Latest / The Story of Armenia: Survival Through Empires and Genocide — Fexingo History / The Third Republic: Armenia's 1918 Founding Gamble
Transcript
- Lucas: So last time we talked about the desperate retreat through the Caucasus in 1918, but I want to zoom in on what happened right after that — because out of that chaos, the first independent Armenian state in centuries was born. And it almost didn't happen. Luna: The First Republic, right? 1918. Lucas: Exactly. May 28, 1918. But the lead-up was insane. By early 1918, the Russian Empire had collapsed, the Transcaucasian Federation — this short-lived union of Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan — was falling apart, and the Ottoman army under Vehib Pasha was pushing east toward Yerevan. Armenia had no army, no money, no government. Just a council in Tiflis and a lot of refugees. Luna: So who was actually calling the shots? Lucas: That's the crazy part. The Armenian National Council in Tiflis was mostly intellectuals — lawyers, writers, Dashnak party leaders. They were debating declarations while Ottoman troops were literally days away. The military leadership fell to a few unlikely figures. One of them was Aram Manukian — a Dashnak revolutionary who'd been a fedayee commander. He was in Yerevan, not Tiflis, and he basically took charge by force of personality. Luna: I've heard he was pretty rough around the edges. Lucas: Oh, absolutely. Manukian was legendary for his drinking and his temper. But he was also incredibly effective. When the Armenian National Council dithered, Manukian sent them a telegram that basically said: 'We're declaring independence whether you like it or not.' And he wasn't bluffing. He had organized the defense of Yerevan with barely 4,000 men, many of them refugees and fedayees. Lucas: The Ottomans, meanwhile, were aiming for Baku. They wanted the oil fields. But they had to go through Armenian territory. So Vehib Pasha launched an offensive in May 1918 with three columns. One headed for Sardarabad, one for Bash Abaran, and one for Karakilisa. And those three battles became the hinge on which Armenian independence turned. Luna: That's the subject of a previous episode, but maybe recap briefly? Lucas: Sure. At Sardarabad, the main Armenian force — maybe 9,000 men under General Movses Silikyan — fought a brutal battle against a larger Ottoman force. The Armenians actually won, which stunned everyone. At Bash Abaran, a smaller Armenian detachment held the pass against another Ottoman column. And at Karakilisa, Armenian forces fought a delaying action that bought time. All three victories were against the odds. Lucas: But here's the thing — those victories weren't decisive in a military sense. The Ottomans still had overwhelming strength. What they did was create a political window. The Armenian National Council, still in Tiflis, realized that if they didn't declare independence now, they'd have nothing to negotiate with. So on May 28, 1918, they issued a declaration — the Armenian Republic was born. Luna: And then immediately had to sign a treaty with the Ottomans, right? Lucas: Yeah, the Treaty of Batum, signed on June 4. It was essentially a surrender. Armenia had to accept reduced borders — basically a tiny territory around Yerevan and Lake Sevan. They lost Kars, Ardahan, Nakhichevan, most of what is today eastern Turkey. The republic was a rump state, maybe 12,000 square kilometers, with a population of about 800,000, half of them refugees. Luna: Yeah. It helps keep these episodes ad-free and lets us keep digging into stories that don't get told elsewhere. Lucas: So back to 1918. The republic's survival seemed impossible. It had no currency, no army beyond a few thousand irregulars, and a flood of refugees from the genocide who were starving and sick. Yerevan itself was a dusty provincial town of maybe 30,000, with no water system, no electricity, and a typhus epidemic. Luna: How did they even feed people? Lucas: They didn't, really. Famine was widespread. The American relief effort, the Near East Relief, managed to get some food in, but it wasn't enough. Manukian, who became the de facto leader, was known to walk the streets of Yerevan personally, begging wealthy merchants for loans to buy grain. He died of typhus in 1919, probably from exhaustion. His funeral was one of the largest Yerevan had ever seen. Luna: So the republic was basically a humanitarian crisis with a flag. Lucas: Pretty much. But it also had something else — a fierce determination to exist. The Dashnak government, for all its flaws, managed to hold elections, set up a parliament, and even start building national institutions. They established a university in Yerevan in 1919. They tried to create an army. And they fought a war with Georgia over the Lori district, and with Azerbaijan over Zangezur and Nagorno-Karabakh. Luna: Wait — they fought Georgia? I thought they were allies. Lucas: For a while, yes. But after the Transcaucasian Federation dissolved, each state looked out for its own interests. Georgia wanted to control the railway through Lori to connect with the Armenians in Tiflis — but the Armenians wanted Lori for themselves. There was actually a brief war in December 1918, mediated by the British. It ended with a buffer zone, but it showed how fragile the alliances were. Lucas: And then there was the Ottoman surrender in October 1918. After Mudros, the Ottomans withdrew from much of the Caucasus. The Armenians saw their chance — they annexed Kars and Ardahan, and even pushed into Nakhichevan. By 1919, the republic had grown to about 70,000 square kilometers. But it was still surrounded by enemies: the remnants of the Ottoman Empire, the Azerbaijani forces, and the rising threat of Turkish nationalists under Mustafa Kemal. Luna: So the republic was expanding, but also overextending? Lucas: Exactly. And it didn't help that the Allied Powers — Britain, France, the US — had no coherent policy on the Caucasus. The British briefly occupied parts of the region but then withdrew. The US never recognized the republic. Woodrow Wilson drew a map for a proposed Armenian state that included Trebizond and Erzurum, but it was just a line on paper. There was no army to enforce it. Luna: And the Armenians had no allies they could count on. Lucas: Right. The Russian Whites, the Bolsheviks, the British, the French — none were reliable. So when the Turkish nationalists under Kemal began their offensive in 1920, the republic was on its own. The war with Turkey in the fall of 1920 was a disaster. The Armenians were outnumbered and outgunned. By December, the Bolsheviks had invaded from the north, and the republic collapsed. Luna: So it lasted barely two and a half years. Lucas: Yes. But it left a legacy. The First Republic proved that Armenians could govern themselves. It established institutions that the Soviet republic later inherited. And it created a national identity centered on statehood, not just survival. For many Armenians, the memory of that short-lived independence became a beacon — something to fight for again in 1991. Luna: It's remarkable that they even tried, given the odds. Lucas: It really is. And it raises a question: was it worth it? The republic ended in defeat and Sovietization. But without it, would the idea of an independent Armenia have survived? Probably not. So maybe the gamble was necessary, even if it failed. Luna: I'd like to learn more about Aram Manukian — he seems like a fascinating figure. Lucas: He is. We could do a whole episode on him. For now, let's just say he was the right man at the right moment — flawed, brilliant, and utterly devoted to his people.