The Issue of Nagorno-Karabakh in 1918-1920 and Great Britain
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YEREVAN STATE UNIVERSITY A. A. GHARIBYAN THE ISSUE OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH IN 1918-1920 AND GREAT BRITAIN Yerevan YSU Press 2014 2012 Guaranteed to publication by the Scientific Council of the Institute for Armenian Studies of Yerevan State University UDC 93/99 Gharibyan Alik The Issue of Nagorno-Karabakh in 1918-1920 and Great Britain Monograph / YSU; A. Gharibyan. – Yerevan. YSU edition – 274 p. In this work there are represented the events that took place in 1918- 1920 in a part of the Armenian Homeland – Artsakh. It is told about the collision of interests of the Superpowers in Transcaucasia at the end of the World War I and about the Turkish-Tatar ambitions towards the Armenian territories. In this monograph the key role is given to the Artsakh liberation struggle. A lot of archival documents are represented in the appendix, many of which haven’t still been put into scientific circulation. The book is addressed to the wide range of readers. ISBN 978-5-8084-1880-6 © YSU Press, 2014 © Gharibyan A., 2014 2 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................... 5 CHAPTER 1 THE INTERESTS OF THE ALLIED COUNTRIES IN TRANSCAUCASIA AT THE END OF THE WORLD WAR I 1.1 The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh at the end of the World War I ................................................................................................ 7 1.2 The Turkish invasion in Transcaucasia and the plans of invading the region................................................................................................... 18 1.3 The clash of interests of the Allied countries in Transcaucasia at the end of the World War I.................................................................... 31 CHAPTER 2 THE ENTRY OF THE BRITISH TROOPS IN TRANSCAUCASIA AND THE AMBITIONS OF MUSAVAT AZERBAIJAN TOWARDS NAGORNO-KARABAKH 2.1 The entry of the British troops in Transcaucasia. The situation in Karabakh at the end of 1918.................................................................. 38 2.2 The ambitions of the Musavats in Nagorno-Karabakh. The massacres of the Armenian population and the position of the British military command ................................................................................................... 64 CHAPTER 3 THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA AND GREAT BRITAIN: NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT IN 1919-1920 3.1 The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh at the beginning of 1920 and the position of the Republic of Armenia after withdrawal of British troops....................................................................................................... 117 3.2 The Nagorno-Karabakh problem at Paris Conference, the relations between the Armenian and British delegations ....................................... 129 EPILOGUE............................................................................................................ 138 USED SOURCES AND LITERATURE.............................................................. 141 APPENDIX ............................................................................................................ 147 3 4 INTRODUCTION In current civilizational processes the humanity appears in an extraor- dinary situation. The globalization spreading fast in the world on the one hand and the extremism activated in different regions on the other hand give rise to new problems which require special solutions. The military and poli- tical processes, that develop and expand gradually, just challenge the states, nations, ethnic communities. In such conditions it becomes an urgent task to control the situation completely and to analyze it comprehensively. It is also indisputable that the regularities of human vital activity are mostly connec- ted with the historical past. One of the regularities of history is the fact that only fighting ethnoses can survive even in conditions when their enemies threaten them both in peace and at war. In this sense, certainly, the discovery of the regularities of historical events gets particular significance. All the above-mentioned descriptions entirely coincide with an Arme- nian territory, that of Artsakh, with its historical past and present. The Arme- nians of that magnificent part of Historical Armenia have always struggled and kept their devotion, their connection with the motherland being and remaining its inseparable part. That territory has survived despite a number of violent attempts and pressures. The history of Artsakh-Karabakh also had difficult and complicated periods; in particular the period of 1918-1920 was hard, when the Armenians were under the risk of annihilation and destruction. The events that took place in Artsakh in 1918-1920, the entry of the British troops and the formation of the Republic of Armenia created a new situation for the Armenians. Although Armenia’s independence was achieved at the cost of huge losses, it inspired hope for national rebirth, which happened also in our days – in 1990-1991. Those conditions and the political situation demanded from the Armenians to unite all forces around the national problems. During 1918-1920 the Armenians had a life-and-death struggle against the enemy. There were also omissions and mistakes in that struggle and, as a 5 result, we had irrevocable losses. In this aspect it is vitally necessary to appreciate and evaluate correctly this period of the history. In case of imple- mentation it is possible to act right not only in present (as well as during the Artsakh Movement in 1988), but also in future. And this is here when each Armenian needs to perceive well the lessons of its own history, to appro- priate them in order to apply them in the right way in future. 6 CHAPTER 1 THE INTERESTS OF THE ALLIED COUNTRIES IN TRANSCAUCASIA AT THE END OF WORLD WAR I 1.1. The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh at the end of World War I The State of “Artsakh” has played a great role in the historical fate of the Armenian people. The arguments over Artsakh-Karabakh began, when the Turkish-Musavat forces tried to cut this region off from Armenia at any cost for achieving their invasive goals. The nowadays territory of Mountainous Karabakh is a part of the historical state of “Artsakh”. It distinguished from the 15 provinces of Greater Armenia by its high location and inaccessibility and was called “Amur”1. Karabakh includes the middle part of Artsakh, which is also known as Aran State - from Syunik to Kur. According to Ghevond Alishan Kara- bakh has got its name because of its deep forests, gardens and because of their shades. It is also known as “sev aygi” (kara-bagh), which comes from the Persian word. Karabakh has been connected with the Armenian Highlands both geographically and economically and also in terms of civilization. This is proved by the existence of a population at present, which is connected by the same nationality, religion and traditions, where even the tombs and numerous historical traces – memorials, monuments, buildings and other cultural values prove the pure Armenian origin of that region since dateless times2. Artskh has been populated by the Armenians since ancient times. In the 16th-18th centuries the Turkish nomadic tribes penetrated into the northern borders of Karabakh. Nevertheless, the Melikdoms of Artsakh (Varanda, 1 Alishan Gh., Artsakh, Yerevan, YSU Pres.,, 1993, p. 6. 2 Armenia: Political & Ethnic Boundaries 1878 –1948; London, 1998, p. 800-801 (Hence- forth - Armenia: Political & Ethnic Boundaries 1878 –1948): 7 Khachen, Dizak, Jraberd and Giulistan) could preserve their independence for a long time. The population of Artsakh is notable for its patriotism. From historical, strategic and ethnographical viewpoint Karabakh is the inseparable part of Armenia. It’s one of the territories of Historical Armenia, which has re- mained Armenian despite numerous political messes, emigration and allegation. One more advantage of the Armenians living in Karabakh is that they have refrained from allegation, and emigration has been rarely noticed. The Armenian population here had a lifestyle similar to sedentary one. The debates about to whom belongs Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) began in 1918, when Azerbaijan, which didn’t have any historical basis in Transcau- casia, appeared with territorial pretensions since its formation times aspiring to capture Armenian Artsakh, Zangezur and Nakhijevan. By the Treaty of Giulistan in 1813 and by the Treaty of Turkmenchay in 1828 it was confirmed the transition of Artsakh’s historical territory under the dominion of Russia. In 1868 the great part of it joined the newly founded Elisabethpol Governorate. We can pick trustworthy information about the national composition of Karabakh from the statistics of Tsarist Government1. According to those statistics, by the data of 1916 the 23.396 off from 43.869 inhabitants in Shushi were Armenians, the 1.249 were Russians, the 35 were Europeans, the 36 were Georgians, the 25 were mountaineers, and only the 19.121were Moslems. The same statistics show, that the majority (53.33 %) of the population were Armenians. The city Shushi, which was considered to be the center of Artsakh, was divided into 2 parts – Armenian and Moslem. Definite and interpreted information about the Armenian population of Transcaucasia is taken from the British archives, particularly from the docu- ments and Collection of maps published in 19982. The basis of the informa- tion is formed by the Czarist Statistics. In the section of the population of the Caucasus it is mentioned, that the delegation