Historically America has been good to Armenia

Vaհe H Apelian

The Armenian delegation to the United States in 1919.Top row (left to right): A. Piralyan, M. Ter-Poghosyan, S. Melikyan, Armen Garo, H. Bonapartyan. Bottom row (left to right): Artashes Enfiajyan, Jaques Bagratuni, Hovhannes Katchaznouni, Andranik Ozanian, A. Der-Hagopian

Historically America has been good to Armenia. 

Anyone who has read about the Republic of Armenia in Wikipedia, would have come across the following paragraph.

“By the time relief aid reached Armenia, some 150,000–180,000 refugees (20 percent of the population) had perished due to famine, exposure, or hunger. According to a report from February 1919, 40 percent of the inhabitants of the district of Sardarapat had died. By April 1919, 40 percent of the inhabitants of eight villages near Etchmiadzin and 25 percent of the sixteen villages in Ashtarak perished. During the winter, the population of the district of Talin declined by 50 percent, and nearly 60 percent of Armenians in Surmalu died of starvation. American historian Richard Pipes writes that Soviet estimates place the number of Armenians who perished due to famine and disease at 300,000. In 1919, 19,000 inhabitants of Yerevan contracted typhus and 10,000 died from exposure, famine, and pestilence. By mid-1919, 200,000 inhabitants of Armenia had perished; according to Hovannisian, there were 8.7 births and 204.2 deaths per 1,000 persons, yielding a net loss of 195.5—"it was verily a land of death". According to the data of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 192,000 people died due to the typhus epidemic and famine by the summer of 1919.”

What was the relief aid that reached Armenia?  Who provided the relief aid? How did the relief aid get to Armenia?

Given the extraordinarily harsh situation in Armenia, the Armenian government dispatched a delegation to the United States of America headed by the Prime Minister Kachaznouni to solicit aid. The delegation’s efforts were supported by the Armenians in America.  This is what Kachaznouni has said at a reception given in honor of the delegation in New York in December 1919.

“At the cost of immense sacrifices, untold sufferings and deprivations, bloody battles and persistent work, the Republic of Armenia has been established today on and around the Ararat Valley.

- Today, it is the Republic of Armenia where we must seek and find our salvation, the fulfillment of our centuries-old desires. This is where the Armenian race must focus all its attention, its mind and soul, all its creative potential.

- The enemy of the Republic is the enemy of Armenians.

- An Armenian who dares to look at the Republic with a critical eye is a traitor to the great Armenian cause.

- To rally, sincerely and unconditionally, around the Republic, to give it strength and vitality - this is the demand of the day, this is the sacred duty of every Armenian.

- The Republic is in a period of organization. It needs goodwill and "effective aid, especially when it is organized in such hellish conditions, the like of which history has perhaps never seen.

-This is the help we have come to seek in distant America." (see note no 1)

How did the Armenian delegation effort pan out? This is wheat Simon Vratsian has written:

«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, 2nd edition, Lebanon).» (see note no. 2)

The rest is history unfolding right in front of this generation interconnected like no time before.  

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Note 1:  Credited to Avo G Boghossian’s posting on his Facebook page on Sunday August, 17, 2025. The quote if form Kachaznouni’s book “Yergir”.

Note: Credited to Garo Armenian’s posting on his Facebook page on February 23, 2019. The quote is from Simon Vratsian’s book “Republic of Armenia”