Azerbaijan Republic confronts the claims of "Great Armenia"

Another serious issue of concern to the Azerbaijani delegation in Paris was their relations with the Armenian representatives. The Armenians thought of themselves as "the small ally of the big allies."They hoped that the Paris Peace Conference would solve all their problems and they dreamed of creating a "Great Armenia" reaching from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea. Armenia was demanding not only six provinces of Anatolia but also Cilicia and even part of Iranian Azerbaijan, although Iran had not participated in the war. Their groundless claims were supported by Paris, London, and especially Washington. According to one newspaper story, British General Beach, newly arrived in Alexandropol from Tabriz, had supposedly congratulated the Armenians on their independence and announced at a banquet given in his honor that the rightful borders of independent Armenia would stretch from sea to sea. This would be a surprise to the neighbors, Azerbaijan and Georgia, whose independence would not be recognized by the Entente, for they were to be incorporated within a united Russia. When this story appeared in the newspaper Sakartvelo and was republished in the newspaper Georgia, a representative of the British command came to the editorial office to deny that the general had said such things and to demand the publication of a retraction. It was subsequently determined that the Armenians had distorted General Beach"s remarks, and the newspaper Georgia had to publish a disclaimer on July 3.

Proposals for creation of a "Great Armenia" stretching from sea to sea were the main subject of Armenian propaganda throughout the South Caucasus, Europe, and the United States after the war. To pursue these claims, the Armenians sent to Paris not one but two delegations. The first, representing the Armenian diaspora, was headed by Boghos Nubarian (Nubar Pasha), who was well known in Western political circles and especially in France. The second, representing the Republic of Armenia, was headed by the chairman of the Armenian National Council, Avetis Aharonian, who had recently led the Armenian delegation at the Istanbul conference. Nevertheless, Armenia, like the other Caucasian states, was not included on the list of officially invited conference delegations.

On January 30, 1919, the Times of London published a letter that Boghos Nubarian had sent to the editor but which was clearly directed to the leaders of the Entente:

Sir, the name of Armenia is not on the list of the nations admitted to the Peace Conference. Our sorrow and our disappointment are deep beyond expression. Armenians naturally expected their demand for admission to the

Conference to be conceded, after all they had done for the common cause. [The letter continued] The unspeakable suffering and the dreadful losses that have befallen the Armenians by reason of their faithfulness to the Allies are now fully known. But I must emphasize the fact unhappily known to few, that ever since the beginning of the war the Armenians fought by the side of the Allies on all fronts.

Boghos Nubarian went on to practically attribute the Entente"s victory in the Middle East entirely to the Armenians. All this was to make the case that Armenia should have been invited to the peace conference as an equal member of the Entente and should be recognized as independent. President Wilson promised to support admission of the Armenian representatives to the conference. As British diplomat Harold Nicolson noted in his diary, the United States was preparing to seek a mandate over Armenia. On January 30, Lloyd George told the Council of Ten that Britain could not maintain its army in Turkey and the South Caucasus "forever" and that the United States should take over Armenia. President Wilson proposed that the Armenians should be invited to present their program for the future Armenia at a meeting of the Council of Ten on February 26.

Among the Armenians, there was a significant difference of opinions concerning territorial claims. The representative of the diaspora, who had close relations with the Catholics, intended to take Cilicia as well. One of the best known of the diaspora representatives, Jean Loris-Melikov, afterward wrote that Sergei Sazonov had inveigled the Armenians to make claims against Cilicia. It is quite possible that Sazonov was thinking that Russia would soon be restored and would occupy Armenia together with Cilicia.76 Nevertheless, the representative of the Republic of Armenia, Khatisian, advised against any mention of Cilicia. It is interesting that a resolution for an independent Armenia submitted by Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge to the Senate included the identical demands for a "Great Armenia" that were submitted by Armenians to the peace conference. At the Council of Ten, Boghos Nubarian had submitted the following territorial claims as agreed between the two Armenian delegations at the peace conference. The demands included some territories where Armenians had never lived:

First: The seven vilayets of Van, Bitlis, Diyarbakir, Harpoot, Sivas, Erzurum, and Trabzon excluding there from the regions situated to the south of Tigris and to the west of the Ordu-Sivas line;

Second: The four Cilician sanjak, i.e.: Marash, Khozan (Sis), Djebel-Berket, and Adana including Alexandretta;

Third: All the territory of the Armenian Republic of the Caucasus, comprising the province of Erivan, the southern part of the former Government of Tiflis, the southwest part of the former Government Elizavetpol, the province of Kars, except the region north of Ardahan.

In addition, the Armenians put forward indemnity claims equal to 19,130,982,000 French francs. As Firuz Kazemzadeh noted, "Fantastic as these figures were, the Armenians hoped to receive the money." The Armenians" territorial claims exceeded anything that had been demanded even by the victorious members of the Entente. Lloyd George stated that the Armenians wished for too much. They demand territories from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea based on the tsarist Armenia that had once existed but, unfortunately, Armenians made up only a small percentage of the population there.

The Dashnaks realized that the Allies were postponing resolution of the Armenian question, and so they decided to use the delay for their benefit. On May 28, 1919, celebrating the first anniversary of independence, they issued a statement on annexation of seven provinces of Turkey to Armenia and the creation of the unitary state of Armenia. This was at a time when Turkey, as a defeated state and could not react properly, and the movement of Mustafa Kemal Pasha was still in its infancy. The May 28 statement suggested that Armenia was being restored entirely, that the Armenian nation was being given complete freedom in a united and independent Armenia, and that all the conditions for its progress were being created. The Armenian nation was depicted as sole owner of a united country, and the parliament of Armenia as a legislative body that expressed the will of all the Armenian people. News of the statement was sent from Erivan to the Armenian representatives in Paris, who thereafter began to work in concert. Zurab Avalov, the representative of the Georgian delegation in Paris, wrote that the Republic of Armenia had moved beyond purely Caucasian policy to enter the Turkish question in the statement on annexation. The same was said by the head of the delegation of the Republic of Armenia at the Paris Peace Conference, Avetis Aharonian, in conversations with Chkheidze and Topchubashov: "You have only limited Caucasian interests, whereas our concerns are to protect the whole Armenian nation, a united Armenia."

In summer 1919, Andranik, who was responsible for atrocities against Muslims in Turkey as well as in Azerbaijan and had been expelled from the territory of Azerbaijan at the insistence of the British command, arrived in France. On June 15, it was received by French President Raymond Poincaré through the mediation of Boghos Nubarian. At the time, the Armenian press in Europe and the United States was attempting to introduce Andranik into society and elite political circles as the "Armenian Garibaldi." At the presidential reception, Andranik expressed his dissatisfaction with the position of the Allies regarding the Garabagh question, reiterating that "Armenians rely on the Allies." He told Poincaré that Armenians had fought with the Entente against Turkey and Germany, for the "sacred cause" of the Allies, with 180,000 Armenian volunteers in the Russian army (However, according to Russian sources, the total number of Armenian volunteer unit in the Russian Caucasian army is no more than 5-6 thousand) and 15,000 in Europe. "We did this to contribute to the great struggle of France and its allies for the establishment of justice." In a telegram, he called on the United States to intervene in the resolution of the "Armenian question": "We are a very ancient nation. Armenians suffered more losses for liberation than any of the other belligerents ... . We hope that our losses given for the Allies will not be in vain."

The representatives of Azerbaijan suffered from the effects of this classic demagogy and manipulation of public opinion. Topchubashov wrote to Baku that "The activities of Armenian intellectuals in the heart of Europe for more than half a century, the enormous financial resources at their disposal, their skills of movement on all fronts and in attracting people to their side, along with their American compatriots, have stirred up wide sympathy for Armenians, especially lately. These great advantages obscure the negative aspects of the Armenians."

Whenever representatives of the Entente powers, under the influence of Armenian propaganda, met with the representatives of Azerbaijan and Georgia, they would advise them to live with the Armenians in conditions of peace. Avetis Aharonian sent the chairman of the peace conference a special letter and a new memorandum on behalf of the two Armenian delegations. The memorandum had also been published in the French Journal de Debats. The letter stated that Russia, by signing the Brest treaty and transferring Gars and Andahan to Turkey, had strained relations and put Armenia in a difficult situation. In order to resolve these issues, Armenia should be allowed to participate in the conference on an equal basis with the newly created states of Poland and Czechoslovakia. The memorandum was primarily directed against Turkey and Azerbaijan, as the Allies were being asked to force Turks and Azerbaijanis to quit all Armenian territories. The great victory in the East had not lasted long, according to the text. Due to efforts to by the proponents of pan-Islamism and pan-Turkism, it said, enemy elements were raising their heads and resuming their activities. It asserted demagogically that Turks and Azerbaijanis could not forgive the Armenian people for sympathizing with the Allies, and so they would savagely attack Armenians to punish them. The intention behind this memorandum was to provoke the Allies. By publishing it in a French magazine, the Armenians were spreading throughout Europe the word that Turks and Tatars rejoiced that the armistice agreement did not change anything in the life of the Armenian people and that "Turkish Armenia" still belonged to its previous owner. This was said by the same organization which a few months earlier had shouted that Armenia would not accept anything except "unconditional liberation".

Armenian representatives in Paris imputed crimes committed in Garabagh by Armenians to Azerbaijanis and thereby attempted to discredit the Azerbaijan Republic and its representatives in Versailles before the representatives of the Allies. In 1919-1920, the British journalist Robert Scotland Liddell wrote from the conflict zone in the Caucasus, Armenia always searches for conflict and when achieved, it names its own agitation an "instrument of pressure" but actually turns it into a proper instrument of punishment. The rule of Dashnaks is the misfortune of Armenia. This terrorist revolutionary organisation has deliberately been inciting Armenians to attack Azerbaijanis for many years. Causing significant damage to Muslims they speak to the whole world about "long-suffering Armenians" and try to get its sympathy. Dead Armenians are very valuable to the Dashnaks. If it is possible to use them properly, then they could bring many benefits to their agitation activities. The government of Armenia used the diversion committed in Garabagh in the summer of 1919 to disgrace Khosrov Bey Sultanov, the Governor General of Garabagh. Their representatives in Paris widely used agitation campaigns proving that Armenians who ostensibly were not protected by the Allies were killed and ousted by Azerbaijanis. Briefly touching this matter, it should be noted that on June 4 and 5, events that occurred in Garabagh had been committed according to a direct plan of the National Council of Armenia. The British command, after finding out about activities of this Council directed to breaching the stability between Armenian and Azerbaijani communities in Garabagh, had promised in April to expel its members from borders of Garabagh. In the beginning of June, it became clear

that the National Council of Armenia had secretly brought arms into the Armenian part of Shusha. They were to block the Azerbaijani population from walking up to the summer pastures in the Zangezur mountains. In this instance, Khosrov Bey Sultanov, to ensure security on the roads where people were traveling from place to place, sent soldiers of the Azerbaijani army to the dangerous places and at the same time arrested the members of the National Council of Armenia and gave an order to exile them from Garabagh. In response, on June 4, armed Armenians opened fire on Azerbaijani soldiers, and three soldiers were killed. After such actions, Sultanov began to act in order to establish law and order in Shusha and neighboring villages and as the first step achieved banishment of the members of the National Council of Armenia from the borders of Azerbaijan. Representatives of the British command escorted by Azerbaijani officers banished the members of the National Council of Armenia from Shusha.106 During skirmishes there were the casualties on both sides. On June 6, peace was achieved in Shusha. In connection with these happenings, Armenians of Shusha wrote a letter of apology to Sultanov and stated,

Dear Khosrov Bey, allow us to apologize to you and in your person to Muslim people of Shusha in connection with the committed act. We are very disturbed by the violence committed against your soldiers by hooligans who named themselves as Armenians, and this rightly caused disturbance to your army and officers.

While local Armenians viewed the June event in such a manner, the government of Armenia and Armenian representatives in Versailles had a completely diferent opinion. The government of Armenia in its note sent to the government of Azerbaijan demanded that Sultanov and the Azerbaijani army withdraw from Garabagh. However, this demand was refused in the response of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan delivered to the government of Erivan via Mammad Khan Tekinski, the diplomatic representative in Armenia. The telegram sent on June 18 said: "Inform the government of Armenia that according to the resolution of the government of Azerbaijan dated January 15, 1919, Sultanov was assigned as Governor General of Shusha, Javanshir and Jabrayil provinces being the integral part of Azerbaijan. On April 3, the Allied command officially recognized this person. Therefore all protests of the government of the Republic of Armenia regarding the activities of Sultanov or the location Azerbaijani army in Garabagh are considered as an attempt to interfere with the internal affairs of Azerbaijan and are not subject to discussion. With respect to a disturbance in the region of Shusha, due to the considered decisions taken by the governor general, law and order is restored and life resumes its normal course.

In order to prove the groundlessness of the agitation campaign started by the government of Armenia against Sultanov in connection with the events in Shusha, a parliamentary committee was set up to investigate his activities, and it became clear that Sultanov was not a guilty party in the event. Armenians committed this diversion to discredit Sultanov before the British command.109 In general, the government of Azerbaijan held that in order to study the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, an international investigation committee should be set up. This question had also been raised by representatives of Azerbaijan in Paris. To this end, the government of Azerbaijan applied to the government of Armenia. Though Armenians at first gave their consent to the setting up of the international investigation committee, they later disclaimed this idea on various pretexts.110 Nevertheless, due to the decisive position and purposeful policy of the government of Azerbaijan in summer of 1919, the sovereign rights of the republic were restored in Garabagh. A report sent to the representatives in Paris stated, "The Garabagh question had been solved once and for all ... . At the Armenian congress the representatives of Garabagh Armenians concluded an agreement on recognizing the power of the government of Azerbaijan with Governor General Khosrov Bey Sultanov." In general, Sulatnov performed great services toward the restoration of sovereign rights of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Upper Garabagh, in Zangezur, and in other places included in the plans of Armenians. It was no mere chance that Armenians had been carrying out strong agitation against him not only in the South Caucasus but in Europe and the United States. At that same time, the Molokan revolt in Mughan and Lenkaran organized against the national government was also quelled. The foreign minister of Azerbaijan sent a telegram to Topchubashov about both events. In the telegram presented to the chairman of the conference by Topchubashov, it was indicated that the city of Lenkaran and the province of Lenkaran is cleared of Bolsheviks and the power of the government of Azerbaijan has been restored. The representatives of the Armenian population of Garabagh have accepted a resolution on submission of this population to the government of Azerbaijan.