Armenian Soviet Republic
After the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, Eastern Armenia declared its independence on May 28, 1918. President Woodrow Wilson hoped to persuade the United States to accept a mandate for an independent Armenia, but the Senate refused the responsibility. On August 10, Armenia signed the Treaty of SËVRES, by which Turkey recognized Armenia as a free and independent state.
On November 22, Woodrow Wilson, as instructed, announced projected boundaries that ceded to the Republic of Armenia most of Western Armenia. Already in the summer of 1919, however, the Turkish government of Ankara, under Mustafa Kemal (Atat¸rk), had repudiated all treaties with Armenia. In September 1920 the Turks attacked, seizing Armenian cities Kars and Alexandrople. Further aggressive advances of Turkey were prevented after on November 29, 1920, the power in Armenia was seized by the Communists, backed by the invading Russian army. In December 1922, Armenia became one of the founding members of the Soviet Union. Trying to win Mustafa Kemal, the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin voluntarily put the Armenian regions of Nakhidjevan and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) under the jurisdiction of Azerbaijan, having completely disregarded the fact that the population of those territories was overwhelmingly Armenian.
The defeat of the Ottoman Turks in World War I and the disintegration of the Russian Empire gave the Armenians a chance to declare their independence. On May 28, 1918, the independent Republic of Armenia was established, after the Armenians forced the Turkish troops to withdraw in the battles of Sardarapat, Karakilisse and Bashabaran. Overwhelming difficulties confronted the infant republic, but amid these conditions the Armenians devoted all their energies to the pressing task of reconstructing their country. But due to pressure exerted simultaneously by the Turks and Communists, the republic collapsed in 1920. Finally, the Soviet Red Army moved into the territory (Eastern Armenia) and on November 29, 1920, declared it a Soviet republic. Armenia was made part of the Transcaucasian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic in 1922, and in 1936, it became one of the Soviet Union's constituent republics. The tumultuous changes occurring throughout the Soviet Union beginning in the 1980's inevitably had repercussions in Armenia.
Armenian History
Table of contents
- Armenians
- Artashisian Dynasty
- Arshakunian Dynasty
- The Armenian Alphabet
- Arab Invasion and Byzantine Empire
- Bagratunian Dynasty
- Rubinian Dynasty
- Armenia Under Turkish Rule
- Armenian Question
- Armenian Genocide
- Armenian Soviet Republic
- Nagorno-Karabakh movement
- Armenia Today
- Coat Of Arms
- The Flag
- Timeline
- Mer Hayrenik