Note – This article was published in The Valley of Death by Tatul Hakobyan. The article was first published in 2019.
This message is a response to Armenia’s National Security Service Chief Arthur Vanetsyan, who made a statement while visiting Artsakh’s bordering areas near Arax river. “We have no intention of returning any territory. Moreover, we will make sure that our compatriots live in these areas”, said Vanetsyan during his trip.
I would like to send this message to all of those compatriots who are dreaming about the Treaty of Sevres, those who imagine creating an Armenian Mesopotamia between Kur and Arax rivers, for those who talk about drinking tea in Baku and those who believe in the prospect of Armenia from sea to sea.
I have no intention to challenge any of the previous or current administrations’ patriotism or decisiveness. I also have little interest in promoting a discussion about war and peace, or propagate a defeatist approach. This will be my humble attempt of analyzing our recent history.
The discussions about returning territories have been part of our history during the last 100 years. One can talk from an uncompromising maximalist perspective of “no inch of land”, at the same time get involved in a regional, international and internal political processes which inevitably takes the country to the point when you lose everything, or almost everything.
It is not important to proclaim about your unwillingness of any compromise. What is more important, is to conduct your domestic and foreign policy in a way that will not force you to give up a lot more than you could imagine. Moreover, you may openly talk about peace and compromises, often being blamed by nationalist groups for not being patriotic enough, or undermining Armenia’s national interest, or be tagged as a “turkophile”. At the same time, you can conduct policies which will exclude any kind of territorial returns to Turkey, or at least keep most of what you can.
In 1918, during the negotiations in Trabzon, the Armenians thought that what they were being offered at Brest-Litovsk was the worst possible outcome. By refusing in Brest-Litovsk, they ended up with Batumi deal, where we were given around 10-12 thousand square km2 of territory for our first republic. Moreover, the new government of the first Armenian republic had to formally thank the Ottoman empire and its Sultan, for allowing us to have an independent state.
Those who criticize the founding fathers of the first republic Hovhannes Kajaznuni and Alexander Khatisyan, who I consider true patriots of the Armenian cause, for signing under the Treaty of Batumi, should tell us what in their view could have been done, besides accepting the little that we were able to gain by that treaty. If they chose not to sign under the Treaty of Batumi, we might not have the first republic, followed by Soviet Armenia and followed by modern Republic of Armenia.
Batumi was an outcome of the geopolitical realities of that time including possibly also out of our own mistakes. But if we chose not to accept that deal, we might not even get the small republic in 1918. Next was the creation of the Armenian state after not having one in centuries, of which we were deprived off after 2 years.
In the fall of 1919, we lost Nakhijevan. No Armenian wanted to lose that historic Armenian land, but we still did. In that same period the United States was suggesting to Armenia’s prime minister to find a way for a dialogue with Kemalist Turkey. At that time Armenia was controlling larger territories compared to what it had before. This was the time when the Ottoman Empire was kicked out of Armenia, after losing at World War I. Later on, Alexander Khatisyan would be writing in his memoirs about how fullish they were for not accepting the American offer and talking to Kemalist Turks, because a year later the same Kemalists attacked Armenia and forced us to sign the treaty of Alexandrapol (Gyumri) in the already occupied city.
Myself, or any history researcher cannot assure that even if we found a way to talk to Turkey, Kars would be saved or that Turkey would not eventually attack Armenia. The key point here is that we Armenians believed that it was not worse talking to Turkey, that it was a severely diseased country and would soon fall as a state.
In April-May of 1920 Armenia pulled out of Artsakh. In 1921-1923 Nagorno Karabakh became part of Soviet Azerbaijan. Again, no Armenian wanted this kind of development. In the fall of 1919, there was not a single Armenian official, who was ready to hear that Artsakh is going to be part of Azerbaijan, except for one Ambassador. Because of our weaknesses and the circumstances of the time, we ended up accepting Karabakh’s existence under Azerbaijani ruling for 70 years. In 1991-1994, because we were stronger, we were able to return Artsakh through military force.
On August 10 of 1920, when Arshak Jamalyan and Artashes Babalyan were agreeing to sign a deal with Bolsheviks, by which they were temporarily losing control over Artsakh, Zangezur and Nakhijevan. They were not happy about the deal, but most probably had no other choice at the time. On that same evening of August 10th, another Armenian politician Avetis Aharonyan was signing under the Treaty od Sevres, hoping to make Armenia’s territory up to 160 thousand square km.
When in September of 1920, Armenia lost Sarighamish, Kars, Ardahan and Surmalu, it was not because the political actors of that time were against Armenia’s interests. They simply did not have any other choice left.
Whether it’s the statesmen of 1920-ies, or the leader of Armenia in 2019, I have no doubt that they have no desire to give up even an inch of land. But they are often forced to do so. I am not arguing that they will be forced to do the same nowadays, my goal is to remind us all about the dark pages of our recent history, when we ended up making big concessions, and then write volumes about how unfair the world had been to us. Blame everyone for our dire destiny, the Russians, the British, the French and so on and so forth.
Of course, we did not want to give up Kars… We did not want to lose our glorious days of Bagratid Ani… However, we ended up losing, and losing, and losing and that is the reality of our history which we have to face.
March 4, 2019
