Latest / The Story of Armenia: Survival Through Empires and Genocide — Fexingo History / Armenia's First Republic: The Battle for Independence
Transcript
- Lucas: By May 1918, the map of the Caucasus was dissolving. The Russian Empire had collapsed under the weight of revolution, leaving the Transcaucasian Commissariat—a fragile coalition of Armenians, Georgians, and Azerbaijanis—completely isolated between the crumbling Russian lines behind them and the advancing Ottoman Fifth Army ahead. Lucas: The Ottomans, having just won a crushing victory at Bash Abaran, were pushing hard toward Yerevan. They weren't just fighting a military force; they were pursuing a remnant population that had already survived one attempt at extermination during the deportations of 1915. Luna: It feels like the ground was literally shaking beneath their feet. Lucas: It was. On May 28th, the Transcaucasian Commissariat dissolved itself. In its place, three nations declared independence: Georgia, Azerbaijan, and the Democratic Republic of Armenia. But declarations don't stop bullets, and this new Armenian state had almost no army left. Lucas: What remained were scattered detachments of Dashnaktsutyun volunteers, refugees from the genocide who had fled Musa Dagh and the Syrian desert, and a few units of the old Imperial Russian army that hadn't dispersed. They were outnumbered, outgunned, and exhausted. Luna: So how did you organize an army out of refugees? Lucas: You didn't really have time to organize properly. The primary figure who stepped into the vacuum was Aram Manukian, a legendary revolutionary leader who had been imprisoned in the fortresses of Van and Sivas. He returned to Yerevan with a mandate that was essentially impossible: defend the capital against the entire Fifth Army. Lucas: Manukian didn't have barracks or supply depots. He turned government buildings into hospitals and armories. He requisitioned every available rifle, even pulling weapons from civilians who had kept them hidden for years. His strategy wasn't about holding territory in depth; it was about creating a wall of resistance at any cost. Luna: Did he have any conventional military training? Lucas: Very little, which is why he relied heavily on two men who actually had experience: Tovmas Nazarbekian, a former Russian officer, and Gevorg Chavush, a partisan leader who knew the mountain terrain intimately. Together, they tried to coordinate a defense along the Arpa River. Lucas: But the Ottomans were relentless. Their commander, Khalil Pasha, was aggressive and confident. He believed the Armenians were too broken to offer serious resistance. He pushed his troops forward, expecting a quick rout rather than a fight. Luna: That confidence probably became their biggest mistake. Lucas: Exactly. And that brings us to the battle that changed everything: Sardarabad. Located just thirty kilometers southeast of Yerevan, it was the last natural barrier before the capital fell open. If Sardarabad broke, Yerevan would be occupied within days. Lucas: The Armenian forces there were a motley collection. You had students from Yerevan, priests, shopkeepers, and refugees who had walked hundreds of miles through snow and starvation. They lacked artillery, they lacked heavy machine guns, and many were carrying outdated hunting rifles. Luna: It sounds less like a battle and more like a last stand. Lucas: It was. For five days, from May 21st to 25th, 1918, the Armenians held the line. Gevorg Chavush led charges that were suicidal but effective, using bayonets and whatever explosives they could find. They fought house to house in the villages surrounding the river crossing. Lucas: The Ottoman casualties were surprisingly high because the Armenians refused to retreat. Every meter of ground was bought with blood. By the fifth day, the Ottoman advance had stalled completely. Khalil Pasha realized he couldn't break through without reinforcing his lines, which he couldn't spare. Luna: So they stopped the advance, but what about the rest of the front? Lucas: While Sardarabad held, other parts of the front were collapsing. Further east, near Kara Kilise, another Armenian detachment led by Drastamat Kanayan—known as Dro—managed to hold off the Ottoman Sixth Army. But further south, the situation was dire. Lucas: Meanwhile, in Yerevan, Simon Vratsian was working a different kind of war. As the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, he was managing the influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees pouring into the city. Food was scarce, disease was rampant, and panic was setting in. Luna: He was trying to keep society from imploding while the army was fighting. Lucas: Precisely. Vratsian organized bread lines, set up field kitchens, and coordinated with women’s groups like the one led by Anahit Aznavour to care for the wounded and displaced. He was essentially governing a humanitarian crisis while the guns were firing just outside the city limits. Lucas: And then, on May 28th, just as the fighting at Sardarabad reached its peak, news arrived that stunned everyone. The Ottoman Empire had signed an armistice with the British in Mudros. The war in the Middle East was effectively over. Luna: Wait, so the battle ended because of a treaty elsewhere? Lucas: Not immediately, but the political pressure shifted instantly. The Ottomans wanted to secure their gains before the ceasefire took full effect. This led to the negotiations at Batum, where the Armenian delegation, including Vratsian and Manukian, met with Ottoman diplomats. Lucas: The terms were brutal. The Ottomans demanded the return of territories lost to Russia in 1878, including Kars, Ardahan, and Batum. They also wanted a railway corridor through Georgian territory to connect to Erzurum. It was a demand for economic strangulation. Luna: They were trying to cripple the new state before it even got started. Lucas: They were. The Armenians resisted, arguing that the border should follow the 1914 Russo-Turkish frontier. But they had no leverage. Without the Russian ally gone, and with the British far away in Mesopotamia, they were alone. Lucas: The resulting Treaty of Batum, signed in June, forced Armenia to give up nearly half of its claimed territory. But critically, it recognized the sovereignty of the Democratic Republic of Armenia. That recognition, however fragile, was a lifeline. Luna: Survival, but at a huge territorial cost. Lucas: It was a bitter pill. Many citizens felt betrayed by the loss of land. But Aram Manukian understood that the alternative was occupation or dissolution. He knew that once the Central Powers defeated the Ottomans later in the year, those borders might shift again anyway. Lucas: And indeed, by October 1918, the Ottoman Empire surrendered completely. The Armistice of Mudros stripped them of all their recent gains. The borders defined at Batum became the basis for the post-war settlement, though the region remained volatile for years. Luna: It must have been a strange feeling, being free but surrounded by enemies. Lucas: It was a precarious freedom. The First Republic lasted only until 1920, when it was invaded by Soviet Russia and absorbed into the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. But the legacy of 1918 remains profound. Lucas: The Battle of Sardarabad proved that the Armenian people could still defend themselves. It gave them a state, a flag, and a seat at the Paris Peace Conference. For a generation that had been told they were doomed, it was proof of life. Luna: A fragile state, but a real one. Lucas: Real enough to endure in memory, even if the political entity didn't last. Today, the statue of the Mother Armenia overlooks Yerevan, but it is the images from Sardarabad—the ragged soldiers, the desperate civilians—that remind us of what was almost lost. Luna: I'm glad they held the line. Lucas: So are we. If today helped you understand this pivotal moment in history, consider supporting the show directly. Your contributions keep these deep dives ad-free and allow us to continue researching these overlooked stories. You can support us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Thanks for keeping the history alive. Lucas: We'll see where the next chapter takes us. Until then, keep looking back to move forward.