Armenia & The Armenians

Armenia & The Armenians

INDEPENDENT ARMENIA AND ITS SUBSEQUENT ANNEXATION BY SOVIET RUSSIA

After defeating the Turkish army on the battlefield of Sardarabad, Bash Abaran and Gharakilise, the Armenians proclaimed the founding of the Independent Republic of Armenia, on May 28, 1918.

It was created from the total carnage and devastation which prevailed in the immediate aftermath of WWI.

For the national colors of the flag of the Republic, it was decided on the tricolor of Red-Blue-Orange horizontal bands: The Red symbolizing the rivers of blood shed, prior to the liberation from the unparalleled oppression, tyranny and butchery; the Blue standing for the clear blue skies of the Fatherland; and the Orange symbolic of the golden wheat crops grown on Armenia's soil.

This consecrated flag was the one and only Armenian national flag, that ever came into being within living memory. It was recognized on an international scale and which indeed, proudly fluttered over the Armenian embassies in the various capitals of the world -- Washington, London, Japan, Rome, etc.

The Treaty of Sevres was signed on August 10, 1920 which stipulated that the Allied Powers recognized Armenia as a Free and Independent state (Treaty Articles 88 and 89).

The Turks however, reached an understanding with Lenin in the Kremlin, and in September 1920, a joint Russo-Turkish attack followed against the tiny Armenian Republic, newly created out of the ravages and ashes of WWI.

Subsequently a Soviet Republic was proclaimed in Yerevan, the Armenian Capital, in December of 1920, with an area of not more than 30,000 square kilometers. The cession of the sovereign Armenian provinces of Kars and Ardahan to Turkey was finally confirmed by the Treaty of Kars (October 13, 1921). Curiously enough, this treaty also stipulated that the Nakhichevan district, once an integral part of medieval Armenia, but later extensively peopled by Azeris, should be attached to the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan. This district is now entirely cut off from Azerbaijan by Armenian territory.

Similarly Karabagh, a patriotic Armenian region was cut off from Armenia and left as an enclave within Azerbaijan.

From 1922 to 1936 Armenia formed part of the Transcaucasian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic.

In 1936 Armenia was proclaimed a constituent Republic of the U.S.S.R.