget about Cilicia where some Armenian autonomy was to be
established under French protection, and to be prepared to further
concessions to the Turks. The Allied leaders also rejected the revised
Armenian proposal for the eastern border of the future Armenia running west
of Tirebolu-Cheftliq-Kemakh-Khozat-Kharput line[28].
Even the possibility of direct Armenian access to Black Sea ports was put in
question.
Figure 3.3 Finally, after long debates during hundreds
of sessions and committee meetings, the London Conference adjourned on April 10.
The draft treaty with Turkey and the future borders of Armenia were outlined
but not finalized, and the discussion was to continue at a new conference
that was planned to take place in San-Remo after Easter holidays. As per the
draft decision of the conference, Armenia was deprived of the three of six vilayats of what had been defined as
“Turkish Armenia” before the World War. Nevertheless, with cautious optimism
the republic could count on most of the vilayats
of Erzerum and Bitlis as well as some two-thirds of Van vilayat her westen
border running to the west of Bayburt, Mamakhatun and Mush and skirting Lake
Van to the Persian frontier[29].
Armenia was also allowed to have access to the Black sea by getting parts of
the territory of Batum that was supposed to be evacuated by the British (the
so-called Chorokh-Imerkhevi corridor) and by getting “nominal sovereignty”
over Lazistan east of Trebizond where a special autonomous state was to be
created[30] (see
Fig. 3-3). The prospective incorporation of Chorokh-Imerkhevi
corridor and Lazistan into Armenia caused protests on behalf of Georgian
delegation and in Georgia proper where the whole territory of Batum was
considered unequivocally Georgian province of Achara (Ajaria) and Lazistan
was referred to as historically Georgian province of Chaneti. As a result,
Georgian troops were sent in late March of 1920 across the administrative
border between the district of Ardahan and the territory of Batum to occupy
eastern half of the territory up to Khulo-Ardanuch line[31].
Meanwhile the Allied Comission dismissed Georgian claims to Lazistan
asserting that despite some Georgian origins of the Laz people they never
express any willingness to be incorporated into Georgian state[32]. The San-Remo Conference that
held form 19 to 26 of April, 1920, signaled the divestiture of the Allied
leadership away from most of their obligations in regards with Armenia
including the refusal to provide and use a military force necessary to
guarantee Armenia’s territorial gains. The future borders between Armenia and
Turkey were not clearly defined and the final decisions in that field were
delegated to the League of Nations and to the US President Woodrow Wilson who
was not even present at the conference. At the same time even the general
idea of awarding Armenia with some parts of the four eastern vilayats (Erzurum, Trebizond, Bitlis
and Van) caused protest outrage in Turkey not only among the Nationalists but
also among moderate followers of Sultan’s government in Constantinople[33]. Another excuse for leaving
Armenia to herself and at the same time – a new destructive blow to the
reputation of Armenia and this time also Georgia, was the sister republic’s
strife at the San Remo Conference over the Chorokh-Imerkhevi corridor in the
territory of Batum and over the projected ex-territorial railway that was to
connect the port of Batum with Armenia via Georgian territory[34]. The disputed area was finally annexed by
Georgia in July, 1920, but that conflict significantly undermined the future
Western support of both Armenian and Georgian cases[35]. One should add to the above
that at both London and San-Remo conferences the issues of the border between
Armenia and Azerbaijan including the status of Karabakh “temporarily” assigned
to Azerbaijan were not addressed at all. Instead, after a series of informal
consultations the Allied chiefs of state agreed on April 25, 1920 to resolve
the above issues “at the same time as those between Armenia and Turkey”[36].
The Shosh resolution signaled the
escalation of tension in Mountainous Karabakh. Less than a week after its
adoption, additional units of the Azerbaijani Army prepared to enter the
region while in the villages of Varanda, Dizaq, Khachen, Jraberd and
Gyulistan Armenian self-defense units were preparing for an armed uprising
encouraged by the envoys from Armenia[42]. The Armenian uprising in Karabakh that
started on March 23, 1920, was rather a failure due to its poor organization
and even poorer coordination with Erevan and Zanghezur. Initial success that
took place in Askeran where the rebels sealed the Askeran pass making it
impossible for Azerbaijani reinforcements to advance to Shusha and in Dizaq
where the stable access to Zanghezur was secured came to naught after the
fiasco of the rebels in the cities of Shusha and Khankendy. At the same time,
no expected relief forces came from Zanghezur due to the physical absence of
General Dro (the commander of regular Armenian expeditionary forces that had
been prepared to advance into Karabakh) and because the fighters of the
Zanghezur warlord Gareghin Njdeh got stuck in their abortive attempt to
re-conquer Goghtan (March 21-25, 1920) and later (March 25-30) in the repel
of Azerbaijani invasion from Jabrail[43]. Until April 03 badly outnumbered Armenian
defenders of the Askeran pass were repelling non-stopping attacks of the
Azerbaijani army under the command of General Samed Bek Mekhmandarov.
However, the insufficiency of the Armenian forces combined with the lack of
ammunition and artillery on their side, made the fall of Askeran inevitable,
and on April 4 thousands of Azerbaijani troops decimated the last rebels
blocking their way into the heart of Karabakh and poured into the area down
the road towards Khankendy and Shusha where most of the local Armenians had
been already massacred by the victorious Azerbaijani garrisons and armed
Muslim mobs. The Christian part of Shusha (de-facto capital of Mountainous
Karabakh) was completely destroyed and burnt down and so were dozens of
Armenian villages around it[44].
Five days later the rebels counter-attacked forcing Azerbaijani forces to
draw back. However hankendy and the ruins of Shusha still remained in
Azerbaijani hands thus cutting the rebel-controlled area into two isolated
enclaves (see Map 6), Simultaneously, armed clashes involving
regular units of Armenian and Azerbaijani armies also resumed in Kazakh and
Nakhichevan counties thus allowing some researchers to define the Karabakh
uprising as a full-scale Armeno-Azerbaijani war. It was not until April 13, 1920
when regular Armenian troops under General Dro (Drastamat Kanayan) finally
entered Karabakh through Zanghezur and put Dizaq and rural Varanda under
stable Armenian control (see Map 6). In the Armenian-dominated parts of
Karabakh the Directorate was formed
that became de-facto government of the region. On April 22 the Ninth Assembly of
Mountainous Karabakh[45]
was summoned in Taghavard to reaffirm the union of Mountainous Karabakh with
Armenia and authorize Dro to take “whatever action necessary to
liberate the district”[46].
Meanwhile, keeping most of its armed forces in the areas disputed with
Armenia, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was left defenseless against the
Red army that concentrated on her northern frontier[47].
On April 27, 1920, Soviet Russian 11th Army invaded Azerbaijan. Less than 24
hours the First Azerbaijani Republic collapsed as a result of a bloodless
coup in Baku, and on April 29 Soviet occupants and local communists
proclaimed Azerbaijani Soviet Republic thus signalling the beginning of the
Soviet era in the South Caucasus. The atmosphere of political vacuum that
lasted another two weeks till the moment when the first units of the 11th
Army stated their advance into Mountainous Karabakh[48],
was quite favorable for Dro to take over Shusha, Khankendy and Askeran and
secure the unification of the region with the Armenian republic. However,
Armenian commander did not issue the order to attack, and the last chance for
complete liberation of the Mountainous Karabakh was lost. The war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the spring of 1920 ended
up with at least partial Armenian victory. However, it completely destroyed
the reputation of both nations in the West as well as the confidence of their
ability to live in peace with each other and their neighbors[49].
Map 6. Click on the map for better resolution North-Western
Karabakh/Parisos: “the Forgotten Armenia”? During the period preceding the Karabakh
uprising the Armenian communities of North-Western Karabakh/Parisos
subordinate to the Armenian National
Council of Gandzak (see Map 6 and pp. 15-16 for the description of the
area) were consistent in keeping their loyalty towards Azerbaijani republic.
The rural Armenian communities scattered in the mountainous area of the
county of Elizavetpol (Gyanja) from Chaykend to Chardakhly were mostly
well-armed but tended to avoid any forms of inter- racial or inter-religious
violence were armed for self-defense. In January 1920 they expelled and
labeled as instigators the envoys from Armenia who came to the area in an
attempt to organize an anti-Azerbaijani uprising[50],
and as soon as the first armed clashes occurred in Karabakh, both the Council
of Gandzak and all the villages of the county except those south of Chaykend
(Northern Gyulistan) vocally distanced themselves from the Karabakh rebels[51]. The loyalty to Azerbaijan, however, did not
spare the Armenians of Gandzak/Parisos from paying for their brethren’s
revolt in Karabakh. The rural Armenian enclaves were surrounded by
Azerbaijani militia and gendarmerie and ordered to disarm. Most of the
villages that complied were looted and burned while those that did not found
themselves under siege. Some of the villages were forced to pay “protection
taxes”. The spillover of the Karabakh violence into North-Western
Karabakh/Parisos resulted in thousands of deaths and in exodus of many rural
Armenian communities into the Armenian quarter of Elizavetpol
(Gyanja/Gandzak) and the German colony of Elenendorf[52]. |
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