Patriotism Perverted, K. S. Papazian, 1934

Patriotism perverted : a discussion of the deeds and the
misdeeds of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, the

so-called Dashnagtzoutune / by K. S. Papazian.
Main Author:
Other Authors:
Language(s):
Published:
Subjects:
Papazian, Kapriel Serope, 1887Hagopian, Richard.

English
Boston : Baikar Press, 1934.
H.H. Dashnaktsutiwn.
Armenian question.
Terrorism > Armenia.
Armenia > Politics and government.
Physical Description: 79 p. ; 20 cm.

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Patriotism Perverted
A
discussion of the deeds

and the misdeeds or the
Armenian RevolutionaryFederation,
the so-called
Dashnagtzoutune
Generated on 2015-05-03 06:09 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015068636516

Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-google
$
By
K,
S.
PAPAZIAN
BOSTON
BAIKAR PRESS
1934

COPYRIGHT
1934
By K. S. PAPAZIAN
AH rights reserved
(Printed in the United States of America)
PREFACE
In
have tried to present to the

English speaking Armenians of this country and to the
American public in general, a fairly clear picture of an or
ganization, that has received so much publicity in con
nection with the recent assassination in New York of Arch
bishop Leon Tourian.
the following pages
An understanding of
the purposes and the
the background, past activities,

methods of the Armenian Revolu

tionary Federation may be important, if we are going to

try and rid the Armenian-American community life, of the
Its mode of or
predatory inclinations of this society.
ganization, its discordant mental make up as expressed in
its publications, its belief in the use of violence rather than
persuasion and free discussion to overcome opposition, its
tendency to disregard and distort the will of the majority
in dealing with public issues, are all alien to our American
ideals and Christian principles, and have repeatedly pre
cipitated conflicts in the past.
This booklet,
hope,
will help
create in the minds
of
its readers a fairly adequate idea as to the moral and

physical dangers with which our youth and our community
are threatened on account of Dashnag activities.
Such
knowledge is necessary, if we are to ward off these dangers,
and establish peaceand harmony in our midst.
The task of presenting
true
this
face
they
Dashnagtzoutune in its
political and moral character was rather difficult, as
society has had the agility of repeatedly changing its
and color with perfect ease of conscience.
At first
were nationalists diluted with socialism; then they
the
turned out and out socialists, with bolshevistic leanings, and

However, it co
adopted the red flag for their emblem.
It now
operated with the imperialistic tyrants of Turkey.
professes nationalism
again, and even leans towards
Facism or Hitlerism, still clinging to the red flag and
dangling a daggar, symbol of revenge and conspiracy, from
its emblem.
have tried to be fair in my presentation of facts and

in my judgments.
Most of my conclusions are based on
facts of contemporary history, and are fortified with quo
tations from Dashnag publications and Dashnag authors.
picture of the A. R. Federation will not be
pleasing to the eyes of its devoted adherents; however, I
have tried to cling to the idea, that at least the rank and
file of the society, although deluded and misled, still have
patriotism for a motive, even though a distorted and per
verted form of patriotism.
My
K.
Boston,
May
Massachusetts.
10, 1934.
S.
Papazian.
THE BEGINNING
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation,
the so-called
Dashnagtzoutune, was organized in the Caucasus, in 1890,

through the consolidation of several secret revolutionary
societies, that had as a common purpose or ideal, more or
less definite ideas about the liberation of Armenia from
the oppression of the Turks. The elements that composed
the Dashnagtzoutune in the beginning, were Armenian in
tellectuals belonging to the Russian school of socialism,
Armenian groups who were staunch nationalists, some pure
and unadulterated Marxists, some liberals and some repre
sentatives of the bourgeois classes.
Speaking of this assortment of groups, Mikael Varandian, an ideologist and historian of the Dashnagtzoutune,
states : "Right and left, moderates and radicals, those with
all imbued with the
national and all-human tendencies

idea
of
....
"His
M. Varandian, Vol. I,
the liberation of the Armenians of
Turkey."
tory of the A. R. Federation", by

Page 59. Paris 1932.).
This idea of the liberation of the Armenians of Turkey
was interpreted differently by different groups that sought

the union.
For socialists, liberation did not mean neces
sarily the independence of the Armenians of Turkey from
the rest of the peoples composing the Ottoman empire.
They rather imagined a condition where all workers, Ar
menian, Turkish, Kurdish etc., would enjoy universal free
dom and be free from economic oppression.
For the
nationalists, liberation meant at least some measure of
autonomy for the Armenians in Turkish Armenia.
The contending groups finally agreed upon
the general
principle, that they should shake off the abominable yoke

of the Sultan, should annihilate the tyrannical and auto
PATRIOTISM PERVERTED
10
cratic regime of Turkey, "should secure harmony between

nationalities, safety for labor, and liberty of conscience, of
Their endeavor was going to be
speech and convictions".
"to achieve equality for nationalities and religions before
the law".
(From the Program of the A. R. Federation,
adopted in the General Convention of 1892, Pages 6 and 9).
The purpose of the Armenian Revolutionary Federa
tion was defined in the following formula, as it is given
in the above mentioned pamphlet, page 15, "The purpose
of the A. R. Federation is to achieve political and economic
"
freedom in Turkish Armenia, by means of rebellion . . . .
It is worthy to note, that the attitude of the Dashnag
society towards Armenian independence has been rather
It did not demand in
vague right from the beginning.
dependence for Turkish Armenia. "The pioneers of Dashnagzoutune, not only did not utter the word Independence
in their public speeches but they did not have 'independence'
as a demand", says M. Varandian, in his "History of the

A. R. Federation",
page
118.
The
same Dashnag histor
ian, in order to prove his point, quotes from the "Droshak"

(The official organ of the Dashnag central Bureau) Nov.
5, 1893, the following lines:
"We are opposed to those views according to which
the independence of a people is an absolute condition for
the amelioration
of
its
lot".
This
vagueness
and equivocation
This
vagueness
in the definition
was designed from

the beginning, in order to appease the ultra radicals and
socialists in the ranks of the organization.
"Political
and economic freedom in Turkish Armenia", was more
acceptable to these groups, than political independence or
autonomy for Armenians in Turkish Armenia.
of their purpose, and
the dilution of their national ideals with international and

socialistic tendencies, made it easier for the Dashnag lead
ORGANIZATION
11
ers, in later years, to subject the Armenian political de

mands to dangerous compromises with the young Turks.
To run with the hare and hunt with the hound, has been
the tactics
of
the
A. R. Federation.
The idea or policy of an independent Armenia was

forced upon the society, through the turn of political events
that resulted from the Great War and the Russian Re
volution.
The consolidation
of

revolutionary
societies was engineered by Christopher Mikaelian, Simon
Zavarian and Rostom Zorian, three leaders of ability and
these
various
personal power, who, while they lived, contrived to main

tain harmony among the diverse and somewhat discordant
elements that composed the Dashnagtzoutune *).
Even though a common purpose the liberation of the
Armenians from Turkish oppression brought together
these various groups, divergence of political principles and
tendencies were not eliminated from amongst them : and
this fact, in later years, became the cause of great confusion
in the program and the policies of the organization. From
its very beginning the society has lacked consistency of
purpose and method, and opportunism and lack of common
sense have characterized most of its actions.
ORGANIZATION
The organization
is democratic in form only; its vari

ous committees and conventions are little more than de
bating societies and furnishers of money, for the achieve

ment of the purposes of the society. The actual direction
of affairs from the beginning has rested in the hands of
a secret Bureau, which established itself in Geneva, Switz
*) The word Dashnagtzoutune is the Armenian equivalant for Federa
tion, and was adopted for the new society because it designated the alliance
of various groups.
12
erland, and ruled its adherents with an iron hand and strict
The common members are not encouraged to
discipline.
communicate with each other or with Committees about
matters pertaining to the society. This has reduced criti
cism to a minimum and discouraged independent thinking.
Article 35 of the By-laws drawn up for the A. R.
Federation District of America, and published by "Hairenik Press" in Boston, 19 10, forbids communication between
individual members with the following words:
"
it is never permitted to a Dashnagtzagah *)
member to send circulars to members and committees".
On the other hand, the leaders and official bodies or
Committees can withhold important facts and information
from the rank and file, if they choose to do so.
The organization is rather oligarchical; and its follow
ers have been taught to accept, without any discussion, the
decrees and orders of the higher ups.
Dr. Jean Loris-Melikoff, a personal friend of Christopher Mikaelian and one
of the founders of the Dashnag society, speaks as follows :
"The truth is that the party was ruled by an oligarchy,
for whom the particular interests of the party came before
the interests of the people and the nation".
(La Revolu
tion Russe et les Nouvelles Republique Transcaucasiennes,
page 84, Liberairie Felix Alcan, Paris, 1920).
Section 7 of Article 57 of the By-laws for the American
District, printed in 19 10 by the "Hairenik" in Boston,
describes as follows some of the duties of the Central Com
mittee of America :
"To communicate to Committees, by means of cir
culars, such news received from the fields of activity of
our organization, (Turkey, Persia, Caucasus) that have
nothing to do with conspiracies . . ."

....
*) Dashnagtzagan means a member of Dashnagtzoutune.

discussion the word Dashnag is also used to designate a member
nagtzoutune.
In this
of Dash-
TERRORISM
13
Many plots, intrigues, conspiracies and terroristic en

Many in
terprises are kept secret from the members.

nocent members are made co-partners in plots without being

apprised of the directing motives or purposes behind them.
This privilege of secrecy has been often and gravely abused
by Dashnag leaders.
The rank and file have continually been kept under
the spell of their invisible rulers, who, through sensational
though futile acts, managed to keep their own prestige
high, and their coffers bulging.
To this day, the Dashnagtzoutune is the meeting place
of divergent elements. In its "Report on Russian Armenia,"
the American Commission under Gen. James G. Harbord,
which was sent to the Caucasus by the Peace Conference
in 1919, speaks as follows of the Dashnagtzoutune:
"This is really a political society, rather than a party.
"It contains three clearly defined elements, all of which
are strongly socialist.
"a. The right wing composed of comitadji, (mean
who believe in strong armed
ing secret revolutionists
methods).
"b.
The centre comprising intellectuals who control
both wings.
"c.
The left wing, which is almost Bolshevist."
TERRORISM IN THE EARLY PROGRAM

Patriotism, and the influence of early leaders main
tained loftiness of motives, if not prudence in activity,

within the party.
Gradually however, established tradi
tions, and self interest governed the policies of the Dashnag
tzoutune.
Men of smaller intellect and questionable pat
riotism, and even opportunists, managed to place them
selves at the helm of the society; and there began a process
of degeneration; and questionable, and even criminal
14
methods were resorted to, in order to achieve the purposes

of the party.
Speaking of the Dashnag Society in the Caucasus, the
report of the American Commission under Gen. James G.
Harbord declares again:
"It
is highly organized,
still plays
has agents
everywhere, and
dominant part in Armenian National life.
"The opponents of
the Dashnagtzoutune
say that,
despite its patriotic work, it is only a relic of barbarism and
must be suppressed.
is a vital organ of
Armenian life, and that its vicious elements being the in
evitable product of former conditions, will be eradicated
"Its adherents maintain that it
as
order is restored.
"It
is probable, that the Dashnagtzoutune still em

ploys terroristic methods, and undeniable that it is now
a source of danger, owing to its liability to precipitate con
flicts".
This report was submitted to
the Peace Conference
and to the United States Government, in August 19 19.
Terrorism
from the first, been adopted by the

Dashnag Committee of the Caucasus, as a policy or a
method for achieving its ends. In this they have followed
the Russian Socialists or Nihilists.
Under the heading
"Means", in their program adopted in 1892, we read as
follows :
has,
"The Arm. Revolutionary Federation,
in
order to
achieve its purpose through rebellion, organizes revolu

tionary groups . . . ." and these groups are to use various
means or methods, which are given on pages 17 and 18
of the program.
TERRORISM
15
is as follows:
"To wage fight, and to subject to terrorism the gov
ernment officials, the traitors, the betrayers, the usurers, and
Method No.
the exploiters of all description"

Method No. 1 1 is :
"To
subject the government institutions to destruction
and pillage".
Dashnag publications are full of stories of terroristic

exploits.

At
first, these terroristic methods were resorted to in

order to obtain money for the revolutionary movements
in the Turkish territory.
Says Dr. Jean Loris-Melikoff :
"They made collections among the bourgeois and the great
merchants. At the end, when these means were exhausted,
they resorted to terrorism, after the teachings of the Rus
sian revolutionaries, that 'the end justifies the means' . . . ."
(La Revolution Russe et les Nouvelles Republiques Transcaucasiennes", Page 8 1 ) .
In a signed article entitled "Armenia, its History and
Customs",
which appeared in "Hairenik", the official
mouthpiece of the Dashnag Central Committee in the
.United States, the following is said on this matter.
"In addition, Turkish oppression was often quickly
reduced or eliminated by the Dashnag policy of exterminat
Another effected practice
ing unduly arbitrary officials.
was the intimidation of prominent men in order to obtain
financial support.
Those who refused were put on the
"spot". In fact, it was very similar to the underground
methods of modern racketeering, except that its goal was
noble".
("Hairenik", Sept. 16, 1933).
If we are to believe the late M. Varandian, who was
a prominent leader of the society belonging to its inner
councils, terroristic methods were often used in order to
collect money from rich Armenians.
16
"The first attempt at collecting money by force, was

In the summer of 1902, our leader
tried in Shousha.
Christopher was there, with his soldiers .... The first blow
of the "storm" fell upon the well-known millionaire, Isahag
....
the "storm" squad arrested him one night

Jamharian
and took him to a lonely spot outside the city." They let
him free when he promised to pay 30,000 rubles. How

ever, he notified the police, and his abductors were arrested.
"With his cynical betrayal, says Varandian, Jamharfan
forged his own tragic fate. And a few months after this
episode, in Moscow, in broad daylight, and in the court
yard of the Armenian church, in the presence of a great
throng, this traitor paid for his sin ; he fell under the blows
of a dagger . . . ." ("History of the Dashnagtzoutune",
by M. Varandian, Vol. I Page 325, 326, 327, Paris, 1932).

Jamharian had committed the sin of defending himself

from the arbitrary demands of self-appointed and irres
ponsible saviors of our people, who had gone so far as to

abduct him and threaten him with violence. He was, there
fore, a traitor in the eyes of these people. He was still a
traitor for the Dashnag historian Varandian, in the year
of grace 1932, and was even denied the right of self defense.
All
those who disagreed with the Dashnag leaders,

or against whom the local Dashnag chiefs nourished a
grudge, were denounced as traitors, and betrayers of the
cause.
Mateos Baliozian, a wealthy merchant of Smyrna,
was thus denounced, although to this day there is no proof
at all that he betrayed anyone to the Turkish government.
However, according to Varandian, he was killed in 1902,
by a Dashnag terrorist Horen Sarkisian or Bedros Azizof
of Magnisa. Here is how this episode is related by the
Dashnag historian: "The two spies were being protected
morally and materially, by the local Armenian Croesus,
Mateos Baliozian, who was influential within the govern
TERRORISM
ment circles
....
17
The organization, naturally, did not re
Maksoud and
treat and punished the Armenian moths.
Karekin (alleged spies) were subjected to terrorism. The
same lot fell also on Baliozian, who continued, stubbornly,
to assist the police. His terror was organized by Hrach
himself (1902), and the terrorist was Bedros Azizof of
Vol. I.
Magnisa. ("History of the Dashnagtzoutune",
Page 450).
That terroristic methods were also used, in those early
days, within the ranks of Dashnag leaders for differences
of opinion and to satisfy personal grudges, is also admitted,
by Varandian himself, in his famous "History of the Dash
nagtzoutune", page 86.
"In the same year 1891 Gerektzian was killed in
Erzroum, by the decision of the local Central Committee
His "guilt" was, that he was against hasty revolu
tionary moves, he preached prudence, he advised that long
'Whoever is not with us, is our
preparations be made.
said the hot headed comrades of Gerektzian.

enemy'
They cast lots, and the lot fell on Comrade Aram Aramian,
who has also killed Comrade Gerektzian.

....
"The Central Committee
of Dashnagtzoutune
con
demned this step in 1892, in the presence of Aramian, and

issued a special bulletin on it". But the Dashnag Center
did not punish Aram Aramian for his crime.
A verbal
reprimand was considered sufficient.
Judging from the contents of the "History of the

A. R. Federation", as written by Varandian, the early
Dashnag organization has been very prolific in organizing
and carrying out terroristic acts.
It seems that terrorism
against their own co-nationals has been a prominent part
of the revolutionary activities of the Dashnag leaders of
the Caucasus.
Organized to fight the Turks, these chief
tains have been more successful in their fight against their
18
Armenian opponents in Turkey, and the Caucasus, very

often defenseless and innocent. Varandian exalts the ter
roristic activities of the A. R. Federation, in his history,
pages 212-213, m tne following glowing terms:
"Terroristic
alas, have very often been

directed against the internal adversaries against betray
ers, against unfaithful spies and against all kinds of
traitors
Perhaps there has never been a revolutionary
party not even the Russian Narodovoletz, or the Italian
Carbonaris with such rich experiences on the road of
terroristic acts, as the A. R. Federation, which in its difficult
environment, has developed the most frenzied types of
terrorists, and given hundreds of masters of the pistol,
the bomb and the dagger, for acts of revenge.
"The terror of the Dashnagtzoutune, although directed
mainly against cowardly Armenians at first, gradually was
turned against the enemy itself, and we see its hundreds of
victims, Turkish, Kurdish, Russian, great or small tyrants
etc."
One of the most unfortunate results of these terroristic
methods, was the gradual development of a class of terror
ists, who used their bullet and their dagger indiscriminately,
both against those who betrayed the cause, and against
those who were unfortunate enough to make personal
This class of terrorists
enemies of the Dashnag leaders.
enjoyed a place of honor within the society.
A partial list of alleged Armenian victims of Dashnag
terrorism is given at the end of this discussion, (See Ap
pendix I).

....
acts, which,
ACTIVITIES AGAINST TURKEY
19

Under the leadership of Sarkis Gougounian, a dare
devil student from Moscow, a band of some ioo Armenian
enthusiasts were organized in Alexandropol, in the summer
of 1890, crossed the Turkish border sometime in September

of that year, and had some encounters with the Kurds.
However, when the Turkish rjegulars appeared on the
Their retreat into the Cau
scene, they had to retreat.
A good many were

casus was cut off by the Cossacks.
killed, most of them arrested, and Gougounian was exiled
into Siberia.

Thus ended the so-called Gougounian
expedition, in
which the newly organized Dashnagtzoutune had no part.
On the contrary, its leaders tried to dissuade Gougounian
from carrying out his plan, as a rash, premature and harm
ful move. They believed, at that time, that there should
be a more careful and general preparation for an uprising
against Turkey.
However, they soon discarded this more prudent policy
of action, and adopted the methods of sensational, sporadic
and partisan fights along the borders of Turkish Armenia.
This method was tried for a few years, but without the
desired results. European governments did not intervene
in favor of the Armenians who as a result of these forays
were subjected to more systematic and bitter persecution
The Hunchagist party had
by the Turks and the Kurds.
tried the same method of sensational acts and sporadic
fighting in Constantinople, Sassoun, Zeitoun and elsewhere,
and had failed to bring about European intervention.
They
as
had given up these methods
futile and harmful. The
Dashnag society thought it would succeed where others
had failed. Therefore it decided to carry the fight into
20
Turkish capital,
and to attempt a move, that would

rattle the Sultan, and would cause the European powers
to intervene and compel the Turkish government to put
into force the reforms promised for the Armenian provinces,
the
under Article 61 of the Treaty of Berlin.
III).
(See appendix
The Dashnag high command had decided
an attack
on the Bank Imperial Ottoman.
Accordingly, one day in August 1896, a group of

young men entered the Bank in Constantinople, subdued

the employes, barricaded themselves in, and threatened to

blow up the bank with bombs and dynamite, unless the
Sultan promised reforms for Armenia. The Sultan made

no move, and represented these revolutionists as brigands.
Dr. George Washburn, a famous missionary, goes even so
far as to say in a book of his, that Abdul Hamid was aware
of the plans of the Dashnags, and let them enter the bank
in order to discredit the Armenian revolution and use it as
a pretext for a massacre.
After waiting in vain for a whole
day, and through the intervention of the Russian embassy,
our heroes were safely escorted out of the bank and placed
on board a European steamer and saved themselves; while
16,000 Armenians were massacred in Constantinople during
the following two days by the Turkish rabble and the
regulars *).
However, the Dashnag leaders clung to the idea that

sporadic uprisings and partisan fights with the Turkish
armed forces, were essential to bring about diplomatic in
tervention.
*)
"
....
it is certain that the Turkish government knew all about

it many days before, even to the exact time when the bank was to be entered,
and the Minister of Police had made elaborate arrangements not to arrest
these men or prevent the attack on the bank, but to facilitate it and make
it the occasion of a massacre of the Armenian population of the city".
(Dr.
George Washburn, "Fifty years in Constantinople", page 246).

"The purpose of
21
the Armenian movement, has been,
says M. Varandian, the most prominent Dashnag ideologist

and historian, from the beginning, to organize as far as
possible a long drawn-out fight against the Ottoman tyranny,

to create in the country a continuous revolutionary state,
always having before our eyes the intervention of the third
....
the European factor," (M. Varandian, "His

factor
tory of the Dashnagtzoutune", page 302).
They ignored a fourth and most important factor, the
people of Turkish Armenia.
Being all Armenians from the Caucasus, these people
never took the trouble of inquiring into the actual condi
tions in Armenia, and consulting the Armenians in Turkey.
They even refused to co-operate with other secret societies,
organized in Turkish Armenia, who believed only in
methods of self defense against the Turkish and Kurdish
oppressors, and in long and silent preparation for a gen
eral uprising in the distant future. They pursued their own
disastrous methods.
Another futile expedition, that took place in the sum

mer of 1897, and ended in a fiasco, was that of Khanasor.
Its net result was disastrous for the Armenian population
of the district between Van and Persia. Many Armenian
villages were wiped out as a result of this adventure of the
Dashnags, who, for the most part, escaped with their own
skins intact.
The Khanasor expedition, so-called, was
the result of
the machinations of the Russian authorities, whose purpose

was to encourage political unrest and turmoil along the
eastern borders of Turkey.
There is reason to believe,
that some of the Dashnag leaders of Tiflis, were playing

the game of the Russian government.
Their more prudent
leaders, as well as all other Armenian political organiza
tions, opposed the undertaking as one that was certain to
22
However, the central author

Enormous
ities of Tiflis prevailed upon local opposition.
amounts of money had been collected from the Armenians
bring failure and disaster.
to organize and equip this expedition; therefore, they had

to show results. The Russian authorities had to be pleased
too.
The avowed purpose of the expedition of Khanasor,
was to punish the Kurdish tribe of Mazrik, that had been
the scourge of the Armenian population of those districts.
There were about 250 fighters in the band that attacked
the camp of the Mazrik tribe in the plain of Khanasor just
before daybreak, and set fire to the nearest tents and killed
a few Kurds.
The main body of the Kurds put up a stiff
fight, and drove back the attackers, who in their confusion
fired upon each other.
The Dashnag band was
fighters, and had to retreat to safety, leaving

19 in dead on the battlefield, according to "Droshak", the
Dashnag central organ, Nov. 11, 1897.
The Mazrik escaped punishment, their chief, Sharaf
Beg, although declared killed in the fight in all Dashnag
papers ever since, was still alive twenty years after Khana
sor; and he took terrible revenge on the peaceful Armenian
by the

Mazrik
in danger of being surrounded
peasants.
To
this day, Khanasor is celebrated every year, by

the Dashnag society, and the rank and file is made to believe
that it was a glorious victory; and that the blood thirsty
Sharaf Beg was killed in the fight.
The rebellion of
the mountain district of Sassoun in

1904, is another chapter in the revolutionary activities of
the A. R. Federation. Sassoun had already taken up arms
against the Kurds and the Turkish soldiers in 1894, under
the leadership of the Hunchagist leaders Mourad and Da-
madian.
This early movement during which
the
heroic

23
mountainers fought bravely, was ruthlessly crushed by the

regular army, and many villages were destroyed and the
people massacred.
The new rebellion in 1904 was better organized and
was led by Antranik, whose homeric exploits against the
enemy, form some of the most glowing pages of the history
of Armenian struggle for independence.
However, its
outcome was not any different than that of the earlier re
bellion.
After a series of long drawn-out fights, during
which the peasants and their leaders from outside displayed
great bravery and inflicted heavey losses on the Turkish
troops, the rebellion was finally crushed, many mountain
villages were destroyed and the revolutionists had to re
treat to the districts of Moush and Bitlis.
This second Sassoun episode created a little more
noise in the European press; a few more speeches, support
ing the Armenian cause, were delivered from the rostrum
of some European parliaments; some consular agents were
dispatched to the scene of operations in order to send first
hand information to their respective governments ; and the
incident was ended so far as European diplomacy was
concerned.
The third factor European intervention never dis
played any signs of effective action to force the Sultan to

carry out the stipulations of Article 61 of the treaty of
Berlin for Armenian Reforms.

These periodic fights with limited numbers of fighters,
and scattered over isolated regions, involved great sacrifices

of human life and money, but were not effective enough to
wrest the least concessions from the government of the

Sultan. It will hardly be an exaggeration to say, that all
the revolutionary activities of the A. R. Federation put
together, did not equal, either in magnitude or in actual
results, the rebellion of the town of Zeitoun in 1895. For
24
over three months, the inhabitants of this mountain town

defended themselves against a regular army of 30,000,
under Edhem Pasha, captured a whole Turkish regiment
and forced the government to come to terms and grant
some measure of local autonomy for the district of Zeitoun.
The Dashnagtzoutune had no part in this memorable fight.
The attempt on the life of Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid in
1905, constitutes the last .episode of the revolutionary
attempts of the A. R. Federation in behalf of Turkish Ar
menia. This was another of the spectacular but futile acts
Its success would not have helped
of the Dashnagtzoutune.
the Armenian cause; its failure probably saved our people
from greater misfortunes.
*
* *
The Armenian struggle for

independence was directed

against the most ruthless tyranny in the world. Obstacles
Neither geography nor friendly dip

were overwhelming.
lomacy helped our cause. These facts taught a lesson to
the early Armenagans *) and the Hunchagists, who, after a
few spectacular exploits, gave up the method of armed in
surrection with small numbers.
The Dashnagtzoutune would not learn any lessons
from the experiences of others.
Its doctrine was, that
liberty is won by bloodshed only, and the more the Sultan
is goaded into massacring the Armenian people, the stronger
will become our claims for autonomy, and the greater will
become the hope for European intervention.
As we have already stated, this expected intervention
never materialized, and the Sultan was left free to deal
with the Armenians as he saw fit.
*) Armenagans were
formed in Van, directed by
They
and not in other isms.
people for an uprising in the
party.
the earliest
local leaders
preached self
future. They
Armenian revolutionary
society,
who believed only in patriotism
defense and tried to prepare the
afterwards joined the Ramgavar
25
Years of futile and wasteful struggle against the Turk
ish government finally forced the scholastic leaders of the

Dashnagtzoutune, who had directed the struggle from their
safe refuges of Geneva and

but not their ignorance.
191
Tiflis,
to admit their defeat,
"We were defeated, says Mikael Varandian on page

of his hodge-podge of a 'History of the Dashnagtzou
tune', and adds immediately, "but the enemy was not vic
torious either". This last sentence is simply a bravado in
keeping with Dashnag mentality.
Although mostly disastrous in its final outcome, the

Armenian revolution produced the beneficial impression
among the Turks and Kurds, that the long oppressed Ar

menian infidel can also strike back at its tyrants. Some real
fighters sprang up from among the people, who struck
terror into the hearts of the Turks. The prestige of various
revolutionary societies was built on the personal bravery
of these fighting patriots, who, like the great Antranik,
later symbolized the struggle of the Armenians for inde
pendence.
The Dashnagtzoutune exploited
the fame and prestige

of Antranik and others, to the fullest extent. These heroic
figures were represented as the product of the revolutionary
school of the party.
Here
is what Gen. Antranik has to say about this kind

of exploitation by the Dashnagtzoutune.
"They
say, that
have been the spoiled child of the
Dashnagtzoutune.
"Fortunately my revolutionary teacher of 1889 was

not the Dashnagtzoutune.
I can not understand what right
can a party have to appropriate its followers of the past,
when its present is completely against its doctrines
past and the national spirit?
of
the
26
would have been a good thing, of course, if the

and less-known
had had well-known
Dashnagtzoutune
heroes, whose teachers had been the intelligentsia belonging
to itself.
"For decades it was the people of Sassoun, Moush,
Akhlat and the Armenian people in general, who have sup
ported me and other soldiers like me; and we have been
their soldiers only, and not the soldiers of the Dashnag
tzoutune or any other party.
"When these brave soldiers, who sprung up from the
bosom of the Armenian people, were fighting in the mother
the Dashnagtzoutune was only waging par
country
tisan quarrels in its press abroad, and exploiting the names
of my inimitable fighting comrades. It is hard to under
stand therefore, whether we, fighters, are the ones who have
nourished and spoiled the Dashnagtzoutune, or this latter
has spoiled us?
"Today the Dashnagtzoutune is deprived of the right
to speak in the name of those who fell like heroes".
("Antranik Speaks", pages 4, 5, 6, Paris 1921).
"It

....
ADHERENCE TO SOCIALISM
When the Russian Czar issued
a decree
in 1903, by
the property
which the government was going to confiscate

of the Armenian church, the people rose in one body in de
fense of their rights.
The authorities in the Caucasus, in
order to weaken the Armenian people, incited the Mo
hammedan Tartars to attack them.
Riots and murders
increased to the proportion of massacres in many cities;
while the police and the Cossacks turned a deaf ear to the
appeals of the Armenians for protection.
Then the Armenians took up arms and defended them
selves very effectively from this double attack.
The rev
27
olutionary societies, with their organization and their lead

ership, naturally, played an important part in this conflict;
and the Dashnagtzoutune won great credit and fame for

its share in the fight. However, the claims of the Dashnag
writers, that their own organization and their own partisan

chiefs played the leading part in these internecine fights
The accounts of these
seem to be greatly exaggerated.
clashes, which lasted almost a year and a half ( 1 905-1 906)
and in which the Armenians were victorious, come mostly
from Dashnag writers, and grossly overestimate the im
portance of the A. R. Federation as a fighting element.
According to H. Katchaznouni, the A. R. Federation

did not take the initiative in that national struggle; it rather
followed the popular movement. Here is what this veteran
Dashnag leader, who was also the prime minister of the

Armenian Republic from 191 8-1 919, has to say on the
subject.
"
.... In Transcaucasia,

the Dashnagtzoutune has

been not so much as a leader or initiator in the past, as a
follower of those movements, that have grown independ

It was thus in 1903 (rebellion and de
ently of itself.
monstrations on account of the confiscation of the property
of the church). It was thus during the period of 19051906 (bloody Armeno-Tartar conflicts) ; it was also thus
during the first great labor movements ( 1903- 1906), when
the Dashnagtzoutune was being governed, in Baku, Tiflis
and Batoum, by the policy and mode of action of the foreign
socialistic parties".
("A. R. Federation Has Nothing
More to Do", pages 7-8, by Hov. Kachaznouni, Vienna,
1923)These conflicts and also the first revolutionary move
ments that broke out in the Caucasus after the Russo-Japaneses War, threw the Armenian people and its organiza
tions into close contact with the Russian socialistic parties.
28
leaders of the Caucasus had socialistic

tendencies already; and they conceived the bright idea that
the open adoption of socialism as a political program, would
secure the support of Russian and European socialist lead
ers for the Armenian cause.
Accordingly, about the year
1906, they adhered to the social-revolutionists of Russia.
This step meant a deviation from their original program
of the liberation of Turkish Armenia, and was bitterly
opposed by some of the most eminent fighters in the ranks
Mourad,
such as Antranig,
of the Dashnagtzoutune,
Mihran, etc., mostly all Armenians from Turkey.
Many Dashnag
These men were pure and simple patriots. They did

not give a rap for socialism or other isms.
Mihran could
not be won over to the viewpoint of the intellectuals and the
Therefore, he was assassinated one day.
secret Bureau.
In their convention of Vienna, that was held in 1907,
the Dashnagtzoutune condemned Mihran to death.
Here is what M. Varandian writes about this decision.
"At last, here is the decision of the meeting about

Mihran, which was
tion
passed
unanimously,
with one excep
"To
consider the conduct of Mihran and his ac

complices a grave offense against the organization and the
Turkish-Armenian cause that it defends. On this basis, to
consider them expelled from the ranks of Dashnagtzoutune.
2.
"To recommend to the proper body, that it sub
ject Mihran and his accomplices to the penalty that is fore
seen in the by-laws of the organization.
1.
the death penalty was carried out)".

(M.
Varandian, 'History of the Dashnagtzoutune, page 491,
"(Soon
Paris, 1932).
The opposition, however, did not
stop there.
When
above mentioned convention, which was held in

Vienna in 1907, the Dashnags finally adopted and ratified
in
the
the program of social-revolution,
some
29
of their most eminent
fighting leaders, Antranik among them, left the party. His

prestige among the Dashnag rank and file was so great,
that the Bureau did not dare to put him on the "spot",
like it did Mihran.
Here is what General Antranik has to say about this
convention of Vienna, in his booklet, "Antranik Speaks",
pages 7-8-9-10.
"At
the Convention of Vienna, in 1907, the Dashnagtzoutune adopted the Caucasian Program, that is to say it
renounced its real aim, which was the liberation of the Ar
menian people of Turkey, in order to pursue pan-human
purposes.
"This, to a certain extent, meant the burial of the
Turkish-Armenian
"For
cause.

three days, during which the Caucasian Program

Maloumian,
was debated, I opposed it with all my soul.
who was presiding that day, protested, and declared, that
I myself and a few others with me, were to blame for the
prolongation of the convention.
answered Let your blood be on your own

as you please, but don't close the doors of
Russia against us. We have too many enemies already,
don't make an enemy of Russia too; and do not furnish
any excuse for reducing the Armenians of the Caucasus to
the condition of the Armenians of Turkey.
"
I deemed it useless for me to stay in the Dashnagtzoutune, and I wrote my resignation from Varna and
sent it to Geneva, so it could be published in the 'Droshak'.
"Then
Do
heads.
....
"From that day
beheld the doings of the

Dashnagtzoutune, I became more and more firm, in my
convictions that brought about my resignation.
"Indeed, after that I saw that the Dashnagtzoutune
made it a business to persecute the Armenian 'bourgeoisie'.
on,
as
30
Presumbly to protect the rights of the workers, it caused

These strikes harmed only
strikes in Bakou and Batoum.
the Armenian owners of oil establishments, from whom the
Many of them
same society had often begged for money.
had to close their factories; thus making happy the Tartar
factory owners. Tens of thousands of Armenian laborers
were thrown out on the streets, and wandered without work.
After the 'Ottoman Constitutional Regime', the Dashnagtzoutune spread its strikes from Constantinople out until it
came to the rug factories of Harpert and Sebastia.
"From that time

faithful
on, the Dashnagtzoutune

remained
to its socialistic aims.
When we had an inde

pendent Armenia, they preached socialism, from Karabagh

to Sarikamish, to the Armenian people, eighty per cent of
whom did not know the alphabet. They wanted to teach
socialism to the Turks and Tartars too; and they shouted
in their organs "Workers, unite without distinction of race!"
Adherence to socialism had other and more grave con
sequences for the Dashnagtzoutune and the Armenian peo
ple. At once the Russian government began to persecute
the Armenian revolutionists, as the allies of the Russian
revolutionary societies.
Formerly the activities of the Dashnagtzoutune were
tolerated in Caucasian Armenia by the authorities, as they
were directed against Turkey only.
Now the Czar and
his ministers saw a great danger in their presence on Russian
soil.
The leaders were arrested, exiled and persecuted.
The Dashnags, according to their grandiloquence, were
fighting the powers of both the Sultan and the Czar. But
the position of the Armenians in the Caucasus became un
tenable, and the revolution was deprived of its only base
where the operations against Turkey could be organized
and started. On the other hand, European socialism failed
YOUNG TURKS AND THE DASHNAGS
31
to come to our help, as European diplomacy had already

failed. The net result was a tremendous waste of energy
and internal dissensions.
YOUNG TURKS AND THE DASHNAGTZOUTUNE

The Dashnagtzoutune, while devoted solely to the
purpose of Armenian liberation, had shunned the overtures
of the young Turkish leaders in Europe for their co-opera
Now
tion in overthrowing the tyranny of Abdul Hamid.
that they began to play high politics, they came to an under
Some of the
standing with the Turkish Revolutionists.
bases of this agreement between the Dashnags and the
young Turks, which was drawn up in Paris in 1907, were
the
following:
The abandonment
by the Armenians of the demand

for the enforcement of 61st Article of the Treaty of Ber
lin *). This meant that the Armenians were not going to
1.
demand separate reforms for Armenia, but were going to

work for a constitutional government for Turkey as a whole,
and become citizens, with equal rights, of the Ottoman
empire.
2.
Rebellion against the Czarist government in the
Caucasus; and the liberation of the various peoples of the
Caucasus Armenians included from Russia, under the
Dashnagtzoutune was to play a
hegemony of Turkey.
leading part in this movement against Russia.
The curtailing of the privileges enjoyed by the
3.
Armenian Patriarchs of Constantinople, under age old
Firmans of the Sultans, according to which the Armenians
were given some sort of autonomy in ecclesiastical, educa
tional and purely Armenian community affairs.
These
*)
See Appendix
III.
32
privileges made it possible for Armenian community life

to exist under Turkish oppression and tyranny.
After the young Turkish revolution of July 1908,
when the Dashnagtzoutune for the first time appeared in
Turkey openly and as a legal political party, and a constitu
tional government was declared by the young Turks, a few
seats were alloted to the Dashnag leaders in the Ottoman
Parliament. One of the first acts of the Dashnag deputies
was their agreement to a resolution whereby the Turks
proposed the abrogation of the Article 61, of the Berlin
This, at once, aroused opposition among the Ar
treaty.
menian authorities and the people.
AGAINST THE CHURCH

The intellectual leaders of
the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation have never been very friendly toward religion

in general, and towards the Armenian church in particular.
Their attitude has been, that the church should confine it
self to strictly religious and ritual activities only, and should
play no other part in the social or community life of the
Armenian people.
Such a doctrine is unthinkable even under the free institiutions of advanced countries like the United States or
England, where the church is always accepted as an active
force in the social well being of a community. Under gov
ernmental regimes that obtained in Russia and Turkey,

the national and community life of subject peoples was
organized around their religious institutions; therefore, the
application of the radical principles advocated by Dashnag
leaders, would have been both absurd and disastrous.
However, as soon as socialism was adopted by the
Dashnag leadership as a party program, they set out with
the zeal of newly created converts to put it into application
within the Armenian national life,
AGAINST THE CHURCH
33
The Czar of Russia had proclaimed a constitutional

form of government for his empire. A more liberal at
mosphere prevailed in the political life of the Caucasus.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, His Holiness Khrimian Hairik, who was then Catholicos of all the Armenians,
ordered an ecclesiastical meeting of the Armenians of Russia,
to be held in Echmiadzin. The purpose of the convention,
as drawn up by
His Holiness,
was to be to adopt measures

for improving the Armenian schools, for regulating and
increasing the revenues of the church; and to draw up a
constitution for the administration of church and community
affairs that would be more in line with Armenian interests
than the Balagenia a law decreed by the Russian govern
ment for the administration of Armenian church affairs.

The ecclesiastical Assembly
in August 1906 at
Echmiadzin, and was solemnly opened by His Holiness the
Catholicos. The overwhelming majority of the lay dele
gates being Dashnags, these took charge of the affairs,
ignored the ecclesiastical nature of the gathering, drowned
the voice of the clerical members, and changed the assembly
into a political meeting.
Archbishop Ormanian,
of this meeting as follows :
met
in his "Azkabadoum",
speaks
"Those who attended the gathering, forgot, from the
first day, the sphere of educational, financial and electoral
problems, which had been set for them, and began to invade
other spheres
The Armenian Church and the clergy
were declared to be harmful to the Armenian people; an-,
tichurch feeling was aroused; a campaign was declared
against the ministers of the church. Even the authority of
the Catholicos was scorned, notwithstanding the fact that
their existence and activities originated in him." (Orman
ian, "Azkabadoum", pages 5323, 5324, 5325, 5326).
....
34

According to the account given of this Ecclesiastical

Assembly by M. Varandian, the program adopted provided
that, "The property belonging to the churches and monas

teries be turned over to the possession of the people itself;
that the Catholicos and the entire clergy have authority to
deal only with purely religious, dogmatic and ritual problems
and have no more connection with various national institu
tions and affairs; that these temporal affairs be henceforth
governed by temporal bodies elected by popular, universal,
secret and equal ballot, etc."
("History of the Dashnagtzoutune", by M. Varandian, page 472).
"Unfortunately, all this was to remain on paper only",
declares Varandian regretfully, for neither Khrimian Hairik, nor the saner minority of the Assembly would tolerate
this attempt to remake the Armenian church in accordance
with the "liberal spirit of the Dashnag ideology". The
Catholicos saw nothing but danger in this farce of an
Assembly, and most probably it was he who invited the
police authorities to put a stop to it.
The attempt of the Dashnagtzoutune to dispossess the
church of its property and its functions, and exploit them
for its own purposes was thus frustrated. The church and
the people had just rescued their sacred rights from the
encroachments of the Russian Czar, and would not tolerate
trespassing by Armenian despoilers.
The agitation against
the church in
Turkish Armenia,
which was started by the Dashnagtzoutune soon after the

declaration of Constitutional government in Turkey, was
simply another phase of the hostile attitude of this society
towards church and religion. This agitation had for its
object, the opening of all the Armenian churches for political
meetings. The church authorities and the people opposed
this agitation most vehemently, and there were widespread
dissensions and fights in practically every Armenian com
AGAINST THE CHURCH
35
munity. This was known as the "Open, Close" controversy,

and lasted three years.
In a great many instances, the Dashnag leaders made
their henchmen break into the churches, throw open the
doors, and start their political meetings, using the pulpit
and the chancel as their platform.
This dispute was so violent, that there were many
instances of riots among the disputants, and in one instance,
at least, two Armenians who wanted to protect the church
of Smyrna from being sacrileged, were then and there shot
and killed by Dashnag terrorists.
The committee of Union and Progress, Turkish allies
of the Dashnagtzoutune who controlled the Turkish gov
ernment, secretly encouraged these internal dissensions;
and the Dashnag violators of law and order were treated
very leniently by the Turkish police and in Turkish courts.
This movement against
the church was well supported

propaganda which was carried on sys

by an anti-religious
tematically in the Dashnag daily and periodical
publica
tions.
Being newly converted socialists, they represented
everything religious and ecclesiastical as reactionary and
medieval anachronisms.
Unfortunately, many were the
Armenian youths who followed these teachings; and faith
in religion, respect for paternal authority and other solid
social ideals in the hearts of many of the young generation
were undermined.
The anti-religious movement was carried to
such ex
tremes, that even the highest church dignitaries were treated
discourteously by Dashnag leaders.

I shall cite one glaring example of this disrespect
for religion and religious authority. The meeting of the
Armenian National Council, which was a sort of a legislative
body, always opened with a prayer by its president, the
Patriarch, who was always an Archbishop. Custom and

36
courtesy required the councilmen to stand up during these

In one instance, while the Patriarch was reciting
prayers.
the Lords prayer, Mr. Shahrigian, the leader of the Dashnag group in the council, and one who was high up in the
party, crossed his legs and kept his seat, declaring, after
wards, that religion did not mean anything to him.
The opposition of the clergy and people to these
designs for using the churches for political meetings, sprang
The church buildings
first of all from religious principles.
were for worship only.
Secondly, the Dashnag leaders,
who claimed they had no other meeting halls, used these
churches, wherever they were able to, for mass meetings
against the Russian government, which had at this period
(1909-1912) unearthed an alleged plot of the Dashnags
against the authorities in the Caucasus, and had imprisoned
many of their leaders. Such a movement against Russia was
agreeable to the young Turks, but would embarrass His
Holiness the Catholicos of Etchmiadzin, and would endan
ger the position of the Armenians in Russia. The Patriar
chate would not allow the churches to be used for such
agitation.
After throwing the entire Armenian community into
dissension and disorder, this "Open, Close" controversy
ended in the defeat of the Dashnag leadership.
The Armenians and
the Armenian authorities in Tur

key, based their opposition to the Dashnags principally on
the following points :

1.
Their leaders were Russian-Armenians, and there
fore, ignorant of the peculiar conditions of Turkey ;
but they concluded agreements with the Turkish
Authorities, over the heads of established official
bodies.
2.
During the period from 1908-1914 they frustrated

the efforts of the other Armenian political parties
THE WORLD WAR
37
and the Patriarchate to organize a united front to

the Turkish government.
They would rather ally
themselves with the young Turks, than with their
own co-nationals *). The popular conviction was,
that the Dashnag leaders were bought by special

privileges, seats in the Parliament, and offices.
Their socialistic program and propaganda among
3.
the youth and the peasants was obnoxious to the
Armenians, who thought such doctrines had no
place in a struggle for political freedom.
4.
Their anti-religious propaganda and publications,

undermined the morals of the youth.
When the world war broke out in Europe, the Turks

began feverish preparations for joining hands with the
In August 19 14 the young Turks asked the
Germans.
Dashnag Convention, then in session in Erzerum, to carry
out their old agreement of 1907, and start an uprising
among the Armenians of the Caucasus against the Russian
The Dashnagtzoutune refused to do this,

government.
and gave assurances that in the event of war between Russia
and Turkey, they would support Turkey as loyal citizens.
*) In the A. R. Federation, the Committee of Union and Progress, the

so-called young Turks, who controlled the Ottoman government at this period,
found ready and willing tools for their program of weakening the political
authority of the Armenian Patriarchate, which represented the nation before
The young Turks encouraged the Dashnag leaders
the Turkish government.
in their attempts to reorganize the Patriarchate and other ecclesiastical in
stitutions depending on
in accordance with the "liberal spirit of the Dash
nag ideology," being sure, that their success would mean the weakening of
the Armenian community throughout Turkey.
Even after the Adana massacres
of 1909, where 20,000 Armenians were killed, the Dashnagtzoutune supported
the young Turkish viewpoint, and weakened the position of the Patriarchate,
that demanded swift and drastic punishment for the instigators of that great
crime.
it,

THE WORLD WAR
38
On the other hand, they could not
be
held responsible for
the Russian-Armenians.
The Turks were not satisfied. They suspected them

of duplicity. This perhaps was not true, because the answer
given the Turks was based on a resolution adopted by the
The fact remains, however, that the leaders
convention.
of the Turkish Armenian section of the Dashnagtzoutune
did not carry out their promise of loyalty to the Turkish
cause when the Turks entered the war. The Dashnagtzou
in the Caucasus had the upper hand.
They were
swayed in their actions, by the interests of the Russian gov
ernment, and disregarded, entirely, the political dangers
that the war had created for the Armenians in Turkey.
tune

Prudence was thrown to the winds; even the decision of

their own convention of Erzerum was forgotten, and a call
was sent for Armenian volunteers to fight the Turks on the
Caucasian front.
Thousands of Armenians from all over the world,
flocked to the standards of such famous fighters as Antranik, Kery, Dro, etc.
The Armenian volunteer regiments
rendered valuable services to the Russian Army in the
However, their deeds of heroism
years of 1914-15-16.
and the blood they shed in the conquest of Turkish Armenia
by Russia, did not help the Armenian cause. The Dashnag
leaders declared, that the Russian government had promised
freedom for Armenia. There was no foundation to this:
and the deception was exposed finally.
But thousands of
Armenians had already answered the false call, and in
cidentally, millions were poured into the coffers of the
Dashnag "National Bureau".
On the other hand, the methods used by the Dashnag
tzoutune in recruiting these regiments were so open and
flagrant, that it could not escape the attention of the Turk
ish authorities, who were looking for an excuse to carry
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

out their program of exterminating
39
the Christian popula

tion which they had adopted as early as 191 1.

Many Armenians believe, that the fate of two millions
of their co-nationals in Turkey might not have proved so
disastrous, if more prudence had been used by the Dashnag
leaders during the war.
In one instance, one Dashnag
leader, Armen Garo, who was also a member of the Turk
ish Parliament, had fled to the Caucasus and had taken
active part in the organization of volunteer regiments to
fight the Turks. His picture, in uniform, was widely cir
culated in the Dashnag papers, and it was used by Talat
Pasha, the arch assassin of the Armenians, as an excuse for
his policy of extermination*).
The fact remains that the real representatives of the
Armenians in Turkey, the Patriarchate and its organs, were
never consulted by the Caucasian leaders of the Dashnagtzoutune in adopting their policies with regard to the Ar
menian people; yet, the disastrous consequences of these
policies were suffered by the Armenians in Turkey.
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION AND THE

ARMENIAN EFFORTS AT DEFENSE
The Russians did not liberate the conquered provinces
of Armenia ; and after the revolution, their army abandoned
the front, and left it defenseless against the Turks. The Na
tionalistic elements of the Dashnags in the Caucasus, along
with the National Council of the Western or Turkish Ar
*) When the deportations and exile of Armenian leaders began in the
summer of 1915. an Armenian lady, the wife of another Armenian deputy in
the Ottoman Parliament, had gone to plead with Talat Pasha, asking the
return of her husband from exile and probable death. During the interview,
Talat Pasha produced a copy of the Dashnag paper "Horizon" in which Armen
Garo's picture in the uniform of a volunteer was published, and, pointing to
the picture, said, "Madam, look at our mebous (deputy)".
Armen Garo, in
cidentally, was one of the "heroes" of the Bank Ottoman episode of 1896.
40
menians who had fled across the Russian border, tried to

raise an army corps under the leadership of Gen. Antranik
and the supreme command of Gen. Nazarbekoff, an old
Armenian veteran of the Russian army.
The bolshevistic branch of the Dashnags, led by such
leaders as Chamalian and Vratzian, who even up to this
date are in the secret Dashnag Bureau in Paris, opposed
the introduction of capital punishment as a disciplinary
measure into this new army.
They wanted regimental
councils or "proletarian discipline". Much valuable time
was wasted in this way. On the other hand, some Dashnag
leaders did everything within their power to frustrate
Antranik's efforts in Erzerum to organize a defense against
Vehib Pasha's army. Antranik had opposed the corrupt
methods and policies of the Dashnagtzoutune, therefore
That punishment cost
he had to be punished somehow.
the Armenians the strongholds of Erzerum, Kars and Alexandropol, and the lives of multitudes.

THE REPUBLIC
curious twist of Turkish and German diplomacy,
the Armenians were forced to declare the independence of
Russian Armenia, which was recognized by the Turks in
June 19 1 8, by the Treaty of Batoum. Turkish defeats at
Karakilisa and Sardarabad, and the stiffening resistance of
the Armenians were important factors in this recognition;
but the main reason was, that the Turks wanted to separate
Armenia from Russia and deal with it at their pleasure at
a more convenient time.
Secondly, they did not want an
enemy army in their rear during their advance towards
Bakou and the rich oil fields.
The Dashnag party found itself in the saddle. A
ministry and parliament were formed, in which the DashHowever, being
nags were the overwhelming majority.
By
THE REPUBLIC
41
long used to underhanded and violent methods as a revolu

tionary party, they failed to show any ability for govern
The ministry and the Parliament
ing and statesmanship.
were often overruled by the secret and powerful Dashnag
Bureau; and the agencies of law and order were often
flouted by Dashnag Mauserists *), who had been thus far
petted and pampered by the society for secret terroristic
purposes, and could not be controlled now. They tyrannized
the people and defied the government.
Speaking of the policies of the Armenian government,
the report of Gen. Harbord's Commission declares as
follows
"The policy however,
is unfortunately
by
methods, which are always liable to pre
Dashnagtzoutune
cipitate trouble".
H. Kachaznouni,
the
affected
former prime minister of the
Armenian Republic, decries the methods of his own party

in the following words:
"Armenia was a democratic republic
This was
the form.
In practice, our
But reality was otherwise.
party endeavored to control both the legislative body and

....
the government.
"There was created
an intolerable duality of authority;

on the surface it was the Parliament and the government,
while in secret, it was the party and its organs.
"
This
work of forming
state
of affairs made very difficult the
serious and sincere coalition.

Actually,
the alien elements who entered the coalition were forced
to pursue a policy which was not their own, since it was
being developed and planned outside of the government
and by party committees, to which they could not have
access and participation.
a
*) The name Mauserist is from the mauser pistols with which

henchmen of the Dashnag leaders were usually armed.
these
42
"In Armenia
there was no Parliament; it was an empty

form without content.
"The problems of state were being discussed and solved
behind closed doors, in the rooms of the Dashnag faction,
In
and then declared from the rostrum of the parliament.
reality, there was not even a parliamentary faction, because
this latter was under the very strict supervision of the
Dashnag Bureau, and was obliged to carry out its orders.
There was not a government either. This also, was ruled
by the Bureau; it was a kind of executive body for the
This was the Bolshevistic system.
Bureau in the state.
But what the Bolshevists are doing openly and consistently,
we were attempting to veil under democratic forms."
("Dashnagtzoutune Has Nothing More to Do", by H.
Kachaznouni, pages 31-32 and 38, Vienna, 1923).
Internal and external troubles were not long in fol

lowing.
the Dashnag government first of

all failed to establish peace and a minimum of law and order
within the country. Brigandage and oppression were fre
quent, and in many cases the arbitrary acts of the underlings

In internal affairs,
of the Dashnag chiefs precipitated trouble.
Secondly the socialistic legislation, passed by the Par

liament, tended to retard the work of economic reconstruc
tion of the country, by creating a large bureaucracy and sup
porting them at the expense of the peasants. For example,
the farm crops were declared government monopolies and
forcibly bought from the peasants at nominal prices and
sold abroad by government agents who also collected the
commission. The cotton crop was thus taken over by the
ministry of agriculture, and sold in Batoum in 19 19 by
Sarkis Araradian, the then minister of finance, who at the
same time collected his commission.
THE REPUBLIC
43
"Among the administrative and legislative enterprises,

says A. Khatisian, prime minister of Armenia, 19 19-1920,
we might mention the declaration of the agrarian laws,
by which, land in Armenia was nationalized and given to
the workers".
("The Origin and Development of the
Armenian Republic", by A. Khatisian, page 115, Athens,

i93o)In
proclamation of May 29, 1919, the Dashnag

Bureau, which was the real government, declared, that the
"Dashnagtzoutune, after realizing its political ideal, the
establishment of a Democratic republic, and being true to
its fundamental doctrine (socialism), will steer our ship
consistently and with determination, through the channel
of social reforms, to that haven of social justice, towards
which the workers of all the nations are bound, and where
the workers of Armenia, without distinction of race or
creed, will find the realization of the ideals of the entire
humanity."
Accordingly the people were invited by the
Dashnag press, to rise and take possession by force of in
dividually owned lands, and the property and lands be
longing to the churches.
Third the government failed to win the co-operation
of other political parties.
Fourth it could not maintain the dignity of the gov
ernment against foreign representatives.
A mere British
general in Erivan dictated to the prime minister in a way
that would be considered most insulting.
Fifth It failed to organize the defenses of the coun
try properly, because the trained and professional officers
of the general staff were overruled by Dashnag chieftains
who knew little or nothing about military science.
a
Externally.
The Dashnag government waged three wars in

two years and a half. The war on Georgia, in Dec. 19 18,
1.
44
lasted only three weeks but caused untold calamity to Ar

The war with Azerbaijan over Karabagh ended
menia.
Finally came the war with
disastrously for the Armenians.
Turkey in the fall of 1920, which almost put an end to the
republic and threatened the Armenian remnant with ex
At least two of these wars were avoidable.
termination.
the
The war with Georgia, waged over the question of

district of Lory, was precipitated by certain Dashnag
partisan leaders, over whom the government had no control,

and by the provocative acts of Russian officers in the
Armenian army.
"It
H.
Kachaznouni, that these

were inciting our military
circles against Georgia, and creating a hostile atmosphere
which was very favorable for beginning military operations.
is not improbable, says
(meaning the Russian officers)
of 4 or 5 months
as a state, and already we were engaged in war; while the
And
country had thousands of ills that needed attention.
we waged war against a neighbor with whom we had the
greatest need of allying ourselves closely. Wasn't Georgia
our only avenue for keeping in touch with the civilized
world?
Independently of the attitude of Georgia,
which was doubtless to be condemned, no little part has

"We had barely had
an existence
....
our own lack of ex

perience in political life, and our own unpreparedness for
("Dashnagtzoutune Has
conducting the life of a state."
Nothing More to Do", by H. Kachaznouni, pages 34, 35).
been played by our own incapacity,
the
the
The war with Turkey was indirectly the outcome of

Act of May 28, 19 19, by which the government of
Armenian Republic, claimed possession of the provinces
of Western or Turkish Armenia.
If we
remember that the

existing Republic was recognized by the Turks under the
treaty of Batoum, in which the Russian-Armenian envoys

THE REPUBLIC
45
renounced all territorial claims over Western Armenia, we

can readily comprehend why the Turks regarded the Act
of May 28, 1919, as a provocation for war, and attacked
the Armenian Republic as soon as they were ready.
On the other hand, the Armenian government over
estimated its own strength, and created an immediate occa
sion for conflict by occupying the district of Olti.
We are again going to quote from Kachaznouni, the
one time prime minister of Armenia, in order to show,
that the Dashnag government failed to take measures to
avoid this disastrous war.
"It is an irrefutable fact, says Kachaznouni, a flagrant
fact, that we have not done everything that we should have
done it was our duty to do in order to avoid war.
"And we have not done everything for the simple but
unpardonable reason, that we were ignorant of the real
strength of the Turks, and too sure of our own strength.
There lies the fundamental mistake. We were not afraid
of war, because we were sure of being victorious.
With
the carelessness of inexperienced and ignorant men, we
were not aware of the forces that the Turks had organ
ized on our borders, and so we were not cautious. On the
contrary, the hasty occupation of Olti was the gauntlet
which we threw down, as if intentionally, to the Turks; as
though we ourselves were desirous of war and went after
it." ("Dashnagtzoutune Has Nothing More to Do", by
H. Kachaznouni,
2.
41).
The arrogant attitude of
page
the Armenian govern

during the critical year of
ment towards Soviet Russia

1920, deprived the small and weak republic of a strong and
natural ally.
46
A BODY BLOW DEALT TO THE
ARMENIAN CAUSE
The so-called "Armenian Cause", was centered on the
issue of reforms for the Armenian provinces in Turkey;
in other words, it was a demand on the part of the West
ern Armenians that they be protected from oppression and
be given some measure of limited autonomy.
This demand
of the Armenians was recognized internationally by the
6 1 st Article of the treaty of Berlin, which the great powers
and Turkey had signed in 1878, after the Russo-Turkish
war*). Internationally, therefore, the Armenian Cause,
was the cause of the liberation of the Armenians of Turkey.

During the world war, the Armenian Cause was repre

sented before the allied powers, by a National Delegation,
representing the Western Armenians only, who spoke for
their cause only.
This delegation, headed by Boghos Noobar Pasha,

was recognized by the allies, and concluded formal agree
ments with them, according to which the Armenians were
to have autonomy in Cilicia, under the protection of France.
It was under these agreements, that the Armenian regi
ments fought for France in the Syrian campaign during 1917
and 19 1 8. The final defeat of the Turks raised Armenian
hopes for a free and autonomous existence in the greater
part of Western Armenia, which was now abandoned by
the Russian army.
The appearance, on the diplomatic scene, of the repre

sentatives of the newly formed Armenian Republic in the
Caucasus, complicated matters at once.
*)
~\
See Appendix
III.
A BODY BLOW
47
The Dashnag delegation led by A. Aharonian, instead

of co-operating with the National Delegation in the work
of achieving the freedom of Western Armenia, started
right away to lay plans for the removal of the National
The Dashnagtzoutune could not tolerate the

Delegation.
dominance of any other authority in Armenian life, but
its own.
They had repeatedly sacrificed the interests and
jeopardized the physical existence of the Western Armen
ians, in order to follow the policies and views of their lead
ers from the Caucasus. They would stop at nothing now
in order to discredit the National Delegation, which enjoyed
the confidence of all the Western Armenians, and to take
into their own hands the direction of the Armenian Cause
before the Peace Conference.

Accordingly, on May 28, 19 19, the government of

Erivan, came out with a proclamation by which it declared
the Armenian Provinces of Turkey which the Western
Armenians claimed from the allies united with the exist
ing republic.
This proclamation
It
is what is known as the
was actually a usurpation of authority

by a government which owed its existence to the incident
of the Russian Revolution, which did not represent the
Turkish Armenians, and which had not even been authorized
The whole
by its own parliament for this disastrous act.
thing was designed in Paris, plotted in the Dashnag Bureau
at Erivan, and foisted upon the public.
Act of May 28.
The immediate result of this
act was the flaring up

of an internal conflict among the Armenians, which made
it impossible for the political factions to present a united
front to the allies in the peace conference, which they had

done up
till
then.
The Social Democrats and
the Peoples
party withdrew from the government and the parliament

of the republic, protesting that the government had no
48
authority for such an unlawful act. This weakened the

government even on its own home front.
According to Kachaznouni, the Act of May 28 aimed
This did
to put the National Delegation out of existence.
not materialize.
While on the other hand, the intolerance
of the rulers at Erivan, made impossible the formation of
a coalition government, composed of both Eastern and
Western Armenians.
On the diplomatic front, the Act of May 28 created
confusion both among our representatives and in the minds
of the allied powers. The Armenian question was at first
the problem of the liberation of Turkish Armenia, which
the allies had promised and for which the efforts of the
Now, the
Western Armenians had created the basis.
Armenian question was something else. Accordingly, the
allied powers saw in this Act of May 28, an easy way out
of a difficult problem. Instead of liberating Western Ar
menia, and organizing it into a seperate state, they decided
to add some of the provinces of Turkish Armenia to the
This was consummated in
Sevres
treaty*). However, they also attached a joker; that the
final solution of the entire problem depended upon the
course of the Russian revolution.
The cause of the freedom of Western Armenia was
thus killed by Dashnag intolerance and intrigue.
The
treaty of Sevres which recognized Armenia, at the same
time, denied freedom to Western Armenia. It was signed
by the representatives of the Republic at Erivan, on Aug.
10, 1920.
The same men were to repudiate the Sevres
treaty and the claims of Armenians in Turkey by signing
the treaty of Alexandropol on Dec. 2, 1920.
existing Republic.
*)
See
Appendix
VI.
the
DISASTER
49
DISASTER
The Act of May 28, 19 19, which claimed Turkish Ar

menia for the newly formed Armenian Republic, that was
recognized by the Turks under the treaty of Batoum, (June
4, 1918), prepared grounds for the attack of Mustafa
Kemal on Armenia. As soon as the treaty of Sevres was
signed in Paris, the Turks began their attack. The Armen
The European
ians were without allies in the Caucasus.
allies were too far distant to give them aid. The country

was not unified internally,
and the army was demoralized

by Dashnag military methods. The Armenian forces failed
to make an effective stand before the seasoned Turkish
The key fortress of Kars was surrendered; and
troops.
the Turks advanced as far as Alexandropol, where on Dec.
2, 1920, the Dashnag government, represented by a delega
tion headed by A. Katissian, signed a treaty that virtually
ended the independence of Armenia, and put the fate of
the Armenian remnant in the hands of Turkish Pashas.
(The Treaty of Alexandropol is given at the end of this
discussion, Appendix IV).
A timely intervention of Soviet Russia saved the Ar
menians.
Concerning this Bolshevik intervention H. Kachaznouni declares:
"The Bolsheviks entered Armenia without meeting
any resistance. This Was the decision of our Party
"There were two reasons for acting this way; First,
we could not resist it if we wanted to. Second, we hoped
that the Soviet authorities, backed by Russia, would be
able to introduce some order in the state a thing which
we, all alone, had failed to do, and it was very plain already
that we would not be able to do."
The Dashnags were driven out of authority in the
newly formed Soviet Armenian Republic.
50
AFTER THE DISASTER

The Dashnag leaders, however, could not reconcile
themselves with the idea of being out of power. Especially,
they were deprived of a sure means of livelihood and were
Being of
utterly discredited before the Armenian public.
Bolshevistic tendencies, some of them, such as S. Vratzian,
the present head of the invisible Bureau in Europe and a
former editor of the Boston "Hairenik", were allowed
by the Bolshevik Armenian leaders to stay in Armenia.
Two months and a half elapsed since the fall of the
Dashnag government, when on Feb. 18, 1921, a serious
under the leadership of Vratzian broke out in

Armenia against the Bolshevik government.
The Bolshevik forces were temporarily driven out of
Armenia, but Vratzian's government was not sure of its
own ability to hold out against them. They sought military
assistance from the Turks by invoking the infamous treaty
signed at Alexandropol, article 7 of which provided, that
"whenever the Armenian government so desires, the Great
National Assembly of Turkey undertakes to give armed
assistance to Armenia, against internal and external dan
gers." The reentry of a Turkish army into Armenia would
have meant additional destruction and disaster for this
However, the Dashnag leaders
much harassed land.
seemed to prefer Turkish rather than Russian protectorate
over what was left of the Armenian Republic.
So, on
March 18, 1921, Mr. Vratzian sent to Angora a formal
appeal in which Armenia expressed the hope that "during
her fight she would receive help from her neighbors; and
in the first instance, the interests of the Turkish people
would also require that Armenia should issue victorious
from this fight and remain independent." Then the Turkish
government was asked to let the Armenian government

rebellion
AFTER THE DISASTER
51
know, whether it "finds it possible to send military aid to

Armenia; and if able to do so, to what extent and when?
"In making this appeal, the Armenian Government
relies on the friendly relations that have been established
under the treaty of Alexandropol, and which have been
disturbed during the bolshevik rule." (The complete text
of this appeal by Vratzian is given in Appendix V.)
Fortunately for the Armenian remnant, the awe of
the rising power of the Soviet Union kept the Turkish
army out of Armenia.*)
There was much bloodshed, until the Dashnags were
again defeated by the Bolshevists, and driven out of the
This civil war lasted almost three months, and
country.
cost Armenia the lives of tens of thousands.
ACTIVITIES IN EXILE

The Dashnag leaders and former ministers
came out
now and declared that they had decided to follow a policy

of loyal opposition, toward Soviet Armenia. However,
they secretly fomented conspiracies against her. With an
amazing flexibility of policy and conscience, they extended
friendly hands to their former foes; the Mousavat party
of the Azerbaijan Tartars, and the Mensheviks of Georgia.
*) This appeal of Vratzian as the president of the newly formed Ar
menian government, was virtually the ratification of the treaty of Alexandropol,
by which the Dashnag leaders declared to the whole world that Annenia
has renounced all her demands on Turkey and has no more cause of dispute.
The Turks utilized the above mentioned treaty and this last appeal of Vratzian
as powerful weapons in the conference of the great powers at London, in
March 1921, and again in the Lausanne conference in 1923, against the de
mands of the Armenians for a free national status on the soil of Turkish
Armenia.
They claimed that they had settled all disputes with Armenia, by
the treaty of Alexandropol
and for them the Armenian question did not
exist any more.
Thus was consummated the burial of the Armenian question,
which was already killed by the representatives of the Dashnagtzoutune when
The organiza
they signed the treaty of Alexandropol on December 2, 1920.
tion that set out to free Turkish Armenia, finished by first repudiating, and
then by interring that same cause.
52
These societies were similarly exiled from their respective

In 1922 there
countries by the advent of the Bolsheviks.
was secretly concluded what is now known as the "Prome
thean" alliance between the Dashnags, the Tartars, the
Georgians and the representatives of Daghestan Moham
Its purpose was to organize a concerted rebellion
medans.
in Transcaucasia against the Soviet Republics.
Attempts
to this effect were suppressed rigorously; but the secret
agreement is still in force.
Failing in this, the Dashnags tried to consolidate all the
Armenian political and other organizations abroad, with
the idea of creating a sort of government without territory,
the alleged purpose of which was to coordinate national
and cultural activities of all the Armenian communities in
different countries. The real motive behind this move was
to use the united public opinion and the material resources
of all the Armenians abroad, against Soviet Armenia.
This policy was vigorously opposed
and frustrated by
Liberal party, which, although

of socialism or Bolshevism,
championed, however, the cause of Soviet Armenia as the
only political hope for the nation.
The Dashnagtzoutune tried next to cooperate with the
Kurdish leaders in their rebellion against Turkey.
They
made their followers believe, that in case of success the
Kurds were going to recognize Armenian rigths over the
territory of Turkish Armenia. There was no basis for
such belief, as the Kurds claimed the same territory as part
of their national program.

the Armenian Democratic

hostile to the principles
The Dashnagtzoutune mulcted its credulous followers

of thousands of dollars to support the Kurdish cause. The
Kurds were finally defeated in 1928. Net result: much
needed propaganda for the Dashnagtzoutune, waste of the
hard earned money of the Armenian workers, and more

DISSATISFACTION
53
oppressive measures by the Turkish government in dealing

with the Armenian remnants in Turkey.
However, they sought other fields of activity, and
finally managed to break up the unity of some of the cornThese societies were formed in various
patriotic societies.
lands by Armenians coming from the same home town in
their old country.
They tried to raise money, so as to
rescue their refugee compatriots, send them into Soviet
Armenia, and establish them in towns named after their
old homes. These towns, which have been built in Armenia
by these same compatriotic societies, are now growing and
developing through the co-operation of the Armenian gov
ernment. Some of these societies are now on the verge of
disruption, however, on account of the opposition of their
Dashnag members.
On all these various fronts the Dashnags met deter
mined oppoistion from other political parties, from or
ganizations devoted to the work of Armenian reconstruction
Their most serious mis
and from the people in general.
take has been a campaign of opposition, bordering on en
mity which they have been waging against Soviet Armenia.
This propaganda however, failed to dampen the patriotic
ardor of the Armenians of the diaspora, and could not put
a stop to their efforts at repatriating the refugees scattered
in Greece, Syria, France and the Balkans.
DISSASTISFACTION WITHIN THE RANKS

Dissatisfaction against this disastrous leadership be
gan within the ranks of the Dashnagtzoutune right after
the signing of the Alexandropol treaty in December 1920.
For
while it was in secret. Soon it came out into the open.

Many leading Dashnags, who had always believed in
socialism or bolshevism, demanded that their party stop
its opposition to Soviet Armenia, liquidate itself, and join
the communist party.
Being refused in this, they severed
a
54
their connections and went over, in groups, to join the com

munists, as there was hardly any difference in their ideology.
These were branded as traitors by the leaders, who were
able to maintain the party intact, thanks to their financial
resources.
This process of disintegration was accelerated by the

famous booklet of Hovhanes Kachaznouni, a life long
Dashnag and one time prime minister of the Armenian
Government,
entitled, "Dashnagtzoutune Has Nothing
More to Do."
After publishing his booklet, in which

he tried to prove,
has no more ground for existence,
that Dashnagtzoutune
and advising it to disband and support Armenia, Kachaz
nouni went over to Erivan and tendered his services to the
His example was followed by
Armenian government.
many others, who were all "traitors", of course, for the
Dashnag high command.
Soon it dawned on the more nationalistic elements in
the rank and file of the party, that the present Armenia
was really the beginning of a political future for the Ar
menian people; and they put a demand that the party stop
its enmity to Soviet Armenia.
Convention after convention failed to satisfy this de
mand and finally many groups left the party and organized
separately or joined the other parties friendly to Armenia.
The most serious schism came two years ago, when almost
the entire Dashnag organization in France came out openly
against the policies of the Central Bureau.
These dissenting groups are mostly Western Ar

menians or Armenians from Turkey, who realized, finally,
the betrayal of the Cause of Western Armenia by their
leaders from the Caucasus, and saw the political blind alley
into which they were being led by these unscrupulous in
triguers, at the present time.
WHAT THEY ONCE SUPPORTED
55
THEY CONDEMN NOW WHAT THEY

ONCE SUPPORTED
The patent criticisms leveled
by the Dashnagtzoutune
at the present Soviet Armenia is that, it is not independent,
and it is a communistic and not a national government.
have no ground to stand upon. The

Dashnags themselves, while they were at the helm, tried
to place Armenia under the protection of some great Power
the United States for one through the League of Na
tions. The mandate of any great Power, if it had material
ized, would have meant a limitation of Armenian inde
These criticisms

pendence.
Armenia has now secured its political existence, not

by accepting the mandate of a great Power, but by joining
hands, as one of the federated republics, with the great
commonwealth of nations known as the Soviet Union.
Given the geographical, political and economic situation
of Soviet Armenia, the severance of its federal ties from
the Soviet Union, would mean nothing but ruination.
As to
the communistic form of the government, it is

in line with the socialistic program of the Dash
perfectly
nagtzoutune.
If
the Dashnags were sincere patriots, they would ar

dently support the present political union of Armenia with
On the other hand, if they were sincere ad
Moscow.
herents of socialism, they would not oppose the application
of socialism in Armenia now.
They are neither.
Their
leaders are simply unprincipled opportunists, who lead their

followers into a blind alley for their own selfish material
interests.
56
What they condemn now, was in their program
once.
Here is what we read in the Dashnag program published
Hairenik Press, in 191 1.

heading "Political Demands",
in Boston, by the
Under the
"Led
we read:
principles, striving to attain our

purpose not by political separation, but by reorganization
of the body politic on federal foundations, and taking into
consideration the real and ripened needs of the territory
we live in, the party proposes the following demands."
by socialistic
For Transcaucasia, these demands are as follows :

1.
"The democratic republic of Transcaucasia shall
form an integral part of the federated republic
of Russia, united to it in matters of self-defense,

2.
monetary system, customs and foreign policy.

"In all internal affairs, the Transcaucasian Re
public shall be independent, having its central
parliament, elected by general, equal, direct,
secret and proportional balloting. Every Trans
caucasian, who is over 20 years old, shall have
the right to vote, irrespective of sex.
3.
4.
5.
6.
"Transcaucasia
shall send its representatives to
the federal Parliament of Russia, elected in the
same manner.
"The Transcaucasian Republic shall be divided
into cantons, enjoying the widest self-rule.
The
communities likewise shall have self-rule in purely
communal affairs.
"In deciding the boundaries of the cantons, the
geographical and cultural characteristics of the
population shall be taken into consideration, in
order to form as homogenous units as possible.
"All the legislative, judicial and executive bodies
as well as the officials shall be elected by the
people, according to the above mentioned system.
ATTEMPT TO CONTROL THE CHURCH

7.
"Direct legislation,
57
and the rights of referendum
and initiative."
Even a casual comparison of the above articles of
the Dashnag program with the present reality of Armenia,
will make it clear, that these demands of the A. R. Fed
eration are more than fulfilled. While the very name of
Armenia is eliminated from the above demands, it forms
today not a canton of Transcaucasia, but one of the fed
erated republics of Transcaucasia, and is united to the
central Union of the Soviets, and enjoys freedom for cul
tivating its own national life and culture.

Having failed in all their previous attempts to or

ganize the Armenian diaspora into a unified body which
they could use as a weapon against the Soviet Armenian
government, the Dashnag high command decided to try
another strategy.
For thirty years previously they had preached against
church and religion. Now, all of a sudden, they discovered
that they believed in religion and in the Armenian Apostolic
church, as a bulwark of Armenian nationalism.
The church was being persecuted by the Soviet regime.
Echmiadzin is robbed of its lands and of its means of sup
port. His Holiness the Catholicos is a prisoner in the
ancient seat of the Armenian church and is constantly being
hounded by the Cheka. Therefore, it will be a good thing
for the Armenians to move the Holy See to some place
outside of Soviet Armenia
After this was achieved, the
Dashnag high command thought, it would be easy to use
the moral prestige of the Holy See, to discredit the Soviet
Armenian leaders in the eyes of the people.
At one time in 1930, events seemed to play into their
hands.
His Holiness, Kevork V, died during that year.
58
Dashnagtzoutune came out openly then and declared that

the Soviet Armenian government was not going to permit
the meeting of a Church Council at Echmiadzin for the
election of a successor; or, if it did, it was going to dictate
the election, as Catholicos, of a churchman who was al
ready a tool of the Soviet secret police.
Both these prophecies failed. The Armenian govern
ment allowed the Church Council, with delegates from all
over the world, laymen, and churchmen, to convene at
The new successor to
Echmiadzin in November, 1932.
the throne of St. Gregory the Illuminator who was elected,
His Holiness Catholicos Khoren, could not be accused by
the Dashnagtzoutune as a tool in the hands of the Cheka.
However, they floated a new story; that the Soviets

allowed the election of a man like Catholicos Khoren, be
that he enjoyed the confidence of the
Armenian people abroad; and therefore, it would be easier
for them to mislead them through him. This being the
case, the churches and churchmen would not be committing
an offense, if they simply disregarded the decrees of the
cause they knew
Holy
See.
Almost from the first day of his landing in the United

States, His Eminence the late Archbishop Leon Tourian
had to fight these attempts to belittle the authority of the
Catholicos,
the
Holy
and the underhanded
propaganda
for moving
See from Echmiadzin.
Church authorities who opposed the Dashnag de

signs and methods were everywhere denounced and sub
They were represented as the tools
jected to indignities.
of the Soviet secret police, who fomented conspiracies
against the national aspirations of the Armenians and
These churchmen were declared
against the Dashnags.
to be the allies of communists. At the present time,
there is hardly any Prelate of the Armenian church, who
59
has not fallen under this accusation, and who has not been
subjected to persecution and calumny. A partial list of

these churchmen is to be found at the end of this discussion
(see Appendix

II).
shall mention only one notorious example of Dashnag insolence in dealing with church authorities who fail
to please them.
Patriarch Sahag of the Armenians in
Syria, was bitterly denounced by Housaper, the Dashnag
official organ of Cairo, Egypt, because of a recent encyclical
in which His Holiness exhorted his flock to refrain from
acts of violence and to cultivate brotherly love.
The oc
casion for this pastoral letter, was the assassination in
Beirult, last October, of one Aghazarian, a bitter opponent
of the Dashnags. Neither the said murder, nor the DashBut
nagtzoutune were mentioned in the pastoral letter.
the Housaper, denounced vehemently this "Cawing of 111
Omen", and closed its editorial with the following inflam
matory remarks:
"
the gontag (pastoral letter) of the Patri
arch is wicked.
"It is a cawing of ill omen, that threatens our
people, who long for peace, with the dangers of new
schisms.
"However, is it only our lot to
be
calm and circum
spect?
"Let your
blood be on your heads."

By controlling the churches in different countries, not
only they hoped to win over the bishops and the prelates,
to the support of their campaign against Soviet Armenia,
but incidentally, to benefit financially, as these churches had
property and income in a good many places.
60
THE LAST DESPERATE DRIVE

Failure on all these fronts and the gradual disruption
of their ranks, forced the Dashnag General Convention,
which met in Paris in March 1933, to take drastic meas
ures. They had to terrorize the diaspora into submission,
incidentally stop the gradual disintegration of the
rank and file. There could be no better means to achieve
this double purpose, than to start a violent campaign
War against the enemy would
against their opponents.
bring internal unity. In this, they succeeded in part.
and

It
was decided to create a secret Supreme Council

with invisible headquarters, and a central Bureau for win
dow dressing. The real power and the direction of affairs
was to be in the hands of these few men in the dark. The
policy of action adopted was secret intrigue, conspiracies
and violence. Of these methods they were past masters.
The declaration was openly broadcast that the only ob
stacle to their domination of the Armenian diaspora was
the Armenin Democratic Liberal Party; therefore, they
should be fought by every means and on evrey front.
The immediate
flag of the defunct
fight was the Tricolor

Armenian government.
All of a
sudden quarrels sprang up in Egypt, France, Greece,
America and Bulgaria, over the flag which the Dashnags
wanted to raise in every public function and at every public
gathering place.
excuse
for
Acts of violence followed in the wake of these quarrels.

Armenian leaders of official standing, both laymen and
churchmen, were assaulted in Egypt, Syria, Greece, Amer
ica, and elsewhere.
Even murders were committed in
some
of
these countries.
61
The
much lamented Archbishop Tourian, Prelate of

the Armenian church in America, was assassinated because
he obeyed the orders of His Holiness, the Catholicos, to
keep the church away from political influences and to pre
vent its being used as a moral weapon in the hands of un
believers and the avowed enemies of the government of

Armenia. He did not belong to any political faction. He
was a devoted servant of the church only, and had only her
interests at heart.
During the Armenian day exercises at
the Chicago fair last year, he supported the decision of
the committee in charge, which was to display only the
Stars and the Stripes.
He was opposed by a group of
Dashnag adherents, who had insisted on bringing the Tri
color of the former Armenian government into the hall,
in spite of the decision of the committee. The Prelate's
stand was supported by the votes of an overwhelming

majority of the audience.
However, the Chicago incident was not the real reason

for the Dashnag opposition to the Prelate. This an
tagonism started soon after he landed in this country in
1
93 1, and tried to preserve the moral prestige of the Holy
See of Echmiadzin, which was being represented by the
Dashnag press as controlled by the Soviet Secret Service
the Cheka.
The Archbishop also opposed the Dashnag
propaganda in favor of removing the Holy See from Ar
menia to some other country.

Their success in this move
would have meant the closing of a spiritual center that has
existed for sixteen centuries, and the final stamping out
of Christianity from Soviet Armenia. Armenian bishops
all over the world acted like Archbishop Tourian did, and
most all of them incurred the enmity of the Dashnag
society.
to
The incident in Chicago was used merely as

intensify the persecution of the Prelate.
an excuse
Led
by
62
Hairenik, their
mouthpiece in Boston, the

entire Dashnag organization went out on the war-path.
Calumnies and indignities were hurled in abundance at the
For
churchman who had dared to "insult the tri-color".
months, previous to the death of this saintly servant of
God, bitter hatred and denunciation of him were spouted
by the Hairenik and roared from platforms.
the
central
He was first represented
as the
agent
of the Soviet

Cheka, and his ousting from office was demanded. He was

then threatened with violence, at first covertly, and soon,
Besides pouring out its venom and malice ed
openly.
itorially, the Hairenik admitted to its columns communica
tions which demanded that the Archbishop be punished
On July 27, 1933, it published a letter in
ruthlessly.
which a monetary reward was promised to those who
would teach the Prelate a lesson. The writer of another
letter, published by the Hairenik on August 1, 1933, de
manded that Tourian "be ruthlessly punished", and ex
pressed surprise that "Tourian has left Chicago without
being punished".
The deplorable results of this fanatical agitation were

soon to follow. On August 13, 1933, some young ruffians
belonging to the Dashnag society assaulted the Prelate in
Westboro, Mass. and would have caused him serious phy
sical injury if they had not been prevented.
Three of
these were arrested, tried and punished.
The Hairenik
condoned this outrage in an editorial on August 17, 1933,
and made heroes of the culprits, at the same time blaming
the victim for the episode.
The overwhelming
majority of the community sup

ported the Prelate. His Holiness, the Catholicos of
Echmiadzin, Supreme head of the Armenian church, ap
proved of the conduct of the Archbishop and sent him,
repeatedly, his blessings and full confidence.
He ordered
63
that the controversy be stopped, and the community follow

The Dashnags alone defied the authority of
the Prelate.
His Holiness, and continued in their anarchistic opposition
Short of actually inciting their
in a more violent fashion.
followers to murder the Prelate, the Dashnag publications
did everything else, in order to injure him morally and
materially.
virulent editorial entitled, "A Masterpiece of
Pharisaism", Hairenik hurled blasphemy and insult at the
late Prelate, who had published a pastoral letter for the
Christmas season, exhorting his people to cast away hatred
and selfishness and cultivate brotherly love and forgiveness.
In

"That unworthy clergyman is so shameless, that he is not

even ashamed of giving such advice," declares the Dashnag paper, and continues, "Indeed, instead of addressing
to 'the beloved people' those sermons, the sincerity of
which
nobody can believe, Archbishop Leon would have
rendered an infinitely more christian and patriotic service
to this colony and this church, if he would have, at least
under the inspiration of the great mystery of Christmas,
the common decency of publicly confessing the sins he has
committed, and, as a first step of repentance, he would re
sign once for all from his culpable leanings of dividing this
colony and this church".
This editorial appeared on December 21st, 1933, three

days before the assassination of the Prelate in the Holy
Cross Armenian church of New York. This horrible
crime shocked everybody except the members of the DashThese latter
nagtzoutune, their leaders and their press.
could hardly conceal their satisfaction; their only regret
was that eight members of their society were arrested and
indicted for the murder.
They even tried to excuse the
crime, and held the victim and his supporters morally re
sponsible for the bloody tragedy.
64
The Boston
Hairenik, which had for
months
preached hatred against the Prelate, and had inflamed
the passions of its followers to white heat, came out with
a brazen editorial in its issue of December 27th, 1933,
and expressed the wish that the blood of the Archbishop
would "Finally bring to their senses all those who incite
and inflame the passions of the masses" . With the same
breath, the Dashnag sheet blamed the Cheka Soviet
secret police and the opponents of the Armenian Revolu
tionary Federation, for the unfortunate situation. "More
over, said the Hairenik, the opponents of the A. R. F.
gradually became very rash and reckless in their inciting
and intransigeant conduct, and in a precipitous manner,
brought upon us the stormy reality in which we are found".
The above sentences can only mean one thing, that those
who dare to oppose the Dashnag society are bound to suffer
punishment and physical injury. Such language and men
tality are becoming only to the Italian Mafia and the
underworld gangsters.
six
Not
in

it,
one Dashnag paper condemned the murder with

out reservation.
Some even excused
as did the Paris
Harach
its issue of January 5th, 1934, in the following
words.
"//
or any Dashnag has sug

the Dashnagtzoutune
gested this murder, under such horrible circumstances, and
without any excuse, they also should be tried and con
demned."
Of
excuses,
the
Dashnagtzoutune
had
plenty,
of
course.
Armenian public opinion did not hesitate in coming

to the decision that the group that had so bitterly hated
and persecuted the Archbishop was closely connected with
the instigators
wave
Armenian
and the plotters of the murder.

of indignation and protest swept the
mighty
all over the world and the United States.

Public mass meetings were held in which the Dashnag
society and its leaders were charged with responsibility
for the crime; and the people, stirred to the bottom
of its soul, demanded that the actual murderers, as well as
the organizers of the murder, be found and handed over
to justice
Special memorial services were held in the Armenian
churches all over the world, and the death of the Prelate
was mourned by the highest ecclesiastical authorities.
He
All national organizations and
was declared a martyr.
groups came out officially, and expressed deep sorrow for
the crime. All the Armenian press condemned the A. R.
all, except
Federation as the author of the crime; that
the Dashnag press, which acted true to its traditional
method of blackening the character of their victims. Even
after his death, the late Prelate was subjected to calumnies
and slander.
Whatever the fate of the nine Dashnags who are now
under indictment
New York for the murder of the Arch
bishop, the Armenian public will always be firm in its con
viction, that the demands of justice will be only partly
satisfied until the real instigators and plotters of this hor
rible crime are found and punished.
The late Archbishop Leon Tourian was martyred for
his faithfulness to his duty and his God.
in
is,
communities

65
66

CONCLUSION
Dashnagtzoutune was organized for liberating Turk
Its leaders, all Armenians from the Cau
ish Armenia.
casus, failed to take into consideration the peculiar political
and social conditions under which the Armenian people lived
in Turkey; and their insurrectional attempts and methods
were used as excuses by the Turkish authorities for mas
sacres and renewed oppression.
Its opportunism, its internal corruption and terroristic
methods prevented the best Armenian elements from join
ing the movement for Armenian independence; while its
adherence to the Russian socialism created confusion and
wasted much precious energy in the maelstrom of the
Russian revolution.
Its high handed acts in dealing with the instituted
Armenian authorities in Turkey, created internal quarrels
and prevented the formation of a unified front against the
Turkish government before the world war, and in the al
lied conferences, after the war, thereby preventing the
solution of the Turkish Armenian question independently
of the course of the Russian revolution. This failure was
consummated in the treaty of Sevres. By their signing
this treaty themselves, instead of the Armenian National
Delegation, the rightful representatives of the Armenians
in Turkey, the Dashnag government of the Armenian Re
public invited the Turkish attack on itself and hastened its
own downfall.
The former ministers and officials of the Armenian
Republic fomented internal dissensions and quarrels wher
ever they went, in order to impose their will on the Ar
menian people and its institutions.
Being always believers
in terroristic methods, the Dashnag leaders encouraged
CONCLUSION
67
physical violence against their opponents, with the result,

that many acts of violence have been committed by their
followers during the last few years in various countries.
While the Armenian people, as a whole, and all its
organizations, political, charitable, ecclesiastical etc. see a
political future for our race in the present Soviet Armenia,
and therefore support it despite its communistic regime,
and desire to bring their assistance to its reconstruction,
the Dashnagtzoutune stands alone in its opposition, advo
cates its separation from the federal union of the Soviets,
and foments plots against its government.
Thus we behold the picture of the A. R. Federation
as an enemy
of
the nucleus
of Armenian political life;
as
an organization that has degenerated so far, that it can be

compared with the Italian Mafia, and the gangsters of this
country. It stands alone and condemned by the Armenian

Its hands are raised against everybody, its plotpublic.
tings and crimes have rocked the conscience of all decent
Armenians, and have disgraced our people before the

civilized world.
68
APPENDIX I
A partial list of Armenian victims of terrorism.
Isahag Jamharian, a wealthy Moscow millionaire,
stabbed to death in 1902, within the enclosure of the Armenian
church at Moscow, by the agents of a group who had previously
abducted him and tried to extort money. ('History of the Dash
nagtzoutune',' by M. Varandian, pages 325-326-327).
2.
Mateos Baliozian, a wealthy Armenian merchant of
Smyrna, was murdered in 1902, by one Horen Sarkisian, a mem
ber of the Dashnag secret group. ('History of the Dashnagtzoutune', by M. Varandian, page 450). Baliozian was accused of
betraying Armenian revolutionists to the Turkish government.
This suspicion had no basis. The more probable motive of his
murder was that he would not give financial aid to local revolu
tionary chieftains.
1.
Gerektzian was killed in Erzerum in 1891 by the decision

of the local Dashnag committee.
They cast lots and the lot was
drawn by Aram Aramian, who killed Gerektzian.
('History of
the Dashnagtzoutune', by M. Varandian, page 86).

3.
Mihran,
a famous fighter of the A. R. Federation, had

the
adoption of socialism as a program by the society.
opposed
In his opposition he even had threatened to use violence. He
4.
was found guilty by the Dashnag Convention of Vienna in 1907

and was condemned to death. This sentence was carried out in
1909. ('History of the Dashnagtzoutune', by M. Varandian, page
491).
Abbot Arsen Vartabed of the monastery of Akhtamar,

near Van, and his secretary Mihran, were brutally murdered in
Ishkan and his
1904 by Ishkan, a notorious Dashnag chieftain.
5.
gang attacked the monastery one night, dragged the abbot and
his secretary out, shot them first and then stabbed them to
death.
The bodies were then cut to pieces and thrown on the
shores of lake Van. Arsen Vartabed was a saintly and patriotic
clergyman. He had opposed the designs of Ishkan , who wanted
APPENDIX
69
to control the property and the income of the monastery. After

his death, Ishkan and his gang pillaged the ancient monastery.
Dehertzi David was a very capable and trustworthy
man in the ranks of the Dashnags in Van. He enjoyed the con
fidence of the local Committee and knew all the secrets of the
He was therefore sent into Persia on a secret mission.
society.
Returning to Van he found that his fiancee had been gravely
mistreated by Aram, the chief Dashnag leader in the district. He
was immediately disarmed and imprisoned at Aram's order, but
Maddened with thoughts of revenge, he
managed to escape.
betrayed everything to the Turkish authorities, causing the arrest
of many, and the confiscation of all the weapons of the society.
He was one day shot and killed early in 1908.
6.
Garjgantzi Manoug, a former Dashnag, who had op

posed the authority and the arbitrary acts of Ishkan, Dashnag
However, the murderer was
leader, was shot and killed in 1910.
shot by a companion of his victim and died in a few days, after
charging Ishkan with responsibility for the unfortunate episode.
7.
Berdos Capamajian, the mayor of Van, a wealthy and

ambitious man had antagonized Ishkan. He was shot and killed
one winter night in 1912 while- entering his carriage with his wife
and daughter.
8.
9.
Hampartzoum Arakelian, the well known 70 year old
editor of the journal "Mushag" of Tiflis, and a powerful and re
lentless foe of the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation, whose
biting pen and sarcasm had mercifully lashed the Dashnag stu
pidity and arbitrariness for many years, was one night stabbed
and killed in his bed by terrorists. He had often been branded as
a 'traitor' by the Dashnag papers.
Popular opinion blamed the
Tiflis Committee of the Dashnags for this crime, which was fol
lowed as usual, by a campaign of falsification and calumny in the
Dashnag press throughout the world. This was in 1918.
Garjigian,
Dashnag of high rank, who occupied a

ministerial chair in the newly formed Armenian Republic at
Erivan, was shot and killed late in 1918 by another Dashnag, an
officer of the army, Egor Der Minasian. The real motives for
this murder were never made public by the government. The
10.

70
probable causes may have been dissensions within the Dashnag

party.
11. Bedros Atamian, manager of the Ramgavar paper,
'Nor Alik', was attacked on a street in Saloniki, Greece, on the
night of November 4, 1926, and hit on the head and stabbed.
He died in the hospital after a few hours. Arshak Enofkian, a
Dashnag, was arrested for this crime, just when he was going to
sail from Saloniki for Marseilles, France, on a false passport.
The case was tried before the criminal court in Saloniki, on
Arshag Enofkian was found
January 26, 27, and 28, 1928.
as
an
was
and
sentenced
to four years of hard
accessory,
guilty
labor and a fine of 15,000 drachmes.
Dekhruni, intellectual, a member of the Hunchagist
12.
party, was shot and killed in 1929 in Beirut, Syria. A Dashnagtzagan, Kuchuk Stepan, was accused of the murder, but was ac
quitted finally. Dekhruni was a vehement opponent of the Dashnagtzoutune, and public opinion blamed the Dashnag Committee
of Beirut for this murder.
13.
Sarkis Keyijian, intellectual, a dissenting Dashnag, who
opposed the Bureau in Paris, was shot to death in Athens, Greece,
July 20, 1933. Several Dashnagtzagans were accused of this
murder by the authorities and are still under indictment.
14. Mihran Aghazarian, a Hunchagist editor and a bitter
foe of the Dashnagtzoutune, on whose life an attempt had already
been made several years ago, was shot and killed in Beirut, Syria,
October 13, 1933. The murderers have not been arrested so far,
but the Armenian public accused the local Dashnag society
openly for this crime, and the victim was given a national funeral.
APPENDIX
71
APPENDIX II
Armenian Churchmen Persecuted by the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation
Archbishop Leon Tourian, who was brutally murdered on
Dec. 24, 1933, in the Armenian Holy Cross Church of New York,
allegedly by Dashnag terrorists, was not the only churchman
of high rank persecuted by the Armenian Revolutionary Fed
This society waged a campaign of calumny and
eration.
persecution against all those leaders of the Armenian people,
who would not allow the exploitation of the church and thip
This campaign
national institutions by the Dashnag trespassers.
existed for some time, but assumed a more violent character in
the last few years.
The following
being
persecuted
are the most prominent

by the Dashnagtzoutune:
churchmen who are

Most Rev. Archbishop Mesrob Magistross: This churchman was

formerly the Prelate of Tiflis, Caucasus. During the world war he
presided over the so-called National Bureau, that was engaged in
recruiting and equiping the Armenian Volunteer regiments for the
Russian Army. This Bureau was under the control of the Dash
nagtzoutune, and the Archbishop was everywhere advertised as a
great patriot in the Dashnag press. A few years ago this eminent
churchman was appointed to the Prelacy of the Diocese of PersoIndia. On account of his friendly attitude toward Soviet-Armenia,
the Dashnag society represented him as a communist to the Per
sian government, and, as a result of this false accusation he was
expelled from Persia.
Rt. Rev. Bishop Roupen Manasian.

He is the Prelate of the
Armenians in Mesopotamia.
For years this churchman has been
subjected to persecution in the Dashnag press. He was even at
tacked once in the city of Bagdad. The Dashnag papers tried
to discredit Bishop Roupen as "the agent of the Cheka", and pub
lished a long drawn fabricated story about him to prove their
accusations.
The Bishop brought a libel suit against "Housaper",
72
the Dashnag organ of Cairo.
The mixed tribunal of Cairo, com
Egyptian and European judges, found "Housaper", and

its publishers guilty. They were condemned to pay a fine and
posed of
the expenses of the trial.

Bishop Roupen was also accused by the Dashnag society as be
However, the government of Irak would not
ing a bolshevik.
heed these false accusations; and the late King Feisal expressed
and respect for the Prelate by receiving him into
royal audience.
Most Rev. Archbishop Housig Zohrabian,
The prelate of the
Armenians of Roumania, was regarded as a most worthy clergy
man while he was supposed to be friendly to the DashnagtzouBut when he opposed the intrigues and exploitations of
tune.
this society and shut the gates of the prelacy against the Dash
nag leaders and workers, a campaign of persecution and calumny
was started against him. Archbishop Housig defended the church
interests vigorously, and defeated all the intrigues against his
office and the Armenian Prelacy of Roumania.
Right Rev. Bishop Garabed Mazloumian,
The prelate of the
Armenians in Greece, who refused to be a tool in the hands of
the enemies of Armenia.
He was attacked one night and beaten
by the agents of the Dashnags, who also sheared his beard in
order to insult the aged prelate. He was also accused as an "agent
of the Cheka" before the Hellenic government; but this false ac
cusation was not given any credence.
His Eminence Most Rev. Archbishop Torcome,
Patriarch of
While he was the Prelate of Egypt he donated a

Jerusalem:
precious emerald ring for the benefit of the Independence Loan
of Armenia (1920), and had services of thanksgiving held in the
churches.
After the establishment of the Soviet regime in Ar
menia, Archbishop Torcome, as a patriotic Armenian, maintained
a friendly and correct attitude towards the new government.
He
would not allow the ex-ministers and dignitaries of the former
government, who had established themselves in Egypt after being
expelled from Armenia, to plunder the income and the property
belonging to the ecclesiastical institutions of Cairo and Alexandria,
and suppressed all their attempts of exploitation with a vigorous
hand. Therefore, he aroused the bitter enmity of the Dashnags

his confidence

APPENDIX
73
against him. Housaper, the Dashnag paper in Egypt, and all its
colleagues, insulted and columnized the Prelate in a most infamous
manner. They even organized an attack on the Prelacy; they
represented him as a Bolshevik to the Egyptian government, and
did everything within their power to prevent his being chosen
to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
His Holiness Khoren I, Catholicos of All the Armenians was
also subjected to attack by the Dashnag press. His first Gontag,
The
(encyclical) was declared to be "inspired by the Cheka".
Pontiff was represented as a "man-machine" and his orders and
instructions were declared to be void and without any value.
The Dashnag press openly preached rebellion against the execu
tion of those orders. This was done in the name of "popular
His Holiness the Catholicos and the Supreme Spiritual
rights".
Council were all represented, continually, as the agents of the
Cheka, and Echmiadzin was declared to be a nest of the Bol
shevik secret police.
The editorials of "Hairenik", the Boston
organ of the Dashnagtzoutune, have been filled with these mis
representations for the last six months.
His Holiness Sahak, Catholicos of Cilicia, now established in
Antilyas, near Beirut, Syria, was also subjected to an infamous
attack by "Housaper", the Dashnag paper of Cairo, Egypt.
After the unfortunate murder of Mihran Agazarian in Beirut
last October, His Holiness published a pastoral letter, inviting
his flock to be calm and peaceful, observe brotherly love, refrain
from acts of violence and be law-abiding citizens of the land
where they have taken refuge.
In its issue of Dec. 6, 1933,
"Housaper" denounces this Pastoral letter as a "Cawing of 111
Omen", and insults the 85 year old Patriarch as "wicked", as one
who was raised to his office by the Sultan, and as "one who incites
national disruption".
74
APPENDIX
The
6i
III
st Article of the Treaty of Berlin
After the close of the Rus so-Turkish war of 1877-78, in which

the Turks were thoroughly beaten, the European Powers met in
a conference at Berlin, to settle all the problems effecting Europe
as a whole, and to draw up a peace treaty between the two com
batants. In this conference, the Armenian question was recog
nized as an international problem, under the Article 61 of the

treaty.
Here is that Article
"The Sublime Port (meaning Turkey) undertakes to carry
out, without further delay, the improvements and reforms de
manded by local requirements in the provinces inhabited by
Armenians, and to guarantee their security against the Circassians
and Kurds. The Sublime Port will, periodically, make known the
steps taken to this effect to the Powers, who will superintend
their application."
APPENDIX IV
The Treaty of Alexandropol
The text of the treaty signed between the Armenian delega
tion and the Turks at Alexandropol, has never been published by
those who were responsible for it. Neither Mr. A. Khatisian, the
head of the delegation that signed the treaty, nor Mr. S. Vratzian, the head of the Armenian government of the time, who have
both written voluminous histories of the Armenian Republic, em
This omission may
body the text of the treaty in their books.
be due to the consciousness of guilt and shame in their hearts.
The following is a translation of the document as it was pub
lished in the Turkish press:
Article 3 As it is evident from Turkish, Russian and all
other world-statistics, and from the established social situation,
we again, at this occasion, confirm that there is no territory within
APPENDIX
75
Ottoman borders where the Armenians form a majority.

(Articles 4 and 5 draw the boundaries of Armenia and Turkey
according to which, the cities and districts of Kars, Ardahan,
Ikdir, Alexandropol, also the Mt. Ararat and other important
territories were left to Turkey. Armenia was almost halved and
reduced to the boundaries drawn in the treaty of Batoum in 1918).
Article 6 Hereafter, with the good intention of preventing
any act or episode, that may disturb tranquility through agitation
and incitements, the Republic of Erivan undertakes not to allow
any military organization, excepting a division of 1500 paid
soldiers with 8 field or mountain cannons and 20 machine guns,
which will protect the borders of the country; and lightly armed
gendarmerie which will be able to keep the internal order of the
the
country.
The Armenian Republic is free to erect fortifications to pro

tect the country from enemies, and to place as many heavy guns
in these fortifications as it desires.
These heavy artillery will
and long range guns of
not contain obuses of 15 centimeters
10.50 caliber, and other howitzers, which could be used in the
army if necessary.

Article
The government of Erivan
agrees that, the Tur

reside in Erivan after
kish minister or representative, who will

In
peace is established, supervise and examine these matters.
for
whenever
the
Armenian
so
this,
desires,
Republic
exchange
the Grand National Assembly of Turkey undertakes to give armed
assistance to Armenia, against internal and external dangers.
(The rest of Article 7, and Article 8, relate to the question
of repatriating refugees and fugitives).
Article 9 The government of the Grand National As
sembly of Turkey, although it has been obliged to maintain an
army for two years and at great expense, and though it has a
right to demand an indemnity as a result of the war against
Armenia which it has been compelled to wage, gives up this in
demnity, because it has an extreme respect for the accepted and
well known humanitarian and judicial principles.
Article 10 The government of the Grand National Assem
bly of Turkey undertakes, with all sincerity, to assist the develop
ment of the Republic of Erivan, and the solidification of the
76
authority of the Erivan Republic, as it is described within the

boundaries drawn in Article 4.
The government of Erivan declares, that it
Article
considers as null and void the Sevres Treaty, which is absolutely
disavowed by the government of the Grand National Assembly
of Turkey. It undertakes to withdraw its delegations of Europe
and America, that are tools in the hands of some imperialistic
governments and circles. Both parties assume mutual obligations
in good faith to remove all kinds of misunderstandings that exist
between the two nations.
As a proof of the sincerity of its desire to develop in peace
and to respect the rights of good neighborliness with Turkey, the
Armenian government is willing to keep away from the govern
ment those persons who pursue imperialistic aims and will dis
turb the tranquility of the two people.
(Article 12 allows that
the Secretariat of Religions of the Turkish government have the
right to confirm the election of the religious head of the moslems
living in Armenia).
Article 13 The two contracting parties mutually under
take not to prevent the free passage and transit of persons and
merchandise belonging to the other party, over their railroads and
highways.
Turkey, being under obligation to prevent menacing agita
tions by imperialists against her existence, will keep under her
own control the railroads and the means of communication of
the Republic of Erivan, until the signing of a general peace, so
that, the quantity of arms to be imported will not be any more
than specified in Article 6, on condition that this control will not
interfere with the freedom of transportations.
Also, the two
will
contracting parties
prevent the entry into the Republic and
the residence therein, of officials and unofficial bodies and repre
sentatives belonging to the imperialistic powers.
Article 14 The government of the Grand National As
sembly of Turkey, will have the right to organize in Armenia
temporary military measures against attacks that threaten the
independence and the territorial integrity of the Turkish state,
on condition that the rights that are guaranteed the Republic of
Erivan are not to be interfered with.

ii
APPENDIX
Article
77
The Republic of Erivan
agrees to consider as
null and void all those stipulations of treaties she has signed
with any power, which relate to Turkey and are harmful to the
interests
15
of Turkey.
APPENDIX V
Vratzian's Appeal to the Turks for Military Aid

As the president of the Armenian government, Simon Vratzian sent an urgent appeal to the Turkish government, asking that
military supplies and Turkish troops be sent into Armenia, to
help the rebel government fight its Armenian adversaries. The
official document was handed to Behaeddin, the representative
in Erivan of the Turkish high command, to be forwarded to
Angora.
Here is the text
"Please forward the present request promptly to your high
authorities, and as I have explained to you, urge on them for an
immediate answer.
"The fight of Armenia against the bolsheviks, and for its
own freedom and independence, serves, as we are convinced, not
only Armenia itself, but also the interests of all the nations of
the Near East.
"For this reason, Armenia hopes, that during this fight she
will receive help from her neighbors, and first of all the interests
of the Turkish people also require that Armenia should come
victorious out of this fight and remain independent.
"Relying on this conviction, the Armenian government re
quests the government of the Grand National Assembly of Tur
key, that, in the name of the mutual interests of the two peoples,
and as speedily as possible, it
1.
"Return
the Armenian war prisoners that are now on the
war front of Erivan.
2. "Give the
Armenian army some ammunition under cer

tain conditions; first of all cartridges for Russian threelined rifles and for Turkish mausers; or else rifles of the
Russian and Lepel system.
78
"Communicate
with us, if the government of the Grand

National Assembly finds it possible to send military aid
to Armenia, and if able to do so, to what extent and
when?
"In making this appeal, the Armenian government relies on
the friendly relations that have been established with the treaty
of Alexandropol, and which were disturbed during the bolshevik
rule."
3
Respectfully
SIMON VRATZIAN
President of the Armenian
Erivan,
March
Government.
18, 1921.
APPENDIX VI

The Sevres Treaty

The Articles 88-Q3, Section VI, of the treaty of Sevres signed
by the Allied powers and the Armenian Republic on the one hand,
and Turkey on the other, relate to Armenia and its independence.
The following is a translation of those articles as they appeared
in Armenian papers.
Article 88. Turkey recognizes Armenia as a free and in
dependent state, in accordance with the step taken by the Allied
powers.
Article 89. Turkey and Armenia, as well as the other high
contracting parties, agree to submit to the arbitration of the
President of the United States the problem of the frontiers to be
established between Armenia and Turkey in the vilayets of
Erzerum, Trebizond, Van and Bitlis, and to accept his decision
in the matter; also all other measures which he may perscribe
in regard to an outlet on the sea for Armenia, and with regard to
the demilitarization of the Turkish territories adjacent to the
above boundaries.
Article 90. When boundaries are drawn according to Ar
ticle 89, and the above mentioned vilayets or definite parts of
APPENDIX
79
them are ceded to Armenia, Turkey hereby renounces all her

rights and claims over territories thus ceded. The amount and
nature of that part of the public debts of Turkey, which is ap
portioned to Armenia, also the rights that are to be transferred to
Armenia are to be determined in accordance with the stipulations
of Articles 241-244 of the present treaty.
Subsequent agreements will settle, if necessary, all those
problems which are not settled in this treaty and which are likely
to arise, gradually, in relation to the transfer of the above
provinces.
Article 91. In the event that the territories indicated in
Article 89, are transferred to Armenia, a commission for boun
daries will be appointed, (the formation of this commission will
be decided later), in order to draw up the boundaries between
Armenia and Turkey within three months.
Article 92. The boundaries of Armenia, Georgia and
Azerbaijan will be determined by direct agreements between
those states.

If
under any circumstances, these governments fail to de

cide upon their boundaries through mutual agreements, and the
decision prescribed in article 89 is already given, in that event
the boundaries will be determined by the principal powers.
Article 93. Armenia agrees to incorporate in the treaties
with the principal powers, those decisions which the powers deem
essential to protect the rights of those inhabitants of Armenia,
who defer from the majority in race, language and religion.
Armenia equally agrees to incorporate in the treaties with the
principal powers those decisions which the powers deem essential
for the freedom of transit and for a status of justice toward the
commerce of other nations.


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Patriotism Perverted, K. S. Papazian, 1934

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Patriotism perverted : a discussion of the deeds and the

misdeeds of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, the

Papazian, Kapriel Serope, 1887Hagopian, Richard.

Physical Description: 79 p. ; 20 cm.

Full view (original from University of Michigan)

discussion of the deeds

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(Printed in the United States of America)

have tried to present to the

the background, past activities,

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tionary Federation may be important, if we are going to

create in the minds

its readers a fairly adequate idea as to the moral and

The task of presenting

turned out and out socialists, with bolshevistic leanings, and

have tried to be fair in my presentation of facts and

Dashnagtzoutune, was organized in the Caucasus, in 1890,

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the liberation of the Armenians of

tory of the A. R. Federation", by

was interpreted differently by different groups that sought

The contending groups finally agreed upon

principle, that they should shake off the abominable yoke

cratic regime of Turkey, "should secure harmony between

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same Dashnag histor

ian, in order to prove his point, quotes from the "Droshak"

was designed from

of their purpose, and

the dilution of their national ideals with international and

ers, in later years, to subject the Armenian political de

The idea or policy of an independent Armenia was

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personal power, who, while they lived, contrived to main

is democratic in form only; its vari

bating societies and furnishers of money, for the achieve

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*) Dashnagtzagan means a member of Dashnagtzoutune.

Many plots, intrigues, conspiracies and terroristic en

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nocent members are made co-partners in plots without being

TERRORISM IN THE EARLY PROGRAM

tained loftiness of motives, if not prudence in activity,

methods were resorted to, in order to achieve the purposes

dominant part in Armenian National life.

"Its adherents maintain that it

is probable, that the Dashnagtzoutune still em

This report was submitted to

the Peace Conference

and to the United States Government, in August 19 19.

from the first, been adopted by the

"The Arm. Revolutionary Federation,

achieve its purpose through rebellion, organizes revolu

the exploiters of all description"

subject the government institutions to destruction

Dashnag publications are full of stories of terroristic

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first, these terroristic methods were resorted to in