Latest / The Story of Armenia: Survival Through Empires and Genocide — Fexingo History / The First Armenian Republic: A Brief Dawn, 1918-1920
Transcript
- Lucas: You know, we've talked a lot about the genocide, the massacres, the deportations. But there's this other story that often gets overshadowed — the fact that right in the middle of that catastrophe, Armenians managed to carve out their own independent state for the first time in centuries. Luna: Wait, after the genocide? How did they even have the strength for that? Lucas: That's exactly the question. And the answer is almost impossible to believe. By 1918, the Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire had been decimated, but in the Russian Caucasus, there was still a sizable Armenian community — centered in Tiflis, what's now Tbilisi, and in the region around Yerevan. And when the Russian Empire collapsed in revolution, they suddenly had to fend for themselves. Lucas: So you had these Armenian leaders who were part of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, the Dashnaktsutyun, who had been working for decades for some form of autonomy. And now, with both the Ottoman and Russian empires in chaos, they saw a window. But it wasn't a wide window — it was more like a crack in a collapsing wall. Luna: What was the first move? Did they just declare independence? Lucas: Not quite. The first real step was actually military. In May 1918, the Ottoman army was advancing into the Caucasus, and they were heading straight for Yerevan. The Armenians had a small, ragged force, but they made a stand at a place called Sardarabad — and against all odds, they won. That victory is seen as the moment that saved the Armenian nation, because if the Turks had taken Yerevan, there might have been nothing left. Lucas: On May 28, just a few days after that battle, the Armenian National Council in Tiflis declared independence. It was a desperate act — they had no capital, no real army, no economy, just a piece of land that was mostly mountains and refugees. But they had a flag, a name, and a will to survive. Luna: Aram Manukian — he's the one who's often called the 'father of the republic,' right? What was he like? Lucas: Aram Manukian was this remarkable figure — a revolutionary who had been in the thick of things since the 1890s. He was pragmatic, tough, and completely devoted to the cause. He basically ran Yerevan as a self-taught administrator, organizing food distribution, digging wells, and trying to keep the peace. Without him, the republic might have collapsed in its first month. Lucas: But here's the thing — the republic's borders were tiny. It was mostly the area around Yerevan, with a population of maybe a million people, half of them refugees from the genocide. They had no natural resources, no industry, no real trade routes. And yet they managed to set up a functioning government, a postal system, schools, even a national theater. Luna: That's incredible. How did they keep it together with so little? Lucas: A big part of it was international aid, especially from the Near East Relief, which brought in food and medicine. But also just sheer grit — the people had been through so much that they were willing to work for pennies. And they had a clear enemy: the Ottomans had been defeated, but they still had claims on the region. So the Armenians were defending their homeland, literally inch by inch. Lucas: One of the republic's biggest challenges was that it didn't have a port. It was landlocked, and the only way to get supplies was through Georgia or Iran. And Georgia — which was also independent at the time — wasn't always friendly. There was even a short war between Armenia and Georgia in December 1918 over the district of Lori, which both claimed. It was settled with a British intervention, but it left bad blood. Luna: So it wasn't just the Turks — they were fighting with their neighbors too. Lucas: Exactly. They were surrounded by enemies or, at best, unreliable friends. And then in 1920, the situation got even more complicated. The Ottoman government signed the Treaty of Sèvres, which was supposed to give Armenia a large chunk of eastern Anatolia, including the old Armenian provinces. It was a diplomatic dream — the borders of Greater Armenia. But it was never enforced, because the Turkish nationalists under Mustafa Kemal rejected it, and the British and French didn't want to fight for it. Luna: So that treaty was basically a paper promise. Lucas: Worse than that — it gave the Armenians false hope. They thought they were going to get this huge territory, and they started to plan for it. But the reality was that the Turkish army was actually pushing the other way, invading the republic from the west. And at the same time, the Bolsheviks were moving in from the east. The republic was caught in a vice. Lucas: Now, there's a real debate among historians about what the Dashnak leaders should have done. Some say they should have made a deal with the Bolsheviks earlier, because the Bolsheviks eventually took over anyway. Others say they had no choice but to fight, because the Bolsheviks were not going to preserve Armenian independence — they just wanted to Sovietize the whole region. Lucas: In the end, it was a combination of Turkish invasion and Soviet pressure that did it. In November 1920, the Armenian government signed the Treaty of Alexandropol with Turkey, which basically gave away most of what it had. And then the Red Army marched in. On December 2, the Armenian Revolutionary Committee declared Armenia a Soviet republic. The First Republic lasted exactly two and a half years. Luna: It's heartbreaking. They had so little time. Lucas: And yet, in that short time, they left an imprint. They established the borders that, with some changes, became the basis for the modern Armenian Republic. They created a national identity that was tied to that flag and anthem. And they proved to the world that Armenians could govern themselves — even if the world didn't care enough to help them do it. Lucas: There's a story that when the Red Army entered Yerevan, a lot of the Dashnak leaders fled. But some stayed, and they were eventually arrested or went into exile. One of the last prime ministers, Alexander Khatisian, went to Paris and spent the rest of his life lobbying for the Armenian cause. He never gave up. Luna: That's so like the rest of Armenian history — a brief moment of hope, and then the world moves on. Lucas: Before we go on, I want to say something about this show. We're able to do these deep dives because of listeners like you, honestly. A couple of dollars a month — that's what keeps the lights on, keeps us ad-free, and lets us spend hours in archives. If you've gotten something out of these episodes, maybe think about buying me a coffee at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It really does make a difference. Luna: Yeah, and it's not about big companies — it's just people who love history chipping in. We really appreciate it. Lucas: So anyway, back to the story. The Soviet period would last for seventy years, and for a long time, the memory of the first republic was suppressed. But it never really died. In 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, Armenians voted for independence again — and they chose the same flag, the same anthem, and the same day of celebration, May 28. The First Republic became a symbol of resilience that outlasted its own dissolution. Luna: So in a way, the republic didn't fully die — it just went into hibernation for seventy years. Lucas: Exactly. And that's what I find so powerful. The idea of being a sovereign nation — it's not just about borders or governments. It's about a people's belief in their own right to exist, in their own terms. The first republic was a seed that was buried, but it had the DNA of everything that came after. Lucas: Even today, when you talk to Armenians about the first republic, it's not just history — it's a point of pride. It's proof that they're not just victims. They had their own state, and they tried to build something, even if the world didn't let them finish. Luna: And that's a good note to end on, I think. Thanks for telling this story, Lucas. Lucas: Thanks for listening. And if you want to go deeper, there's so much more to explore — like the role of the Armenian church, or the stories of individual refugees who made it to the republic. But that's for another time.