From: sera@zuma.UUCP (Serdar Argic)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish,talk.politics.mideast,talk.politics.soviet,soc.culture.greek,soc.culture.europe,soc.history,talk.politics.cis
Followup-To: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: However the Armenian propagandists may try, historical truth cannot...
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 23:07:16 EST
Reply-To: sera@zuma.UUCP (Serdar Argic)
Distribution: world

In article <1992Nov19.011653.20864@leland.Stanford.EDU> arto@leland.Stanford.EDU (Artavazd Khachikian) writes:

>	Your conclusion in regards to Argic/Mutlu is not a new one
>for these groups. As to the rest, if one million postings will
>arrive daily in my mailbox saying that Russia attacked Nazi Germany in 
>the World War II, I still would not think that truth can not be
>established.

Typical revisionist. Your ignorance is hardly characteristic of most "*ians". 
Arthur A. Derounian, an Armenian who uses the alias of John Roy Carlson,
in an introduction he wrote to a monograph entitled "The Manifesto of
Hovhannes Katchaznouni," the first Prime Minister of the Independent
Armenian Republic. "However the propagandist may try, historical truth
cannot be subverted forever in a free country. However hard Dashnag
(mine: the Armenian Revolutionary Federation of Boston, U.S.A.), 
propagandists may try to twist and bury the truth...truth eventually
prevails. Now for the first time, in English, is a deep and incisive
self study by a competent Dashnag observer...Katchaznouni's work is
published.

          THE ARMENIAN REVOLUTIONARY FEDERATION (DASHNAGTZOUTIUN)
            		HAS NOTHING TO DO ANYMORE

                             THE MANIFESTO
                                   of
                         HOVHANNES KATCHAZNOUNI
         First Prime Minister of the Independent Armenian Republic

         Translated from the Original by Matthew A. Callender
            Edited by John Roy Carlson (Arthur A. Derounian)
 
        	Published by the Armenian Information Service
                 Suite 7D, 471 Park Ave., New York 22, 1955


Bucharest, July, 1923

Comrades:
These matters have had my deliberate and serious consideration. I do not 
know whether you, too, have arrived at the same conclusions. Allow me 
to say more: I am afraid that my final conclusion - those very difficult
words which I shall here state with all singleness of heart - will cause
general embarrassment, perhaps resentment, in the Convention.
 
I am prepared for that.

I only ask that you believe: a) that it is more difficult for me to
write and sign these words than for you to listen to them from my own
lips; b) that these words are not the result of thoughtless or petty
transient dispositions or hastily resolve. I beg of you therefore that
you be patient and approach the matters with an open mind, unhampered -
something which is not easy for men who have lived a Party life and
have thought from a Party angle.

Let me now proceed with my subject.

In order to present my conclusions in proper sequence I feel it is
necessary for me to refresh your memory with the various phases of the
Armenian Cause - from the Great War to the Lausanne Conference [1] - and
the role played by the Dashnagtzoutiun during that period. So that I may
not abuse your attention, I shall curtail my speech and present to you
a concise yet accurate commentary.

At the beginning of the Fall of 1914 when Turkey had not yet entered
the war but had already been making preparations, Armenian revolutionary
bands began to be formed in Transcaucasia with great enthusiasm and,
especially, with much uproar. Contrary to the decision taken during
their general meeting at Erseroum only a few weeks before, the A.R.F.
had active participation in the formation of the bands and their future
military action against Turkey.

In an undertaking of such gravity, fraught with most serious consequences,
individual agents of the Transcaucasian A.R.F. acted against the will
of our superior authority, against the will of the General Meeting of the 
Party. Why? This example urges us to recall that the A.R.F. in 
Transcaucasian in the past had been a follower rather than an originator
of movements that had their inception beyond their control. Thus it was
in 1903 (rebellions and demonstrations on the occasion of the seizure of
Church properties); thus it was in the year 1905-1906 (bloody encounters
between Tartars and Armenians); and thus it was also during the first big
movements of the laboring classes (1908-1909) when the A.R.F. was being
led at Baku, Tiflis and Batoum by the polices of foreign socialistic
parties.

The same characteristic line of action appears, as we see a little later,
in the conduct we pursued afterwards generally.

It would be useless to argue today whether our bands of volunteers should
have entered the field or not. Historical events have their irrefutable
logic. In the Fall of 1914 Armenian volunteer bands organized themselves
and fought against the Turks because they could not refrain themselves
from fighting. This was an inevitable result of psychology on which
the Armenian people had nourished itself during an entire generation:
that mentality should have found its expression and did so.

And it was not the A.R.F. that would stop the movement even if it wished
to do so. It was able to utilize the existing conditions, give effect
and issue to the accumulated desires, hopes and frenzy, organize the
forces - it had that much ability and authority. But to go against the
current and push forward its own plan - it was unfit, especially unfit
for one particular reason: the A.R.F. is a people's mass strong in
instinct but weak in comprehension.

If the formation of bands was wrong, the root of that error must be 
sought much further and more deeply. At the present time it is important
to register only the evidence that we did participate in that volunteer
movement to the largest extent and we did that contrary to the decision
and the will of the General Meeting of the Party.

The Winter of 1914 and the Spring of 1915 were the periods of greatest
enthusiasm and hope for all the Armenians in the Caucasus, including,
of course, the Dashnagtzoutiun. We had no doubt the war would end with
the complete victory of the Allies; Turkey would be defeated and
dismembered, and its Armenian population would at last be liberated.

We had embraced Russia wholeheartedly without any compunction. Without
any positive basis of fact we believed that the Tzarist government 
would grant us a more-or-less broad self-government in the Caucasus
and in the Armenian villayets liberated from Turkey as a reward for
our loyalty, our efforts and assistance.

We had created a dense atmosphere of illusion in our minds. We had
implanted our own desires into the minds of others; we had lost 
our sense of reality and were carried away with our dreams. From
mouth to mouth, from ear to ear passed mysterious words purported
to have been spoken in the palace of the Viceroy; attention was
called to some kind of a letter by Vorontzov-Dashkov to the
Catholicos as an important document in our hands to use in the
presentation of our rights and claims - a cleverly composed letter
with very indefinite sentences and generalities which might be
interpreted in any manner, according to one's desire.

We overestimated the ability of the Armenian people, its political
and military power, and overestimated the extent and importance of
the services our people rendered to the Russians. And by overestimating
our very modest worth and merit was where we naturally exaggerated our
hopes and expectations.

[1] In the Treaty of Lausanne, signed July 21, 1923 between the Allies
and Turkey, reference was no longer made to Armenian or Armenians. Both
had ceased to exist in the eyes of both Turkey and the Allies. Thus the
"Armenian Question" and the question of Armenians was buried in the grave
of diplomatic silence.

Serdar Argic

                     'This war quickly developed into one of extermination. 
                      We closed the roads and mountain passes that might 
                      serve as ways of escape for the Tartars [Turks] and 
                      then proceeded in the work of extermination.'
                                                       (Ohanus Appressian)

Xref: sparky soc.culture.turkish:11598 talk.politics.mideast:22165 soc.culture.greek:10580