Latest / The Story of Armenia: Survival Through Empires and Genocide — Fexingo History / Sardarabad 1918: How Armenia Stopped the Turks
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Armenia's deep history — medieval kingdoms, Persian empires, the genocide. But there's one moment that's almost like a last stand, and it happened surprisingly recently: May 1918, at a plain called Sardarabad, just west of Yerevan. Luna: I've heard the name but I don't actually know what happened there. Lucas: It's a battle that saved the Armenian state before it even properly existed. By spring 1918, the Ottoman Empire had broken through the Caucasus front after Russia's collapse. They'd already committed genocide against Armenians in 1915 — about a million and a half dead — and now they were marching toward what little remained: the area around Yerevan, where maybe 700,000 refugees had gathered. Lucas: The First Republic of Armenia had been declared just a few weeks earlier, on May 28, but it had no army, no money, and no borders. It was basically a committee in a hotel room in Tiflis. Luna: So who actually fought? Lucas: That's the incredible part. The Ottoman Third Army, under Vehip Pasha, had about 15,000 battle-hardened troops. The Armenians could scrape together maybe 4,000 fighters — most of them volunteers, refugees, even priests from Etchmiadzin. They had a handful of artillery pieces and a lot of old rifles. But they had a commander, General Movses Silikyan, who was a veteran of the Russian Imperial Army, and a civilian leader in Yerevan named Aram Manukian — the same guy we mentioned in the First Republic episode. Manukian basically took charge of the city, organized supplies, and told people: we either stop them here or there's no Armenia. Luna: And the battle itself — how long did it last? Lucas: Three days, from May 21 to May 23, 1918. The Ottomans attacked along two axes: one toward Sardarabad, a village about 30 kilometers west of Yerevan, and another toward Karakilisa up north. Silikyan put his main force at Sardarabad because that was the shortest route to Yerevan. The fighting was brutal — close quarters, bayonets, artillery duels. On the first day, the Ottomans pushed hard and almost broke through. But on the second day, Armenian reinforcements arrived — some from the city, some from nearby villages — and they counterattacked. Lucas: One key moment was when the Armenian artillery, under Colonel Korganian, managed to knock out an Ottoman battery. That gave the infantry a chance to charge. And they did — led by officers like Captain Gharibjanian, who died leading a bayonet charge. By the third day, the Ottomans were in retreat. They'd lost maybe 5,000 men, and the Armenians had lost around 1,500. Luna: That's staggering — that they held with such a small force. Lucas: Absolutely. And the psychological impact was huge. The battle became a symbol that Armenians could defend themselves. But here's the twist: even while they were winning at Sardarabad, the Armenian political leadership in Tiflis was signing the Treaty of Batum with the Ottomans, giving away huge chunks of territory — including Kars and Alexandropol. So the victory at Sardarabad actually saved just a rump state around Yerevan. Luna: Wait, so they fought and won, but their politicians gave away land anyway? Lucas: Exactly. The treaty was signed on June 4, barely two weeks after the battle. The Ottomans had been beaten on the battlefield, but the Armenian delegation in Batum — led by people like Hovhannes Katchaznouni — had no leverage diplomatically. They thought the Ottomans could still take Yerevan if they regrouped. So they accepted a border that left Armenia with only about 12,000 square kilometers — a tiny fraction of historic Armenia. But that little state did survive, and eventually expanded after the Ottoman collapse in October 1918. Lucas: This is a good moment to mention something about how we do this show. We deliberately don't run ads. No sponsors, no commercials. If you appreciate that and want to help keep it that way, there's a simple way to support us: buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure at all — just if the show matters to you. Now back to Sardarabad. Luna: Yeah, I think that independence from ads really lets us go deep on these stories. Lucas: So after the battle, Sardarabad became a kind of national shrine. A memorial complex was built there in the 1960s, with a beautiful arch and an eternal flame. But for decades under Soviet rule, the story was suppressed — because the Soviet narrative didn't want to celebrate an independent Armenian victory. It was only after 1991 that it became a major commemorative site again. Luna: And the commander, Movses Silikyan — what happened to him? Lucas: Silikyan served in the First Republic's army and later — when the Soviets took over in 1920 — he was arrested and executed by the Bolsheviks in 1937 during the Great Purge. Many of the heroes of Sardarabad were killed or exiled by Stalin. Aram Manukian died of typhus in 1919, just a year after the battle, so he didn't live to see the Soviet takeover. Lucas: So Sardarabad is this strange, bittersweet victory. It literally gave Armenia a chance to exist as a modern state — even if only for two and a half years before Sovietization. And the irony is that the current border of Armenia is essentially the one that was drawn after Sardarabad and the Treaty of Batum. Mount Ararat, the national symbol, sits just across the border in Turkey — visible from Yerevan but inaccessible. Luna: That's really poignant — fighting so hard and still losing so much. Lucas: Yeah. But the fact that Armenia exists at all today, as a sovereign state with its own language and culture — that traces directly back to those three days in May 1918. Without Sardarabad, there would have been no First Republic, no Soviet Armenia, and probably no independent Armenia in 1991. It's one of those hinge points in history that doesn't get enough attention outside the region. Luna: I've never heard it told with that level of detail. Thanks. Lucas: My pleasure. And if you want to explore more, there's a great book by Richard Hovannisian called 'The Republic of Armenia, Volume 1' that covers this period in depth. The battle itself is also the subject of a famous poem by Hovhannes Tumanyan — which we talked about in an earlier episode — called 'The Song of the Motherland'. Luna: I'll have to look that up. So after the Ottoman collapse, did Armenia expand back? Lucas: Yes, briefly. In late 1918, after the Armistice of Mudros, the Armenian army moved into Kars and Alexandropol, reclaiming some territory. But then came the war with Turkey under Mustafa Kemal — and by 1920, Armenia was crushed again. The Treaty of Alexandropol in 1920 gave back most of what they'd gained. And then the Soviet invasion in December of that year ended the First Republic for good. Luna: So Sardarabad was a victory that bought time, but not survival. Lucas: Exactly. It bought just enough time for a state to exist, for a generation to grow up with a sense of national self-determination. And when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, that memory of the First Republic — and Sardarabad — became the foundation for the new Armenia. So in a way, the battle echoes across the entire 20th century. Luna: That's a powerful legacy for three days of fighting. Lucas: It really is. And it's a reminder that history isn't just about empires and kings — sometimes it's about a few thousand desperate people who decide they'd rather die standing than live on their knees.