Armenia observes May 28 as one of its national holidays termed the Republic Day, although the first stamps issued by the Republic of Armenia on May 28, 1992, declared it to be the Independence Day. On this occasion, the public is invited to celebrate of the establishment of the Republic of Armenia in 1918. Officially the Republic Day “is celebrated with an annual military parade. The President of Armenia will visit the Sardarapat Memorial to commemorate an important battle that the fledgling republic fought against the Turks in 1918. The day is also marked with fireworks, concerts, torchlight marches and parties.”
Understandably this holiday was not observed during the Soviet Armenia era. But the Diaspora, at least a good segment of it celebrated May 28 as Independence Day. Some of the Armenian schools were closed on that day in observance of that important historic day.
The Sardarabad Memorial site is chosen for the official observance and celebration of the day because The Battle of Sardarabad (Սարդարապատի ճակատամարտ, Sardarapati Djakadamard) took place there on May 21, 1918 and for the next few days between the regular Armenian military units and militia on one side and the advancing Turkish army. Sardarabad is approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) west of the capital of Yerevan. The battle not only halted the Turkish military advance into the rest of Armenia, it also made the present-day Armenia a reality. Quoting Wikipedia “ In the words of Christopher J. Walker had the Armenians lost this battle, it is “ perfectly possible that the word Armenia would have henceforth denoted only an antique geographical term."
The First Republic was short-lived, from 1918 to 1920, but it laid down the foundation of the Armenian statehood after the collapse of the last Armenian kingdom, the Kingdom of Cilicia, in 1375.
During the past 100 plus years, a few generations of Armenians grew up taking for granted that the Armenians have a state of their own, although under the Soviet rule for the most. On September 21, 1991, the citizens of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to gain independence from the Soviet Union. The date is marked as the Independence Day of Armenia (Armenian: Հայաստանի Անկախության օրը) and is observed as another state holiday in Armenia
May 28, 1918 has thus come to symbolize the age old dream of the Armenians for an independent country of their own. It was a decisive and a precarious state, so much so that the commanders of the Armenian Armed forces recommended that the Supreme Patriarch of the Armenians, the Catholicos of all Armenians Kevork Soureniants (1911-1930), vacate Etchmiadzin and move away for safety. Not only the Catholicos rejected their proposal but encouraged the military and the people of Armenia to resist to the end. This is what he is reported to have said:
"Armenian nation. Our age-old enemy, the Turks have subjugated Alexandrapol (present-day Gumri) and are advancing towards the heart of our nation, our faith, and our history. It is coming onto the land of Ararat.
The Turks are advancing massacring and plundering. Our commanders see no way out of the disaster and are pushing the Patriarch of the Armenians to flee. They are suggesting to me to leave the Holy See Etchmiadzin, our holy sanctuary, the last remnant of the Armenian people.
No, and no. Thousand times no. I will not abandon the legacy of our saintly forefathers. If the Armenian people are not able to stop the enemy's advances, is unable to salvage our holy sites, I will then bear a sword and fall in the courtyard of our Mother Temple but I will not abandon the depository of our faith, the Holy See.
If the end has come, then why not accept it with honor and courage? And not by submissively crawl in front of our enemy. Our history through the ages is full of valor colored with blood. It has not exhausted our blood and courage. Throughout the centuries the Armenian people have struggled for the sake of preserving their identity. It is for that reason that our history, laden with large-scale massacres, has not come to its end, nor will it. Therefore, as a nation, why not rise against the enemy that is coming thirsty to our last blood?" (Catholicos of all Armenians Kevork Soureniants, May 1918).
Catholicos also requested that all the churches across the land toll their bells. The sound of these bells surely reverberated the souls of the emaciated survivors who had found refuge there. But the Armenians were not all that unprepared. The Armenian military commanders under the leadership of the Armenia Revolutionary Federation had forged an army ready for battle. The soldiers, along with the people met their enemy on three battlefronts and carried the day.
Nowadays visitors to the Sardarabad Monument will see symbolic bells held high in three arched columns ostensibly symbolizing the three battlefronts at Sardarabad, Karakilisa, and Pash Abaran. The bells mounted on the monument symbolically are meant to toll for succeeding generations, as they did once during that precarious period in our history, calling upon the Armenians to be ready to rise up in arms in the defense of the Mother Fatherland.
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| FIRST DAY COVER MAY 28 INDEPENDENCE DAY |
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