REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA’S ECONOMIC STATUS IN THE BEGINNING OF 1919 and THE U.S. HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE

Garo Armenian

Translated by Vahe H. Apelian

This important historical episode in the life of the Republic of Armenia was posted by Garo Armenian on his Facebook page on February 23, 2019 and was titled “REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA’S ECONOMIC STATUS IN THE BEGINNING OF 1919”. The original text is also attached.

Prime Minister Hovhannes Kachaznouni and the U.S. Food Administration Director and later President Herbert Hoover

The Republic Of Armenia was confronted with a widespread famine during the beginning of 1919. The government’s efforts to secure aid from outside had not resulted in any appreciative quantity of help. The Caucasus was under the occupation of the British forces. It was natural that the government of the Republic of Armenia would have expected that the British would be the first to extend help to ameliorate the dire conditions. The British response was rather passive and largely inadequate. The meager assistance the British provided from their reserves was not enough to make a dent in the prevailing condition.

It was under such circumstances that the government decided to immediately dispatch a delegation to the United States of America headed by the Prime Minister Kachaznouni. But for a long time the British occupying forces hindered the departure of the Armenian delegation. After a long delay, on April 16, the delegation received permission from the British forces to depart. Accompanying the Prime Minister were the Minister of Finance Ardashes Enfeyadjian, economist Haroutiun Pilarian and military officer Souren Melikian.

I quote Simon Vratsian’s testimony

“The government’s delegation, the appeals by the government and the support of the Diaspora eventually were heard and aid was quickly dispatched. This time around it was the United States of America, the director of the U.S. Food Administration, Hoover, the one who salvaged Europe after the war, who became the real savior of the people of Armenia. Whatever happens, however we regard America’s role in the Armenian Question, we do not forget nor should we forget the U.S. humanitarian assistance to Armenia and the provisions they provided.   

The first American boat arrived to Batumi on March 21 carrying 125,000 sacks of flour. A week later another shipment of 600,000 sacks of flour arrived. To transport the provision, the American government requested from the Armenian Government 579 train wagons and 14 locomotives at a time when all that the Armenian Government had was 16 locomotives and 520 train wagons. The intervention of the American and the British governments was needed. For four days human traffic over the Armenian rail lines was halted and all facilities were appropriated for the transpiration of the flour only.

With the arrival of the American flour, the famine slowly started receding. The country started to embark on its normal course. The people and the government started to devote themselves towards reconstruction and structuring of the governance.” (Republic of Armenia, 2^ndedition, Lebanon).

This episode of the American humanitarian assistance reveals the precarious state of land locked Armenia. By the current standards of accepted norms for international relations, preventing a government’s delegation seeking humanitarian assistance would be incomprehensible, especially when the delegation’s mission has to do with an ongoing dire humanitarian crisis. Of course the indifference of the British occupying forces towards the prevailing famine in Armenia is totally unacceptable. It is up to the present day historians to shed light on the prevailing real underlying issues.

Garo Armenian 

ՀԱՅԱՍՏԱՆԻ ՀԱՆՐԱՊԵՏՈՒԹԵԱՆ ՏՆՏԵՍԱԿԱՆ ՎԻՃԱԿԸ 1919-Ի ՍԿԻԶԲԸ...

1919-ի սկիզբը, Հանրապետութիւնը կը գտնուէր համատարած սովի ճիրաններուն մէջ։ Կառավարութեան սկզբնական փորձերը արտաքին աշխարհէն օգնութիւն ստանալու լուրջ արդիւնք չտուին։ Կովկասեան տարածաշրջանը կը գտնուէր անգլիական ուժերու գրաւման ծիրին մէջ և բնականաբար ՀՀ կառավարութիւնը կը յուսար, որ անգլիացի՛ք ըլլային գործնականօրէն արձագանգողը ստիպողական այս կացութեան, բայց անգլիացիք մնացին լայնօրէն կրաւորական։ Այն օգնութիւնը, որ տրամադրուեցաւ անգլիական ուժերու պահեստներէն շատ հեռու էր լուծում բերելու հարցին։

Այս պայմաններուն մէջ էր, որՅունուարի 22-ի կառավարութեան նիստին որոշուեցաւ անյապաղ պատուիրակութիւն ուղարկել Ամերիկա Վարչապետ Քաջազնունիի գլխաւորութեամբ։ Եւ սակայն Թիֆլիսի անգլիական իշխանութիւնները երկարժամանակ խափանեցին պատուիրակութեան երթը դէպի Ամերիկա։ Ապրիլի 16-ին էրմիայն, որպատուիրակութիւնը արտօնութիւն ստացաւ մեկնելու։ Վարչապետ Քաջազնունիին կ՚ընկերանային Ելևմտական ՆախարարԱ. Էնֆիաջեան, գիւղատնտես Յ. Փիրալեան և սպայ Ս. Մելիքեան։

Կը մէջբերեմ Սիմոն Վրացեանի վկայութիւնը՝

«...Հայաստանի Խորհրդի ու կառավարութեան դիմումները, ինչպէս նաև արտասահմանում կատարուած աշխատանքները, վերջապէս լսուեցին և օգնութիւնը չուշացաւ։ Այս անգամ օգնութեան հասնողը Ամերիկան էր՝ Միացեալ Նահանգների պարենաւորմանդիկտատոր(պէտք է ըլլայ «դիրեկտոր», Director of U.S. Food Administration) Հուվէրը, Եւրոպայի փրկիչը յետպատերազմեան սովից։ Հուվէրը եղաւ և Հայաստանի ժողովրդի իրական փրկիչը։ Ինչ և լինի մերվերաբերումըդէպի Ամերիկայի քաղաքական դերը հայկական խնդրում, ամերիկեան մարդասիրական նպաստն ու պարէնը երբեք չենք մոռանայ, չպէտք է մոռանանք։

Մայիսի քսանին Բաթում եկաւ ամերիկեան առաջին նաւը 125,000 փութ ալիւրով, մի շաբաթ անցած, հասաւ ևս 600,000 փութ։ Այդմթերքը Հայաստան փոխադրելու համարվրաց կառավարութիւնը հայկական կառավարութիւնից պահանջեց 579 վագոն և 14 շոգեշարժ, ա՛յն ժամանակ, երբ Հայաստանի ունեցած վագոնների ընդհանուրթիւը 520 էրև շոգեշարժներինը՝ 16։ Պէտք եղաւ ամերիկացիների և անգլիացիների միջամտութիւնը, չորս օրով կանգնեցուեց Հայաստանի երկաթուղային մարդատարհաղորդակցութիւնը և բոլորմիջոցները յատկացուեցին ալիւրի փոխադրութեան։

Ամերիկեան ալիւրի հասնելով՝ կամաց-կամաց սովը մեղմացաւ, երկիրը սկսեց մտնել բնականոն հունի մէջ, և ժողովուրդն ու կառավարութիւնը կարողացան նուիրուել երկրի վերաշինութեան ու պետութեան կազմակերպման գործին։ » («Հայաստանի Հանրապետութիւն», Բ. Տիպ, Պէյրութ)

Ամերիկեան մարդասիրական օգնութեան հետ կապուած այս դրուագը նաև կը բացայայտէ Հայաստանի շրջափակուած կացութիւնը 1919-ին։ Այսօրուան միջազգային յարաբերութիւններու ընդունուած կանոնակարգով, բացարձակապէս անհասկնալի է պետական պատուիրակութեան մը վրայ դրուած ճանապարհորդութեան արգելքը։ Մանաւանդերբ առաքելութիւնը կապ ունի մարդասիրական ճգնաժամի մը հետ։ Եւ, անշուշտ, բացարձակապէս անընդունելի է անգլիական գրաւման իշխանութիւններու կրաւորականութիւնը Հայաստանի սովի հարցին մէջ։ Նորօրերու պատմագիտութեան կ՚իյնայ բացայայտել իսկական դրդապատճառները այս խնդրին։

Կարօ Արմենեան

I was a Calouste Gulbenkian Scholarship Recipient

 Vahe H. Apelian, Boylston, MA

A few days ago I was perusing the 1965 Armenian Evangelical College High School yearbook, the year I graduated. It was customary the graduating student indicated in the yearbook the career the graduating student intended to pursue. Along with it choose a motto as the student's guiding principle. In my case, I have indicated pharmacy as my career choice. My motto, naturally stated in Armenian, I found out recently, is attributed to Walt Withman and reads: "Keep your face toward the sunshine and shadows will fall behind you". Surely easier said than done but it was during the Sixties, the era of Mary Hopkins' famed song, "Those Were the Days", whose lyrics boastfully said: "We'd live the life we choose; We'd fight and never lose; For we were young and sure to have our way."

Fortunately, the gods of good fortune during those crucial years in a person's life turned out to be in my favor. I successfully passed the American University of Beirut entrance examinations and was accepted to continue my education there. Much like the parents of any college-bound student, the tuition cost was a big concern to my parents as well. My parents covered my freshman year tuition thanks partly to financial assistance from my mother's maternal uncles in America and financial assistance I received from the University. During my freshmen year, I also applied to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation for the financial assistantship and was granted one. I also was among three dozens or so students out of many applicants who were accepted to the School of Pharmacy, having completed their sophomore diploma in arts and sciences. 

Consequently my Sophomore year and the following four years in the School of Pharmacy, five years in total, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation covered my tuition having awarded me full scholarship that not only covered my tuition cost, but every semester left enough money to buy the textbooks, a shirt, a pair of pants and a pair of shoes from the upscale "Red Shoe" store in Beirut. 

Calouste Gulbenkian scholarship thus assured continuing my college education to its completion and made my college years memorable and enjoyable. Unburdened from financial worries, I became involved both in student organizations and extracurricular activities. I was elected as the class representative to the school of pharmacy student board. I was also elected to chair arguably the oldest Armenian student association in the Diaspora, the A.R.F. Zavarian Student Association.

As I look back and reminisce of those days, I realize that a good number of Armenian students of my generation, in the American University of Beirut was also recipients of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation scholarship.  These Armenian students studied agricultural, geology, medicine, engineering, pharmacy, physics, chemistry, nursing, mathematics, biology, business, and humanitarian studies. They were not only from Lebanon but also from Syria and from elsewhere also. I know for a fact that many of us as scholarship recipients would not have been able to have a college education in AUB had the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal, not assured to defray our tuition costs. Most of Calouste Gulbenkian scholarship recipients of my generation, I presume, ended or are in the process ending their careers.  

But a few others and I were more fortunate than the rest. After my B.S. in Pharmacy, I was granted a teaching assistantship and stipend to pursue a master's degree in science. In 1972 the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation invited me and four other Armenian graduate students from AUB, who were also former recipients of Gulbenkian Scholarship during their undergraduate years, for a summer-long training placing each one of us in a different class in the Foundation's science institute. Along with me were Arpi Darakjian, the sister of Nazareth Darakjian, M.D, the president of AMAA; Ara Hovanessian who earned a Ph.D. in science and charted a reputable career as research director in the Institute of Pasteur. His breakthrough discovery in how the body responds to viral infection was heralded in NY Times. I do not remember the names of the other two, other than the first name of one of them, Sirvart.  In Lisbon, we met Mr. Keshishian and Mr. Mavlian. They were the directors of the Armenian Department of the Foundation. They were just names for us as we anxiously waited to hear their responses to our applications. They acted as gracious hosts to us, invited us to dinner and introduced us to an Armenian member of the governing board who was related to the founder Calouste Gulbenkian. He received us warmly and welcomed us. His endearing remark still rings in my ear: "Lisbon will be full of Armenians this summer". And when I fell sick, Calouste Gulbenkian's personal physician treated me.

We were immersed in our tasks in the Institute for the five days of the week and had the weekends off to do sightseeing. During one of these weekends, I visited the westernmost point of Europe, a place called Capo Da Roca that overlooked the turbulent waters below while the seemingly endless expense of the Atlantic Ocean came in full plain view.  The place symbolized the sea faring spirit of the Portuguese. At that moment I became reflective. In my small world, I thought I had come far, shouldered by my parents, many teachers and finally the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation that had enabled me to come thus far. I purchased a certificate attesting my visit there that I still keep it as a cherished remembrance. Little did I envision then that in a few years the world I knew would literary turn upside down in Lebanon due to the civil war that started in 1975. The education the Foundation had enabled me to receive qualified me for a preferential immigration visa to the hospitable shores of the United States, where, like many other Calouste Gulbenkian scholarship recipients, I also settled, married and raised our family and in time had our parents join us. 

We also visited the Foundation's headquarters in Lisbon, attended cultural events there, and visited the museum which houses Calouste Gulbenkian's private collection of ancient artifacts and art. 

It will be the understatement of all times when I say that Mr. Calouste Gulbenian was no ordinary man. But I am not referring to his immense wealth as one of the richest man the financial world has had. He was, after all, the famed Mr. 5%. What I mean to say is that upon reading his son Noubar's, autobiography, "Portrait in Oil", I learned a lot more about the person he was. Calouste Gulbenkian hailed from a well-to-do family and was a studious young man. He studied petroleum engineering and graduated first in his class when he still was in his late teens. His father sent him to Baku where he was apprenticed by the Armenian oil barons of the day such as Alexander Mantashev. By the age of 22, he had published about the state of the oil industry. He was a man who knew how to mine the richness of Mother Nature. In an analogous way, the Armenian Department of the charitable foundation he created mines for the potentials in the Armenian diaspora and enables them by assisting them financially. 

Calouste Gulbenkian continues to leave an indelible mark on the world scene through the foundation he established. Countless young men and women achieve their dreams of furthering their education because of the generosity of the Foundation. Many organizations contribute to society because of the financial assistance they receive from the Foundation. Witnessing the immense charitable organization Calouste Gulenbian has established in Portugal and realizing that the Armenian Department is but one of its many departments, the thought, I admit, did cross my mind as to the unprecedented benefits Armenians would have enjoyed had this immense institution primarily supported them. But I can safely say that the landscape of the Armenia Diaspora surely would not have been what it became, had the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation not enabled the education of many of us. I do not mean to say only to those during the years I studied in AUB but also before and later. 

Much has changed since my graduation. The tuition cost of the American University of Beirut nowadays is at least 20 to 30 times what it was in my days. The number of Armenians studying in AUB has nosedived precipitously.

Recently Dr. Razmig Panossian, a fellow Kessabtsi, was appointed as the director of the Armenian Department. The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation continues to offer much-needed guidance and financial support towards various current causes and needs of the Armenian Diaspora. 

Armenians First Christians to raise up Arms in Defense of their Right to Worship

Dr. Antranig Chalabian, USA

This blog is a reproduction of Dr. Antranig Chalabian's article titled "In 451, Armenians were the first Christians to take up arms in defending their right to worship"  from  Military History magazine. 

"The year 428 ad brought an end to Armenia's Arsacid (Arshakuni) monarchy, which had ruled the country since 52 ad, when its founder, Trdat I, received his crown from the Roman emperor Nero. Most of Armenia then fell under the rule of the Persian Sassanids and was governed by marzbans (governors-general), appointed by the king of Persia. The marzban was invested with supreme power, including the power to impose death sentences, but could not interfere with the privileges of the Armenian nobility. Of the 35 successive marzbans who ruled during a 200-year period, six were Armenians. 

In spite of the Arsacid monarchy's demise, the Armenians preserved their cultural identity through the spiritual power of their Christian faith. King Trdat III (286¬336) had declared Christianity to be the state religion in 301 ad, thereby making Armenia the first officially Christian nation on earth. (The first Christian emperor of Rome, Constantine the Great, did not announce his conversion until 312.) Following the invention of the Armenian alphabet in 405, the Bible and works of the church fathers were translated into Armenian between 422 and 432, filling the soul of the nation with a fervent Christian zeal. 

During the marzbanic period, the Persians launched a series of intermittent persecutions against the Christian Armenians. In particular, King Yazdegird II (438¬457), wanted to pressure the Armenians to accept Zoroastrianism, which included the worship of the supreme god Ahura Mazda. By doing so, he hoped to prevent any future alliance based on religion between the Armenians and Persia's archenemy, the Eastern Roman Empire. 

Yazdegird called the Armenian nobles to his court at Ctesiphon. Mihr-Nerseh, the grand vizier, promulgated an edict enjoining the Armenians to give up "the erroneous and foolish ways of the Romans, thus depriving themselves of the benefits of the Persian perfect religion." 

After returning to their country in 449, the Armenians held a general assembly in Artashat to ponder an answer to the edict. Catholicos Hovsep presided over the meeting. It was attended by 17 bishops, 18 major nakharars (feudal lords), many noblemen and prominent priests, whose spokesman was the Erets (priest) Ghevond. 

The Armenians' reply to Mihr-Nerseh concluded with the following words: "From this belief [Christianity] no one can move us; neither fire, nor sword, nor water, nor any other horrid tortures. All our goods and our possessions are in your hands, our bodies are before you; dispose of them as you will. If you leave us to our belief, we will here on earth choose no other lord in your place, and in heaven choose no other God in place of Jesus Christ, for there is no other God but him." 

When the Persian king was informed of their rejection, he flew into a rage and sent an order for the chief dignitaries of Armenia to appear before him in Ctesiphon. Fifteen came, headed by Vassak Siuni and Vardan Mamikonian. Before receiving them in audience, Yazdegird had sworn "by the Sun God, that if tomorrow morning, at the rise of the magnificent one [the sun], the nobles would not kneel before it with him, and acknowledge it as god, they would be imprisoned and chained, their wives and children exiled into distant lands, and the imperial troops and herds of elephants would be sent to Armenia to demolish their churches."  

The dignitaries opted to make a pretense of yielding, for the sake of their homes and families. Yazdegird, in great joy, heaped honors and gifts upon them and sent them off to Armenia accompanied by 700 Magi, to convert the entire country to Zoroastrianism, or Mazdaism. 

Scarcely had the strange cavalcade crossed the frontier, 420 miles east of Dvin, when a horde of Armenian peasants, armed with clubs and slings and led by the fiery priest Ghevond, assailed the trespassers and sent them fleeing. 

The Armenian leaders, most of them ashamed of their sham apostasy, avoided appearing in public. Many young men and women were ready to fight and die for their Christian faith if the Persian king made good his threat of an armed invasion. They had implicit confidence in their commander, Vardan Mamikonian. 

Vardan was the son of Sparapet (general) Hamazasp Mamikonian and Sahakanush, the daughter of the Catholicos Sahak Bartev, a descendent of Gregory the Illuminator. The Roman Emperor Theodosius II (408¬450) and the Persian King Bahram V (421¬438) had both conferred the rank of general upon Vardan. He had visited Constantinople on diplomatic missions. As a commander of Armenian contingents of the Persian army, with a record of service in 40 engagements, he had won laurels in campaigns in Khorassan (modern Turkestan). 

With war now inevitable, Vardan dispatched a delegation to the Eastern Roman court for help, but he was met with bitter disappointment. Atilla the Hun, ruling over a territory that stretched from the Caspian Sea to the Rhine, was threatening Constantinople. The Roman emperor had drained his meager treasury to purchase peace with the barbarian. As long as the Huns menaced the very gates of the capital, no Roman emperor dared irritate that other great enemy, the king of Persia. 

On Easter Day, April 13, 451, the Persian army, numbering 300,000 men, arrived at a location between Her and Zarevand (Khoy and Salmast in present-day Iran). The army's center was held by the division of the "Immortals"--10,000 horsemen. A herd of trained elephants, each carrying an iron tower full of bowmen, was another menace. The rear guard was reinforced by a column of elephants, on one of which, in a barbed tower, sat the commander, Mushkan Nusalavurd, viewing the entire battlefield and directing movements. 

The Armenian forces, comprised of 66,000 cavalry and infantry and accompanied by a considerable number of clergy, camped near the village of Avarair in the Plain of Shavarshakan (modern Maku, in the northwestern corner of Iran). The rivulet Ighmud ("muddy"), a tributary of the Araxes River, separated the two armies. 

On May 26, Vardan, who from childhood had been well versed in the Holy Scriptures, read aloud the heroic deeds of the Jewish Maccabees, who successfully fought against the Seleucid tyrant Anthiochus IV (175¬164 bc) in defense of their faith. Then Ghevond delivered a discourse. 

Eghishé, a contemporary chronicler, described the Battle of Avarair, to which he was an eyewitness: "One should have seen the turmoil of the great crisis and the immeasurable confusion on both sides, as they clashed with each other in reckless fury. The dull-minded became frenzied; the cowards deserted the fields; the brave dashed forward courageously, and the valiant roared. In a solid mass the great multitude held the river; and the Persian troops, sensing the danger, became restless in their places; but the Armenian cavalry crossed the river and fell upon them with a mighty force. They attacked each other fiercely and many on both sides fell wounded on the field, rolling in agony." 

Upon seeing his left flank crumbling before the Persians, Vardan led a counterattack that cut off and destroyed the Persian right wing. Mushkan, however, rallied his troops and committed his reserves. Vardan and his warriors were surrounded by the Persian vanguard and went down fighting. 

The battle continued until evening. By that time, 1,036 Armenians and 3,544 Persians lay dead in heaps on the battlefield. The survivors were scattered over the hilltops and in more protected valleys. Despite the heavier Persian casualties, Mushkan had won the day. Vardan had fallen in battle, and there was no longer any chief who could rally his remaining troops. 

Though beaten, however, the Armenian army was far from destroyed. Vahan Mamikonian, son of the great Vardan's brother Hmayak, took charge and led the Armenians in a guerrilla war that flared around strongholds and along impregnable heights for the next 33 years.

During that time, the Sassanids underwent three changes of rulers, and also had to deal with external conflicts with Rome and a new wave of eastern barbarians known as the Ephthalites, or White Huns. After the death of King Peroz at the hands of the White Huns in 484, his brother and successor, Balash, made a serious reassessment of the long, inconclusive conflict in Armenia and sued for peace. Vahan sent messengers to the Persian camp, with proposals for liberties in Armenia, the main one being: "Religious worship in accordance with Christian doctrines and rites to be declared free in Armenia, and fire altars to be removed." 

Balash accepted Vahan's terms, and in 484, a treaty was signed in the village of Nuwarsak. Vahan was appointed marzban of Armenia. His victory was celebrated in the Cathedral of Dvin, with the Catholicos Hovhan I Mandakuni (478¬490) officiating. Armenia had regained her autonomy and freedom of the national church and culture. Vahan ruled for 20 years (485¬505). 

Vardan Mamikonian's analogy comparing the Armenians' struggle to that of the Jewish Maccabees proved to be remarkably apt. In both cases, followers of the Bible had fought for the right to worship in the face of religious oppression, and in each case the long, protracted struggle ended in a negotiated settlement assuring those rights. Both struggles also produced martyred heroes--Judas Maccabee the Hammer and Vardan Mamikonian the Brave. 

The Vardanian War, as it came to be called in Vardan's honor, began on May 26, 451, but the Armenian church celebrates the event in February. In the past, spring was considered the season for warfare. Armenia's ecclesiastical fathers had decided to commemorate the event in February, before spring, in order to inspire the youth and prepare their minds for battle, in defense of church and fatherland.  "