The planned partition of the Ottoman Empire according to the superseded Treaty of Sèvres of 1920The modern concept of United Armenia as claimed by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. Orange: areas overwhelmingly populated by Armenians (Republic of Armenia: 98%;[1] Nagorno-Karabakh: 99%; Javakheti: 95%) Yellow: Historically Armenian areas with presently no or insignificant Armenian population (Western Armenia and Nakhichevan)
The Armenians living in their ancestral lands were exterminated or deported by Ottoman forces during the 1915 Armenian genocide and over the following years. The systematic destruction of Armenian cultural heritage, which had endured over 4000 years,[9][10] is considered an example of cultural genocide.[11][12]
Since 2000, an organizing committee of the congress of heirs of Western Armenians who survived the Armenian genocide is active in diasporan communities.[13] On August 10, 2020, the three traditional Armenian parties—the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF, Dashnaks), Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (Hunchaks) and the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party (Ramgavars)—issued a joint statement on the centenary of the Sèvres Treaty, stating that the treaty is the only international document defining the border between Armenia and Turkey. "The Treaty of Sevres is a valid international treaty, although it has not been ratified by all signatories, but it has not been legally replaced by any other international instrument. At least from the point of view of the rights of the Armenian Cause, the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian nation, it remains a promissory note based on international law."[14]
Mount Ararat, today located in Turkey, as seen from Armenia's capital Yerevan. It symbolizes Western Armenia in the Armenian public mind.[a]
In the Armenian language, there are several names for the region. Today, the most common is Arevmtyan Hayastan (Արևմտյան Հայաստան) in Eastern Armenian (mostly spoken in Armenia, Russia, Georgia, Iran) and Arevmdean Hayasdan (Արեւմտեան Հայաստան) in Western Armenian (spoken in the Diaspora: US, France, Lebanon, Syria, Argentina, etc.). Archaic names (used before the 1920s) include Tačkahayastan (Տաճկահայաստան) in Eastern and Daǰkahayasdan in Western Armenian. Also used in the same period were T'urk'ahayastan (Թուրքահայաստան) or T'rk'ahayastan (Թրքահայաստան), both meaning Turkish Armenia.[18]
The fate of Western Armenia – commonly referred to as "The Armenian Question" – is considered a key issue in the modern history of the Armenian people.[22]
In 1894–1896 and 1915 the Ottoman Empire perpetrated systematic massacres and forced deportations of Armenians[23] resulting in the Armenian genocide.
The massive deportation and killings of Armenians began in the spring 1915. On 24 April 1915, Armenian intellectuals and community leaders were deported from Constantinople. Depending on the sources cited, about 1,500,000 Armenians were killed during this act.
The chaos caused by the Russian Revolution of 1917 put a stop to all Russian military operations and Russian forces began to conduct withdrawals. The first and second congresses of Western Armenians took place in Yerevan in 1917 and 1919.[24]
Since 2000, an organizing committee of the congress of heirs of Western Armenians who survived the Armenian genocide is active in diasporan communities.[13]
A 2014 survey in Armenia asked what kind of demands should Armenia make to Turkey. Some 80% agreed that Armenia should make territorial claims (30% said only territorial claims, while another 50% said territorial, moral, financial, and proprietary). Only 5.5% said no demands should be made.[27] According to a 2012 survey, 36% of Armenians asked agree or somewhat agree that Turkish recognition of the Armenian Genocide will result in territorial compensation, while 45% believe it will not.[28] The online publication Barometer.am wrote: "It appears that our pragmatic population believes that all possible demands should be forwarded to Turkey [...] but a relative majority consider the practical realization of territorial claims to Turkey is unrealistic."[27]
Autonomous Armenian province within the Ottoman Empire, proposed by the Russian Empire, the Armenian National Assembly and the Armenian Catholicosate in 1913.
Armenian reform package in Ottoman Empire, finally signed by representatives of the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire on February 8, 1914, and providing for the creation of 2 provinces under the control of inspectors general appointed by the Great Powers.
Armenian genocide: map of massacre locations and deportation and extermination centers.
The area of Russian occupation of Western Armenia in summer 1916 (Russian map).
The area of Russian occupation of that region in summer 1916.
Administrative-territorial division of Western Armenia, occupied by Russian troops in 1915-1917 .
USSR (Armenian SSR and Georgian SSR) territorial claims against Turkey 1945–1953.
Early 1600s spread of Armenians, a few decades after Ottoman conquest, within modern Turkey, per the State Committee of the Real Estate Cadastre of Armenia[31]
^"The lands of Western Armenia which Mt. Ararat represent..."[15] "mount Ararat is the symbol of banal irredentism for the territories of Western Armenia"[16]"...Ararat, which is in the territory of modern Turkey but symbolizes the dream of all Armenians around the globe about the lands lost to the west of this biblical mountain."[17]
References
^"2011 Census Results"(PDF). armstat.am. National Statistical Service of Republic of Armenia. p. 144.
^Myhill, John (2006). Language, Religion and National Identity in Europe and the Middle East: A historical study. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins. p. 32. ISBN978-90-272-9351-0.
^Marie-Aude Baronian; Stephan Besser; Yolande Jansen (2007). Diaspora and Memory: Figures of Displacement in Contemporary Literature, Arts and Politics. Rodopi. p. 174. ISBN9789042021297.
^Shirinian, Lorne (1992). The Republic of Armenia and the rethinking of the North-American Diaspora in literature. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press. p. ix. ISBN9780773496132. This date is important, for it marks the beginning of the Armenian Genocide, which destroyed the multi-thousand-year Armenian presence in historical, Western Armenia.
^The Armenian Review. Hairenik Association. 1956. The Sazonov-Paleologue agreement of 26 April 1916 between Great Britain and France and the Sykes–Picot agreement of 16 May 1916 between Great Britain and France which together made up the Anglo-Franco-Russian accord of 1916...
^Papian 2009, p. 37. sfn error: no target: CITEREFPapian2009 (help)
^State Committee of the Real Estate Cadastre of the Republic of Armenia (2007). Հայաստանի Ազգային Ատլաս (National Atlas of Armenia), Yerevan: Center of Geodesy and Cartography SNPO, p. 102 see map
Further reading
Arman J. Kirakosian, "English Policy towards Western Armenia and Public Opinion in Great Britain (1890–1900)", Yerevan, 1981, 26 p. (in Armenian and Russian).