Tweet
Re: Political prisoners in Armenia
Haykakan: Did you know 90 percent of weapons used in Artsakh were taken from the Azeris? You guys need to read this………….the truth in my book.
Why Armenia should be free:
By HAIG HAROUTIUNIAN 1918
...........In 1914 both Turkey and Russia appealed to the Armenians by vari-
ous promises of a future autonomous Armenia to secure their assistance
in their respective military operations. Through their long and bitter
experience the Armenians knew very well that the imperialistic govern-
ments of both Turkey and of Russia were opposed to their national as-
pirations and therefore those promises had no value whatever. But,
realizing the universal significance of the present war, and considering
the fact that justice was on the side of the Entente, the Armenians, in
spite of their distrust of the Russian government, from the very begin-
ning, unreservedly bound themselves to the allied cause.
This decision of the Armenians cost them the sacrifice of more than
1,000,000 men in Turkish Armenia, and complete devastation of their
native land even in the first year of the war.
In spite of this terrible blow, the Armenians did not lose their vigor,
and, even though the autocratic Russian government, up to the time of
the Revolution, created all sorts of obstacles to impede their activities,
they still continued their assistance to the allied cause. In bringing about
the failure of the three Turkish offensives in 1914 and 1915 the Arme-
nians gave the allied cause important armed assistance, on both sides of
the Turco-Russian frontier.
After the Russian Revolution, when, the Russian military forces fled
from the Caucasian front and left it unprotected from January, 1918,
to the middle of the following September, the Armenians were the only
people who resisted and delayed the Turco-German advance toward
Baku. Moreover, the Armenians accomplished all this with their own
forces, all alone, surrounded on all sides by hostile elements, without
any means of communication with their great Allies of the West. As an
evidence of this we may mention the fact that during the last eight
CONCLUSION 43
months and a half the Armenians have received from the Allies only
6,500,000 rubles ($3,250,000) of financial assistance, and the 2,800
British soldiers who were too few and arrived too late to save Baku.
Let us now look at the other side of the picture.
Had the Armenians assumed an entirely opposite attitude from what
they actually did ; in other words, had they bound their fate in 1914 to
the Turco-German cause, just as the Bulgarians did in 1915, what would
have been the trend of events in the Near East ? Here is a question to
which, it is quite possible, our great Allies have had no time to give any
consideration. But that very question was put before the Armenians
in 1914, and with no light heart did they answer it by their decision to
join the Allies. Each and every one of them had a clear presentiment of
the terrible responsibility they assumed. Those millions of corpses of
Armenian women and children which spotted the plains in the summer
of 1915, rose like phantoms before our very eyes in the August of 1914
when we decided to resist the wild Turkish revengefulness and its
frightful outcome. Now, in October, 1918, when we are so close to
the hour of the final victory, and feel quite safe and certain that the
heavy and gloomy days of the summer of 1914 will never return, I
shall permit myself to picture in a few words, before I finish, that which
would have taken place if the Armenians had sided with the Germano-
Turks in the Near East from the beginning of the war.
First of all, those frightful Armenian massacres would not have taken
place. On the contrary, the Turks and the Germans would have tried
to win the sympathy of the Armenians in every possible way until the
end of the war.
On the other hand, so long as the Georgians and Tartars of the
Caucasian peoples were only too eager to co-operate with the Germano-
Turks, as the events of 1918 fully demonstrate, had the Armenians like-
wise joined them in 1914, by cutting the railroads, the backbone of the
Caucasian Russian army, all the Caucasian country would have slipped
out of the hands of the Russians in a few weeks, and the Turco-Ger-
mans would have reached Baku in the autumn of the same year. The
Armenians, Georgians, and Tartars of the Caucasus, united, would have
been able to form with the greatest ease an army of 700,000 men, by
which they would have been able to defend the Caucasian mountain-
ridge against the Russians. Meanwhile, the entire Turkish army wonM
44 WHY ARMENIA SHOULD BE FREE
have been available to advance immediately toward the interior of Asia
and join the 18,000,000 Moslems of Asiatic Russia. We may safely say,
neither Persia nor Afghanistan could have remained neutral on seeing
such successful achievements by the Turks.
In the course of such events Russia would have been compelled to
remove the greater portion of her forces to the East and would not
have been able to protect her Western frontiers as successfully as she
did. Therefore, quite probably, the Russian collapse would have taken
place in the summer of 1915, when the Germans occupied Russian
Poland. On the other hand, Great Britain would have been obliged to
appropriate the greater portion of her newly-formed land forces for
the protection of India, and would have been unable to rush as great a
force to the defence of heroic France as she actually did. Quite likely,
under these conditions, neither Italy nor Roumania would have aban-
doned her neutrality, and thus the war might have ended in 1915 or
1916 with the victory of the central Powers, at least on land.
It was as clear as day to the Armenians that a Germane-Turkish vic-
tory could never satisfy their national aspirations. The most that those
nations would have done for us would have been to grant nominal rights
to the Armenia of their own choice. But it was very plain to us also
that we should not have suffered such frightful human losses had we not
sided with the Allies. We consciously chose this last alternative,
namely : we tied our fate to the allied victory ; we exposed our very exist-
ence to danger in order to realize the complete fulfillment of our na-
tional ambition, that is, to see the re-establishment of the United His-
toric Independent Armenia.
With our modest means, we have fulfilled our duty in full measure in
this great struggle in order to save civilization from an impending
doom. Now it is for our great Allies to act.
The day is not very far distant when, gathered around the great
tribunal of justice, the representatives of 2 11 the nations of the
globe guilty or just are to receive their punishment or reward from
the hands of the four distinguished champions of democracy, President
Wilson, Premiers Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau, and Orlando. If the
representatives present themselves in the order of seniority, the first in
the rank will be the representative of the Armenian people the aged
lother Armenia. Behold! Into the Peace Congress Hall there enters
CONCLUSION 45
an old woman, bathed in blood, clothed in rags, her face covered with
wrinkles 3,000 years old, and completely exhausted. With her thought-
ful eyes the venerable Mother Armenia will survey the countenances of
all those present, and thus will she address the great figures of the
world :
"Century after century my sons took part in all the strifes waged to
safeguard justice and the freedom of suffering humanity. Three thou-
sand years ago my sons struggled for seven hundred years against the
despotism of Babylon and Nineveh, which eventually collapsed under the
load of their own crimes. Fifteen centuries ago the Armenians resisted
for five hundred years the persecutions of the mighty Persian Empire
to preserve their Christian faith. Since the eighth century my sons
have been the vanguard of Christian civilization in the East against
Moslem invasions threatening for a while the very existence of all
Europe. If you doubt my statements, ask the sacred mountain of
Ararat; he will relate to you how all the nations and empires, which
attempted to possess by criminal means the indisputable inheritance of
my sons, have received their just punishment.
"Let us not go very far. Here, before you, stand the representatives
of those three nations which tried to destroy my sons before your very
eyes, in order to rule those parts of our ancestral lands, so sanctified
by blood, known as Armenia. Look at this Turk ; it was he who wished
to wipe the very name of Armenia off the face of the map; but today,
foiled in his attempt, he stands there like a criminal awaiting his sen-
tence. And where is today the Czar of Russia, who planned to occupy
Armenia without the Armenians, the representative of that Empire
before which the world trembled. And what has remained of the policies
of the German Empire, in whose hands is the Bagdad railroad now,
built at the cost of the blood of hundreds of thousands of Armenian
women and children? Thus, those three modern malevolent empires,
which tried to attain happiness through the blood of my sons, have re-
ceived their just punishment.
"Such will be the fate in the future of all those who shall attempt
similar crimes against Armenia. This is the message, gentlemen,
handed down to us through three thousand years of history.
"I have nothing more to add. I await your verdict with confidence/'
Haykakan: Did you know 90 percent of weapons used in Artsakh were taken from the Azeris? You guys need to read this………….the truth in my book.
Why Armenia should be free:
By HAIG HAROUTIUNIAN 1918
...........In 1914 both Turkey and Russia appealed to the Armenians by vari-
ous promises of a future autonomous Armenia to secure their assistance
in their respective military operations. Through their long and bitter
experience the Armenians knew very well that the imperialistic govern-
ments of both Turkey and of Russia were opposed to their national as-
pirations and therefore those promises had no value whatever. But,
realizing the universal significance of the present war, and considering
the fact that justice was on the side of the Entente, the Armenians, in
spite of their distrust of the Russian government, from the very begin-
ning, unreservedly bound themselves to the allied cause.
This decision of the Armenians cost them the sacrifice of more than
1,000,000 men in Turkish Armenia, and complete devastation of their
native land even in the first year of the war.
In spite of this terrible blow, the Armenians did not lose their vigor,
and, even though the autocratic Russian government, up to the time of
the Revolution, created all sorts of obstacles to impede their activities,
they still continued their assistance to the allied cause. In bringing about
the failure of the three Turkish offensives in 1914 and 1915 the Arme-
nians gave the allied cause important armed assistance, on both sides of
the Turco-Russian frontier.
After the Russian Revolution, when, the Russian military forces fled
from the Caucasian front and left it unprotected from January, 1918,
to the middle of the following September, the Armenians were the only
people who resisted and delayed the Turco-German advance toward
Baku. Moreover, the Armenians accomplished all this with their own
forces, all alone, surrounded on all sides by hostile elements, without
any means of communication with their great Allies of the West. As an
evidence of this we may mention the fact that during the last eight
CONCLUSION 43
months and a half the Armenians have received from the Allies only
6,500,000 rubles ($3,250,000) of financial assistance, and the 2,800
British soldiers who were too few and arrived too late to save Baku.
Let us now look at the other side of the picture.
Had the Armenians assumed an entirely opposite attitude from what
they actually did ; in other words, had they bound their fate in 1914 to
the Turco-German cause, just as the Bulgarians did in 1915, what would
have been the trend of events in the Near East ? Here is a question to
which, it is quite possible, our great Allies have had no time to give any
consideration. But that very question was put before the Armenians
in 1914, and with no light heart did they answer it by their decision to
join the Allies. Each and every one of them had a clear presentiment of
the terrible responsibility they assumed. Those millions of corpses of
Armenian women and children which spotted the plains in the summer
of 1915, rose like phantoms before our very eyes in the August of 1914
when we decided to resist the wild Turkish revengefulness and its
frightful outcome. Now, in October, 1918, when we are so close to
the hour of the final victory, and feel quite safe and certain that the
heavy and gloomy days of the summer of 1914 will never return, I
shall permit myself to picture in a few words, before I finish, that which
would have taken place if the Armenians had sided with the Germano-
Turks in the Near East from the beginning of the war.
First of all, those frightful Armenian massacres would not have taken
place. On the contrary, the Turks and the Germans would have tried
to win the sympathy of the Armenians in every possible way until the
end of the war.
On the other hand, so long as the Georgians and Tartars of the
Caucasian peoples were only too eager to co-operate with the Germano-
Turks, as the events of 1918 fully demonstrate, had the Armenians like-
wise joined them in 1914, by cutting the railroads, the backbone of the
Caucasian Russian army, all the Caucasian country would have slipped
out of the hands of the Russians in a few weeks, and the Turco-Ger-
mans would have reached Baku in the autumn of the same year. The
Armenians, Georgians, and Tartars of the Caucasus, united, would have
been able to form with the greatest ease an army of 700,000 men, by
which they would have been able to defend the Caucasian mountain-
ridge against the Russians. Meanwhile, the entire Turkish army wonM
44 WHY ARMENIA SHOULD BE FREE
have been available to advance immediately toward the interior of Asia
and join the 18,000,000 Moslems of Asiatic Russia. We may safely say,
neither Persia nor Afghanistan could have remained neutral on seeing
such successful achievements by the Turks.
In the course of such events Russia would have been compelled to
remove the greater portion of her forces to the East and would not
have been able to protect her Western frontiers as successfully as she
did. Therefore, quite probably, the Russian collapse would have taken
place in the summer of 1915, when the Germans occupied Russian
Poland. On the other hand, Great Britain would have been obliged to
appropriate the greater portion of her newly-formed land forces for
the protection of India, and would have been unable to rush as great a
force to the defence of heroic France as she actually did. Quite likely,
under these conditions, neither Italy nor Roumania would have aban-
doned her neutrality, and thus the war might have ended in 1915 or
1916 with the victory of the central Powers, at least on land.
It was as clear as day to the Armenians that a Germane-Turkish vic-
tory could never satisfy their national aspirations. The most that those
nations would have done for us would have been to grant nominal rights
to the Armenia of their own choice. But it was very plain to us also
that we should not have suffered such frightful human losses had we not
sided with the Allies. We consciously chose this last alternative,
namely : we tied our fate to the allied victory ; we exposed our very exist-
ence to danger in order to realize the complete fulfillment of our na-
tional ambition, that is, to see the re-establishment of the United His-
toric Independent Armenia.
With our modest means, we have fulfilled our duty in full measure in
this great struggle in order to save civilization from an impending
doom. Now it is for our great Allies to act.
The day is not very far distant when, gathered around the great
tribunal of justice, the representatives of 2 11 the nations of the
globe guilty or just are to receive their punishment or reward from
the hands of the four distinguished champions of democracy, President
Wilson, Premiers Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau, and Orlando. If the
representatives present themselves in the order of seniority, the first in
the rank will be the representative of the Armenian people the aged
lother Armenia. Behold! Into the Peace Congress Hall there enters
CONCLUSION 45
an old woman, bathed in blood, clothed in rags, her face covered with
wrinkles 3,000 years old, and completely exhausted. With her thought-
ful eyes the venerable Mother Armenia will survey the countenances of
all those present, and thus will she address the great figures of the
world :
"Century after century my sons took part in all the strifes waged to
safeguard justice and the freedom of suffering humanity. Three thou-
sand years ago my sons struggled for seven hundred years against the
despotism of Babylon and Nineveh, which eventually collapsed under the
load of their own crimes. Fifteen centuries ago the Armenians resisted
for five hundred years the persecutions of the mighty Persian Empire
to preserve their Christian faith. Since the eighth century my sons
have been the vanguard of Christian civilization in the East against
Moslem invasions threatening for a while the very existence of all
Europe. If you doubt my statements, ask the sacred mountain of
Ararat; he will relate to you how all the nations and empires, which
attempted to possess by criminal means the indisputable inheritance of
my sons, have received their just punishment.
"Let us not go very far. Here, before you, stand the representatives
of those three nations which tried to destroy my sons before your very
eyes, in order to rule those parts of our ancestral lands, so sanctified
by blood, known as Armenia. Look at this Turk ; it was he who wished
to wipe the very name of Armenia off the face of the map; but today,
foiled in his attempt, he stands there like a criminal awaiting his sen-
tence. And where is today the Czar of Russia, who planned to occupy
Armenia without the Armenians, the representative of that Empire
before which the world trembled. And what has remained of the policies
of the German Empire, in whose hands is the Bagdad railroad now,
built at the cost of the blood of hundreds of thousands of Armenian
women and children? Thus, those three modern malevolent empires,
which tried to attain happiness through the blood of my sons, have re-
ceived their just punishment.
"Such will be the fate in the future of all those who shall attempt
similar crimes against Armenia. This is the message, gentlemen,
handed down to us through three thousand years of history.
"I have nothing more to add. I await your verdict with confidence/'
Comment