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138-580: Armenian resistance during Hamidian massacres Armenians in World War I Armenian resistance during the Armenian genocide Caucasus campaign First Republic of Armenia Caucasus campaign Armenian–Azerbaijani war Armeno-Georgian War Turkish–Armenian War Soviet-Armenian conflict The Turkish–Armenian War ( Armenian : Հայ-թուրքական պատերազմ ), known in Turkey as

276-509: A Protestant of British origins who spoke the language. Together, they worked primarily to secure the partition of the Habsburg monarchy . At the conference, Italy gained Istria , Trieste , Trentino , and South Tyrol . Most of Dalmatia was given to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Fiume remained disputed territory, causing a nationalist outrage. Orlando obtained other results, such as

414-631: A Soviet republic . A majority of the Armenian leadership agreed that it was impossible to resist both the Russians and the Turks and that the Armenian army and population were exhausted. Drastamat Kanayan and Hambardzum Terterian were authorized to enter negotiations with Boris Legran to accept Soviet rule in Armenia. On 2 December 1920, the Armenian government signed an agreement with Legran declaring its resignation and

552-476: A budget deficit of 12,000,000,000 Italian lire during the war made both the government and people feel entitled to all of those territories and even others not mentioned in the Treaty of London, particularly Fiume, which many Italians believed should be annexed to Italy because of the city's Italian population. Orlando, unable to speak English, conducted negotiations jointly with his Foreign Minister Sidney Sonnino ,

690-594: A cease-fire agreement. During the invasion the Turkish Army carried out mass atrocities against Armenian civilians in Kars and Alexandropol . These included rapes and massacres where tens of thousands of civilians were executed. As the terms of defeat were being negotiated between Karabekir and Armenian Foreign Minister Alexander Khatisyan , Joseph Stalin , on the command of Vladimir Lenin , ordered Grigoriy Ordzhonikidze to enter Armenia from Azerbaijan in order to establish

828-484: A far larger proportion of its men than the 50,000 American men lost, it had at least the right to the representation of a "minor" power. Lloyd George eventually relented and persuaded the reluctant Americans to accept the presence of delegations from Canada, India , Australia, Newfoundland , New Zealand, and South Africa, and that those countries receive their seats in the League of Nations. Canada, despite its huge losses in

966-525: A few Turkish towns… I'd keel-haul every blithering mother's son of a Turk that wears hair." Americans on the mainland, such as Julia Ward Howe , David Josiah Brewer , and John D. Rockefeller , donated and raised large amounts of money and organized relief aid that was channeled to the Armenians via the newly established American Red Cross . Other humanitarian groups and the Red Cross helped by sending aid to

1104-545: A hope to establish a more liberal and diplomatic world as stated in the Fourteen Points, in which democracy, sovereignty, liberty and self-determination would be respected. France and Britain, on the other hand, already controlled empires through which they wielded power over their subjects around the world, and aspired to maintain and expand their colonial power rather than relinquish it. Various people, both in Washington and

1242-697: A joint interest in opposing "Anglo-Saxon domination" of the world, and he warned that the "deepening of opposition" between the French and the Germans "would lead to the ruin of both countries, to the advantage of the Anglo-Saxon powers." The Germans rejected Massigli's offers because they believed that the intention was to trick them into accepting the Treaty of Versailles unchanged; also, the German Foreign Minister, Count Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau , thought that

1380-672: A letter to Clemenceau, the conference chairman, was not answered. Britain had been planning to renege on the Government of Ireland Act 1914 and instead to replace it with a new Government of Ireland Bill which would partition Ireland into two Irish Home Rule states (which eventually was passed as the Government of Ireland Act 1920). The planned two states would both be within the United Kingdom and so neither would have dominion status. David Lloyd George commented that he did "not do badly" at

1518-458: A million pillaged and plundered. A similar figure is cited by the French diplomatic historian Pierre Renouvin who claimed that 250,000 Armenians died based on authenticated documents while serving his duty. Besides Armenians, some 25,000 Assyrians also lost their lives during the Diyarbekir massacres . In addition to the death toll many Armenians converted to Islam in an attempt to escape

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1656-414: A mutual defense treaty with France, but he did not present it to his country's government for ratification and so it never took effect. Another possible French policy was to seek a rapprochement with Germany. In May 1919 the diplomat René Massigli was sent on several secret missions to Berlin . During his visits, he offered, on behalf of his government, to revise the territorial and economic clauses of

1794-592: A new pro- Bolshevik government in the country. On the night of 28–29 November, the Soviet Eleventh Army under the command of Anatoli Gekker invaded Armenia at Karavansarai (present-day Ijevan ), meeting little to no resistance. That same day, the Armenian Revolutionary Committee (a committee of Armenian Bolsheviks formed in Baku a week earlier to facilitate Armenia's sovietization) declared Armenia

1932-623: A one-word telegram: 'No'. Despite the great public sympathy that was felt for the Armenians in Europe, none of the European powers took concrete action to alleviate their plight. Frustrated with their indifference and failure to take action, Armenians from the ARF seized the European-managed Ottoman Bank on August 26, 1896 to bring the massacres to their full attention. The action resulted in

2070-502: A pain which they do not feel; they are an effeminate and cowardly people who hide behind the clothes of the great powers and raise an outcry for the smallest of causes." The provisions for reform in the Armenian provinces embodied in Article 61 of the Treaty of Berlin (1878) were ultimately not enforced and were followed instead by further repression. On January 2, 1881, collective notes sent by

2208-570: A result of the 1920 Turkish occupation of those territories and subsequent massacre and expulsion of their inhabitants, only 59,843 Armenians and Yazidis arrived in modern-day Armenia—less than half of the 130,753 Armenians and Yazidis in those areas in 1919. A commission's findings of atrocities carried out by the Turkish invaders in Shirak revealed that a total of 11,886 corpses were buried, 90 percent of whom were women and children and 10 percent were men: In

2346-481: A second time... and yet it is from an official document which the future historian will read when he wishes to compile the facts concerning those massacres. Official Ottoman sources downplayed or misrepresented the death toll numbers. The attempt of deliberately misrepresenting the numbers were noted by British Ambassador Phillip Currie in a letter to Prime Minister Lord Salisbury : The Sultan lately sent to me, in common with my colleagues, an urgent message inviting

2484-507: A soldier, my interpreter, and a photographer (Armenian) to the Gregorian [i.e., Armenian Apostolic ] Cemetery ....Along the wall on the north, in a row 20 ft (6 m) wide and 150 ft (46 m) long, lay 321 dead bodies of the massacred Armenians. Many were fearfully mangled and mutilated. I saw one with his face completely smashed in with a blow of some heavy weapon after he was killed. I saw some with their own necks almost severed by

2622-461: A sword cut. One I saw whose whole chest had been skinned, his fore-arms were cut off, while the upper arm was skinned of flesh. I asked if the dogs had done this. "No, the Turks did it with their knives." A dozen bodies were half burned. All the corpses had been rifled of all their clothes except a cotton undergarment or two....To be killed in battle by brave men is one thing; to be butchered by cowardly armed soldiers in cold blood and utterly defenseless

2760-465: Is another thing. The French vice consul of Diyarbakır , Gustave Meyrier, recounted to Ambassador Paul Cambon stories of Armenian women and children being assaulted and killed and described the attackers "as cowardly as they were cruel. They refused to attack where people defended themselves and instead concentrated on defenseless districts." The worst atrocity took place in Urfa , where Ottoman troops burned

2898-419: Is impossible to ascertain how many Armenians were killed, although the figures cited by historians have ranged from 80,000 to 300,000. The German pastor Johannes Lepsius meticulously collected data on the destruction and in his calculations, counted the deaths of 88,243 Armenians, the destitution of 546,000, the destruction of 2,493 villages, the residents of 646 of which were forcibly converted to Islam, and

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3036-512: Is often sometimes considered by historians to be one of the direct causes of Nazi Party 's electoral successes and one of the indirect causes of World War II . The League of Nations proved controversial in the United States since critics said it subverted the powers of the US Congress to declare war. The US Senate did not ratify any of the peace treaties and so the United States never joined

3174-667: The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic . The Treaty of Moscow (March 1921) between Soviet Russia and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and the related Treaty of Kars (October 1921) confirmed most of the territorial gains made by Karabekir and established the modern Turkish – Armenian border. The dissolution of the Russian Empire in the wake of the February Revolution saw the Armenians of

3312-623: The British dominions , with Australia taking particular exception, became a major point of contention within the delegation. Ultimately, the British delegation did not treat that proposal as a fundamental aim of the conference; they were willing to sacrifice the Racial Equality Proposal to placate the Australian delegation and thus help to satisfy their overarching aim of preserving the unity of

3450-751: The Eastern Front ( Turkish : Doğu Cephesi ) of the Turkish War of Independence , was a conflict between the First Republic of Armenia and the Turkish National Movement following the collapse of the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920. After the provisional government of Ahmet Tevfik Pasha failed to win support for ratification of the treaty, remnants of the Ottoman Army's XV Corps under the command of Kâzım Karabekir attacked Armenian forces controlling

3588-643: The Ottoman Empire was not a topic in the 1918 general election . There was an indecision among British decision makers over defanging and demobilizing the Ottoman army, the fate to be assigned to leading Committee of Union and Progress members, and the future of the Turkish straits. Per Taner Akçam , the considerations of British envoys to Versailles were: A strong Greece, Armenia, and fortified Palestine were all reflections of this sentiment. The dominion governments were not originally given separate invitations to

3726-566: The Ottoman Empire . Approximately 1.5 million Armenians had perished during the Armenian genocide . Although the armies of the Ottoman Empire eventually occupied the South Caucasus in the summer of 1918 and stood poised to crush the republic, Armenia resisted until the end of October, when the Ottoman Empire capitulated to the Allied powers . Though the Ottoman Empire was partially occupied by

3864-666: The Pacific Islands south of the Equator . Despite a generally pro-Chinese view by the American delegation, Article 156 of the Treaty of Versailles transferred German concessions in the Jiaozhou Bay , China, to Japan rather than returning sovereign authority to China. The leader of the Chinese delegation, Lu Zhengxiang , demanded a reservation be inserted, before he would sign the treaty. After

4002-764: The Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (Hunchak; founded in Switzerland in 1887) and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (the ARF or Dashnaktsutiun, founded in 1890 in Tiflis ). Clashes ensued and unrest occurred in 1892 at Merzifon and in 1893 at Tokat . In 1894 the sultan began to target the Armenian people in a precursor to the Hamidian massacres. This persecution strengthened nationalistic sentiment among Armenians. The first notable battle in

4140-545: The Straits . Despite the concessions made by the Turks, the financial and military supplies were slow in coming. Only after the decisive Battle of Sakarya (August–September 1921), the aid started to flow in faster. After much delays, the Armenians received from the Allies in July 1920 about 40,000 uniforms and 25,000 rifles with a great amount of ammunition. It was not until August 1920 that

4278-629: The Tyrol as far as Brenner , Trieste , Istria , most of the Dalmatian Coast (except Fiume ), Valona , a protectorate over Albania , Antalya (in Turkey), and possibly colonies in Africa. Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Emanuele Orlando tried to obtain full implementation of the Treaty of London, as agreed by France and Britain before the war. He had popular support because of the loss of 700,000 soldiers and

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4416-624: The United States , controlled the Conference. The " Big Four " leaders were French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau , British Prime Minister David Lloyd George , US President Woodrow Wilson , and Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Emanuele Orlando . Together with teams of diplomats and jurists , they met informally 145 times and agreed upon all major decisions before they were ratified. The conference began on 18 January 1919. With respect to its end, Professor Michael Neiberg noted, "Although

4554-566: The eastern provinces of the empire to the nascent Armenian republic. But the Allies were more concerned with concluding the peace treaties with Germany and the other European members of the Central Powers. In matters related to the Near East, the principal powers, Great Britain , France , Italy and the United States , had conflicting interests over the spheres of influence they were to assume. While there were crippling internal disputes between

4692-557: The peace negotiations in order to end World War I . The results of this research were summarized in the so called Fourteen Points document that became the basis for the terms of the German surrender during the conference, as it had earlier been the basis of the German government's negotiations in the Armistice of 11 November 1918 . The main result of the conference was the Treaty of Versailles with Germany; Article 231 of that treaty placed

4830-505: The 112 in the Stamboul [old city of Constantinople] prison were represented as being Muslims, and it was only discovered by accident that 109 were Christians. Some scholars, such as the Soviet historians Mkrtich G. Nersisyan, Ruben Sahakyan , John Kirakosyan , and Yehuda Bauer , and most recently Benny Morris and Dror Ze'evi in their book The Thirty-Year Genocide , subscribe to the view that

4968-535: The 38,000 wounded, 20,000 were men, 10,000 women, 5,000 young girls, and 3,000 children. Of the 18,000 men taken prisoner, 2,000 survived (the rest were executed or died of exposure or starvation). In 1919, there were 31,236 Armenians and 10,092 Yazidis in the Surmalu uezd (present-day Iğdır Province ), and 62,007 Armenians and 27,418 Yazidis in the Kars Oblast (present-day Kars and Ardahan provinces) within Armenia. As

5106-550: The Allies drafted the peace settlement of the Near East in the form of the Treaty of Sèvres . Under the terms of the treaty, portions of four northeastern vilayets of the Ottoman Empire were allotted to the First Republic of Armenia and subsequently came to be known as Wilsonian Armenia , after the US President Woodrow Wilson . The Treaty of Sèvres served to confirm Kemal's suspicions about Allied plans to partition

5244-544: The Allies, and the United States was reluctant to accept a mandate over Armenia, disaffected elements in the Ottoman Empire in 1920 began to disavow the decisions made by the Ottoman government in Constantinople, coalesced and formed the Turkish National Movement , under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Pasha . The Turkish Nationalists considered any partition of formerly Ottoman lands (and subsequent distribution to non-Turkish authorities) to be unacceptable. Their avowed goal

5382-564: The Allies, and while being invaded by Franco-Armenian forces during the Cilicia Campaign , the Turks did not withdraw their forces to the pre-war Russo-Turkish boundary until February 1919 and maintained many troops mobilized along this frontier. During the First World War and in the ensuing peace negotiations in Paris , the Allies had vowed to punish the Turks and reward some, if not all, of

5520-444: The Armenian cathedral, in which 3,000 Armenians had taken refuge, and shot at anyone who tried to escape. Abdul Hamid's private first secretary wrote in his memoirs about Abdul Hamid that he "decided to pursue a policy of severity and terror against the Armenians, and in order to succeed in this respect he elected the method of dealing them an economic blow... he ordered that they absolutely avoid negotiating or discussing anything with

5658-494: The Armenian resistance took place in Sasun . Hunchak activists, such as Mihran Damadian , Hampartsoum Boyadjian , and Hrayr Dzhoghk , encouraged resistance against double taxation and Ottoman persecution. The ARF armed the people of the region. The Armenians confronted the Ottoman army and Kurdish irregulars at Sasun, finally succumbing to superior numbers and to Turkish assurances of amnesty, which never materialized. In response to

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5796-633: The Armenian towns in the Ottoman Empire. The Great Powers (Britain, France, Russia) forced Hamid to sign a new reform package designed to curtail the powers of the Hamidiye in October 1895 which, like the Berlin treaty, was never implemented. On October 1, 1895, two thousand Armenians assembled in Constantinople (now Istanbul ) to petition for the implementation of the reforms, but Ottoman police units converged on

5934-475: The Armenians and that they inflict upon them a decisive strike to settle scores." The killings continued until 1897. In that last year, Sultan Hamid declared the Armenian Question closed. Many Armenian revolutionaries had either been killed or escaped to Russia. The Ottoman government closed Armenian societies and restricted Armenian political movements. Some non-Armenian groups were also attacked during

6072-625: The Armenians and to remove, "if not by political action then by resort to the knife... the fever spot of the Turkish Empire." King Leopold II of Belgium told British Prime Minister Salisbury that he was prepared to send his Congolese Force Publique to "invade and occupy" Armenia. The massacres were an important item on the agenda of the United States President Grover Cleveland , and in his presidential platform for 1896, Republican candidate William McKinley listed

6210-461: The Armenians had suffered at least 200 casualties and been forced to retreat east towards Sarıkamış . As neither the Allied powers nor Soviet Russia reacted to Turkish operations, on September 20 Kemal authorized Karabekir to push onwards and take Kars and Kağızman . By this time, Karabekir's XV Corps had grown to the size of four divisions. At 3:00 in the morning of 28 September, the four divisions of

6348-414: The Big Four, Paris was effectively the center of a world government during the conference, which deliberated over and implemented the sweeping changes to the political geography of Europe . Most famously, the Treaty of Versailles itself weakened the German military and placed full blame for the war and costly reparations on Germany's shoulders, and the later humiliation and resentment in Germany

6486-463: The Big Four. The conference came to an end on 21 January 1920, with the inaugural General Assembly of the League of Nations . Five major peace treaties were prepared at the Paris Peace Conference, with, in parentheses, the affected countries: The major decisions were the establishment of the League of Nations ; the five peace treaties with defeated enemies; the awarding of German and Ottoman overseas possessions as "mandates" , chiefly to members of

6624-438: The British Empire and to France; reparations imposed on Germany; and the drawing of new national boundaries, sometimes with plebiscites, to better reflect the forces of nationalism. The main result was the Treaty of Versailles , with Germany, which in section 231 laid the guilt for the war on "the aggression of Germany and her allies". This provision proved humiliating for Germany and set the stage for very high reparations Germany

6762-410: The British Empire. Britain had reluctantly consented to the attendance of separate delegations from British dominions, but the British managed to rebuff attempts by the envoys of the newly proclaimed Irish Republic to put a case to the conference for Irish self-determination , diplomatic recognition, and membership in the proposed League of Nations. The Irish envoys' final "Demand for Recognition" in

6900-481: The British, led by David Lloyd George , in their treatment of Germany and its allies in Europe and the former Ottoman Empire in the Middle East . Wilson's attempts to gain acceptance of his Fourteen Points ultimately failed; France and Britain each refused to adopt specific points as well as certain core principles. Several of the Fourteen Points conflicted with the desires of European powers. The United States did not consider it fair or warranted that Article 231 of

7038-400: The Chinese patriotic student group. In 1914, at the outset of the war, Japan seized the territory that had been granted to Germany in 1897 and seized the German islands in the Pacific north of the equator . In 1917, Japan made secret agreements with Britain, France, and Italy to guarantee their annexation of these territories. With Britain, there was an agreement to support British annexation of

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7176-415: The Christians' expense and to satisfy their men's whims." One headline in a September 1895 article by The New York Times ran "Armenian Holocaust," while the Catholic World declared, "Not all the perfume of Arabia can wash the hand of Turkey clean enough to be suffered any longer to hold the reins of power over one inch of Christian territory." The rest of the American press called for action to help

7314-405: The European powers reminding the sultan of the promises of reform failed to prod him into action. The eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire were historically insecure; the Kurdish rebels attacked the inhabitants of towns and villages with impunity. In 1890–91, at a time when the empire was either too weak and disorganized or reluctant to halt them, Sultan Abdul Hamid gave semi-official status to

7452-609: The GNAT, ceded Adjara to Soviet Georgia in exchange for the Kars territory (today the Turkish provinces of Kars , Iğdır , and Ardahan ). Under the treaties, an autonomous Nakhichevan oblast was established under Azerbaijan 's protectorate. The Treaty of Kars effectively confirmed Armenia's territorial losses to Turkey as stipulated by the invalid Treaty of Alexandropol and established the Armenia–Turkey border that exists to this day. According to Soviet historiography, 60,000 Armenian civilians had been killed, including 30,000 men, 15,000 women, 5,000 children, and 10,000 young girls; Of

7590-503: The Kurdish bandits. Made up mainly of Kurdish tribes, but also of Turks, Yörüks , Arabs, Turkmens and Circassians, and armed by the state, they came to be called the Hamidiye Alaylari (" Hamidian Regiments"). The Hamidiye and Kurdish brigands were given free rein to attack Armenians, confiscating stores of grain, foodstuffs, and driving off livestock, confident of escaping punishment as they were subjects of military courts only. Armenians established revolutionary organizations, namely

7728-435: The League to administer all German colonies until they were ready for independence. Lloyd George realized he needed to support his dominions and so he proposed a compromise: there be three types of mandates. Mandates for the Turkish provinces were one category and would be divided up between Britain and France. The second category, of New Guinea, Samoa, and South West Africa, were located so close to responsible supervisors that

7866-483: The League's Covenant and Japanese territorial claims with respect to former German colonies: Shantung (including Kiaochow ) and the Pacific islands north of the Equator, the Marshall Islands , Micronesia , the Mariana Islands , and the Carolines . The former Foreign Minister Baron Makino Nobuaki was de facto chief. Saionji's role was symbolic and limited because of his history of ill-health. The Japanese delegation became unhappy after it had received only half of

8004-423: The League, equal and just treatment in every respect making no distinction, either in law or in fact, on account of their race or nationality. The clause quickly proved problematic to both the American and British delegations. Though the proposal itself was compatible with Britain's stance of nominal equality for all British subjects as a principle for maintaining imperial unity, there were significant deviations in

8142-457: The League. Instead, the 1921–1923 Harding administration concluded new treaties with Germany , Austria , and Hungary . The German Weimar Republic was not invited to attend the conference at Versailles. Representatives of White Russia but not Communist Russia were at the conference. Numerous other nations sent delegations to appeal for various unsuccessful additions to the treaties, and parties lobbied for causes ranging from independence for

8280-406: The Lenin government supplied the Kemalists with 6,000 rifles, more than five million rifle cartridges, and 17,600 projectiles, as well as 200.6 kg of gold bullion; in the following two years the amount of aid increased. In the negotiations of the Treaty of Moscow (1921) , the Bolsheviks demanded that the Turks cede Batum and Nakhichevan ; they also asked for more rights in the future status of

8418-608: The Near East were concentrated on crushing the Kurdish tribal uprisings in Iraq with the help of the Assyrians , while France and Italy were also fighting the Turkish revolutionaries near Syria and Italian controlled Antalya . Neighboring Georgia declared neutrality during the conflict. On 11 October, Soviet plenipotentiary Boris Legran arrived in Yerevan with a text to negotiate a new Soviet-Armenian agreement. The agreement signed on 24 October secured Soviet support. The most important part of this agreement dealt with Kars, which Armenia agreed to secure. The Turkish national movement

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8556-421: The Ottoman Empire and bolstering British ties to Russia. The French ambassador described Turkey as "literally in flames," with "massacres everywhere" and all Christians being murdered "without distinction." A French vice consul declared that the Ottoman Empire was "gradually annihilating the Christian element" by "giving the Kurdish chieftains carte blanche to do whatever they please, to enrich themselves at

8694-460: The Ottoman Empire suffered greatly from the Panic of 1873 ), territorial (mentioned above), and the hope among some Armenians that one day all of the Armenian territory might be ruled by Russia, led to a new restiveness among Armenians who were living inside the Ottoman Empire. The Armenians sent a delegation which was led by Mkrtich Khrimian to the 1878 Congress of Berlin to lobby the European powers to include proper safeguards for their kinsmen in

8832-456: The Quai d'Orsay in Paris. This date was symbolic, as it was the anniversary of the proclamation of William I as German Emperor in 1871, in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles , shortly before the end of the Siege of Paris – a day itself imbued with significance in Germany, as the anniversary of the establishment of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. The Delegates from 27 nations (delegates representing 5 nationalities were for

8970-444: The Red Army. The Red Army entered Yerevan on 4 December 1920, joined by the Armenian Revolutionary Committee the next day. State authority in Armenia formally passed over to the committee. Finally, on 6 December, the Cheka , Soviet Russia's secret police, entered Yerevan. Though nominally an independent Soviet republic, Armenia had effectively ceased to exist as an independent state. Reneging on their agreement not to subject members of

9108-400: The South Caucasus declaring their independence and formally establishing the First Republic of Armenia . In its two years of existence, the republic, with its capital in Yerevan , was beset with a number of debilitating problems, including fierce territorial disputes with its neighbors and a severe refugee crisis. Armenia's most crippling problem was its dispute with its neighbor to the west,

9246-481: The Sultan and Armenian party activists in France, Britain, Austria and elsewhere. "Under no circumstances," he wrote to Max Nordau , "are the Armenians to learn that we want to use them in order to erect a Jewish state." Herzl's courting the Sultan's favor was protested by other Zionists. Bernard Lazare published an open letter critical of Herzl and resigned from the Zionist Action Committee in 1899. The one fellow leader Herzl sought to enlist, Max Nordau, replied with

9384-479: The Sultan has any means of knowing about it. It is a most remarkable story, and the discrepancies are as thick as leaves in Valambrosa. On the face of it, it cannot be true, and before a jury it would hardly have any weight as evidence. It is extremely important, however, because it is probably a fair representation of the occurrences of the last few years. That it is a misrepresentation, so much so that it can fairly be called fabrication, becomes clear when you look at it

9522-417: The Treaty of Versailles declared Germany solely responsible for the war. (The United States did not sign peace treaties with the Central Powers until 1921 under President Warren Harding , when separate documents were signed with Germany, Austria, and Hungary respectively.) In the Middle East, negotiations were complicated by competing aims and claims, and the new mandate system. The United States expressed

9660-410: The Turkish National Pact." According to Turkish and Soviet sources, Turkish plans to take back formerly Ottoman-controlled lands in the east were already in place as early as June 1920. Using Turkish sources, historian Bilâl Şamşir has identified mid-June as to when exactly the Ankara government began to prepare for a campaign in the east. Hostilities were first begun by Kemalist forces. Kâzım Karabekir

9798-401: The Turkish army during the war at 100,000—this is evident in the marked decline (−25.1%) of the population of modern-day Armenia from 961,677 in 1919 to 720,000 in 1920. According to historian Raymond Kévorkian, only the Soviet occupation of Armenia prevented another Armenian genocide . The Turkish military victory was followed by the Bolshevik occupation of Armenia and the establishment of

9936-438: The Turkish mind, the Armenians had tried to overstep these limits by appealing to foreign powers, especially England. They, therefore, considered it their religious duty and a righteous thing to destroy and seize the lives and property of the Armenians." The combination of Russian military success in the recent Russo-Turkish War , the clear weakening of the Ottoman Empire in various spheres including financial spheres (from 1873,

10074-399: The U.S., and Japan, controlled the Conference. Amongst the "Big Five", in practice Japan only sent a former prime minister and played a small role; and the " Big Four " leaders dominated the conference. The four met together informally 145 times and made all the major decisions, which were then ratified by other attendees. The open meetings of all the delegations approved the decisions made by

10212-514: The United States was more likely to reduce the severity of the penalties than France was. (Lloyd George was the one who eventually pushed for better terms for Germany.) In 1914, Italy remained neutral despite the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary. In 1915, it joined the Allies to gain the territories promised by the Triple Entente in the secret Treaty of London : Trentino ,

10350-460: The XV Army Corps advanced towards Sarıkamış, creating such panic that Armenian residents had abandoned the town by the time the Turks entered the next day. The armed forces started toward Kars but were delayed by Armenian resistance. In early October, the Armenian government pleaded that the Allies intervene and put a halt to the Turkish advance, but to no avail. Most of Britain's available forces in

10488-468: The act was lauded by the European and American press, which vilified Hamid and painted him as the "great assassin" and "bloody Sultan." The Great Powers vowed to take action and enforce new reforms, although these never came to fruition due to conflicting political and economic interests. After George Hepworth , a preeminent journalist of the late 19th century, traveled through Ottoman Armenia in 1897, he wrote Through Armenia on Horseback , which discusses

10626-605: The area surrounding Kars , eventually recapturing most of the territory in the South Caucasus that had been part of the Ottoman Empire prior to the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) and was subsequently ceded by Soviet Russia as part of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk . Karabekir had orders from the Ankara Government to "eliminate Armenia physically and politically". One estimate places the number of Armenians massacred by

10764-562: The causes and effects of the recent massacres. In one chapter Hepworth describes the disparity between the reality of the Massacre in Bitlis and the official reports that were sent to the Porte . After retelling the Ottoman version of events, which places the blame solely on the Armenians of Bitlis, Hepworth writes: …That is the account of the affair which was sent to Yildiz, and that story contains all that

10902-452: The central government. When a nascent form of nationalism spread among the Armenians of Anatolia, including demands for equal rights and a push for autonomy, the Ottoman leadership believed that the empire's Islamic character and even its very existence were threatened. The chief dragoman (Turkish interpreter) of the British embassy wrote that the reason the Ottomans committed these atrocities

11040-480: The city, which by 30 October came under full Turkish occupation. Turkish forces continued to advance, and, a week after the capture of Kars, took control of Alexandropol (present-day Gyumri , Armenia ). On 12 November, the Turks also captured the strategic village of Aghin , northeast of the ruins of the former Armenian capital of Ani , and planned to move toward Yerevan . On 13 November, Georgia broke its neutrality. It had concluded an agreement with Armenia to invade

11178-513: The cold winter of 1895–96. William Sachtleben , an American journalist who happened to be in Erzurum after the massacre there in 1895, recounted the grisly scene he came across in a lengthy letter to The Times : What I myself saw this Friday afternoon [November 1] is forever engraven on my mind as the most horrible sight a man can see. I went with one of the cavasses of the English Legation,

11316-480: The colonies that they wanted. Japan obtained mandates over German possessions north of the Equator . Wilson wanted no mandates for the United States, but his main advisor, Colonel House , was deeply involved in awarding the others. Wilson was especially offended by Australian demands and had some memorable clashes with Hughes (the Australian Prime Minister), this the most famous: The maintenance of

11454-480: The conference and had been expected to send representatives as part of the British delegation. Convinced that Canada had become a nation on the battlefields of Europe, Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden demanded that it have a separate seat at the conference. That was initially opposed not only by Britain but also by the United States, which saw any Dominion delegation as an extra British vote. Borden responded by pointing out that since Canada had lost nearly 60,000 men,

11592-494: The countries of the South Caucasus to Japan's unsuccessful proposal for racial equality to the other great powers . A central issue of the conference was the disposition of the overseas colonies of Germany (Austria-Hungary did not have major colonies, and the Ottoman Empire was a separate issue). The British dominions wanted their reward for their sacrifice. Australia wanted New Guinea , New Zealand wanted Samoa , and South Africa wanted South West Africa . Wilson wanted

11730-518: The deaths of ten of the Armenian militants, Ottoman soldiers and the massacre of 6,000 Armenian civilians living in Constantinople by Ottomans. According to the foreign diplomats in Constantinople, Ottoman central authorities instructed the mob "to start killing Armenians, irrespective of age and gender, for the duration of 48 hours." The killings stopped only when the mob was ordered to desist from such activity by Sultan Hamid. Though their demands were rejected and new massacres broke out in Constantinople,

11868-568: The defeated Central Powers . Dominated by the leaders of Britain, France, the United States and Italy, the conference resulted in five treaties that rearranged the maps of Europe and parts of Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands, and also imposed financial penalties. Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and the other losing nations were not given a voice in the deliberations; this later gave rise to political resentments that lasted for decades. The arrangements made by this conference are considered one of

12006-612: The defense of Armenia and aware that the leaders of the Republic of Armenia had failed to gain recognition of its independence by Soviet Russia, Kemal gave the order to commanding general Kâzım Karabekir to advance into Armenian-held territory. At 2:30 in the morning of 13 September, five battalions from the Turkish XV Army Corps attacked Armenian positions, surprising the thinly spread and unprepared Armenian forces at Oltu and Penek . By dawn, Karabekir's forces had occupied Penek and

12144-520: The desecration of 645 churches and monasteries, of which 328 were converted into mosques. He also estimated the additional deaths of 100,000 Armenians due to famine and disease totalling a number of approximately 200,000. In contrast the ambassador of Britain estimated 100,000 were killed up until early December 1895. However, the period of massacres spread well into 1896. German foreign ministry operative and Turkologist Ernst Jäckh claimed that 200,000 Armenians were killed and 50,000 were expelled and

12282-656: The disputed region of Lori , which was established as a Neutral Zone (the Shulavera Condominium) between the two nations in early 1919. The Turks, headquartered in Alexandropol, presented the Armenians with an ultimatum which they were forced to accept. They followed it with a more radical demand which threatened the existence of Armenia as a viable entity. The Armenians at first rejected this demand, but when Karabekir's forces continued to advance, they had little choice but to capitulate. On November 18, 1920, they concluded

12420-685: The dogs... Mother, I am safe and sound. Father, 20 days ago we made war on the Armenian unbelievers. Through God's grace no harm befell us... .There is a rumour afoot that our Batallion will be ordered to your part of the world—if so, we will kill all the Armenians there. Besides, 511 Armenians were wounded, one or two perish every day. If you ask after the soldiers and bashi bozouks [wild irregulars], not one of their noses has bled... May God bless you.... Another letter from December 23, 1895 says: I killed [the Armenians] like dogs... .If you ask news in this manner, we slew 2,500 Armenians and looted their goods It

12558-471: The empire, who were always considered second-class citizens, had begun to ask for civil reforms and better treatment by the government in the mid-1860s and early 1870s. They pressed for an end to the usurpation of their land, "the looting and murder in Armenian towns by Kurds and Circassians , improprieties during tax collection, criminal behavior by government officials and the refusal to accept Christians as witnesses in trial." These requests went unheeded by

12696-507: The empire. According to historian Richard G. Hovannisian , Kemal's decision to order attacks on Armenian troops in Oltu District in the erstwhile Kars Oblast that eventually expanded into an invasion of Armenia proper was intended to show the Allies that "the treaty would not be accepted and that there would be no peace until the West was ready to offer new terms in keeping with the principles of

12834-606: The eventual peace agreement. But the sultan was not prepared to relinquish any of his power. Abdul Hamid believed that the woes of the Ottoman Empire stemmed from "the endless persecutions and hostilities of the Christian world." He perceived that the Ottoman Armenians were an extension of foreign hostility, a means by which Europe could "get at our most vital places and tear out our very guts." Turkish historian and Abdul Hamid biographer Osman Nuri observed, "The mere mention of

12972-474: The former ruling party, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation , to repressions, the new Soviet Armenian authorities arrested numerous members of the ARF and conducted expropriations in the countryside, triggering an anti-Bolshevik uprising in February 1921 , during which Soviet power was briefly overthrown in Armenia. The Red Army intervened to restore Soviet authority, although anti-Bolshevik resistance continued in

13110-399: The great historic and contemporary states. This is, for me, our main and principal expansion." Japan sent a large delegation, headed by the former Prime Minister, Marquis Saionji Kinmochi . It was originally one of the "big five" but relinquished that role because of its slight interest in European affairs. Instead, it focused on two demands: the inclusion of its Racial Equality Proposal in

13248-488: The great watersheds of 20th-century geopolitical history. The conference involved diplomats from 32 countries and nationalities . Its major decisions were the creation of the League of Nations and the five peace treaties with the defeated states. Main arrangements agreed upon in the treaties were, among others, the transition of German and Ottoman overseas possessions as " mandates " from the hands of these countries chiefly into

13386-412: The hands of Britain and France; the imposition of reparations upon Germany ; and the drawing of new national boundaries, sometimes involving plebiscites , to reflect ethnic boundaries more closely. US President Woodrow Wilson in 1917 commissioned a group of about 150 academics to research topics likely to arise in diplomatic talks on the European stage, and to develop a set of principles to be used for

13524-477: The hostility towards the Armenians lay in the increasingly precarious position in which the Ottoman Empire found itself in the last quarter of the 19th century. The end of Ottoman domination of the Balkans was ushered in by an era of European nationalism and an insistence on self-determination by the inhabitants of many territories which had been ruled by the Ottomans for an extremely long period of time. The Armenians of

13662-478: The long persecuted Armenian community as its calls for civil reform and better treatment were ignored by the government. The Ottomans made no allowances for the victims on account of their age or gender, and as a result, they massacred all of the victims with brutal force. The telegraph spread news of the massacres around the world, leading to a significant amount of coverage of them in the media of Western Europe, Russian Empire and North America. The origins of

13800-494: The mandates could hardly be given to anyone except Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Finally, the African colonies would need the careful supervision as "Class B" mandates, which could be provided only by experienced colonial powers: Britain, France, and Belgium although Italy and Portugal received small amounts of territory. Wilson and the others finally went along with the solution. The dominions received " Class C Mandates " to

13938-410: The mass killings of 1894–1896 marked the first phase of the Armenian genocide . Most scholars, however, limit this definition strictly to the years 1915–1923. Paris Peace Conference (1919%E2%80%931920) The Paris Peace Conference was a set of formal and informal diplomatic meetings in 1919 and 1920 after the end of World War I , in which the victorious Allies set the peace terms for

14076-511: The massacres. The French diplomatic correspondence shows that the Hamidiye carried out massacres not only of Armenians but also of Assyrians living in Diyarbakir, Hasankeyf , Sivas and other parts of Anatolia. A letter sent by an Ottoman soldier to his brother and parents in November 23, 1895 says: My brother, if you want news from here we have killed 1,200 Armenians, all of them as food for

14214-468: The most part ignored) were assigned to 52 commissions, which held 1,646 sessions to prepare reports, with the help of many experts, on topics ranging from prisoners of war to undersea cables, to international aviation, to responsibility for the war. Key recommendations were folded into the Treaty of Versailles with Germany, which had 15 chapters and 440 clauses, as well as treaties for the other defeated nations. The five major powers, France, Britain, Italy,

14352-406: The peace conference "considering I was seated between Jesus Christ and Napoleon ." This was a reference to the great idealism of Wilson, who desired merely to punish Germany, and the stark realism of Clemenceau, who was determined to see Germany effectively destroyed. Like the other main Allied powers, the British public was more inclined to punish Germany and Austria. Britain's relationship with

14490-479: The permanent membership of Italy in the League of Nations and the promise by the Allies to transfer British Jubaland and the French Aozou strip to Italian colonies. Protectorates over Albania and Antalya were also recognized, but nationalists considered the war to be a mutilated victory , and Orlando was ultimately forced to abandon the conference and to resign. Francesco Saverio Nitti took his place and signed

14628-401: The postwar era. In doing so, Wilson ultimately began to lead the foreign policy of the United States towards interventionism , a move that has been strongly resisted in some United States circles ever since. Once Wilson arrived, however, he found "rivalries, and conflicting claims previously submerged." He worked mostly at trying to influence both the French, led by Georges Clemenceau , and

14766-465: The press alike. British print and illustrated newspapers regularly covered the massacres, with the popular weekly Punch publishing dozens of cartoons depicting the carnage. Further, historian Leslie Rogne Schumacher notes that the massacres "reflected and impacted the changing world of European international relations" in the years before the First World War , weakening Britain's relationship with

14904-530: The rally and violently broke it up. Upon receiving the reform package, the sultan is said to have remarked, "This business will end in blood." Soon massacres of Armenians broke out in Constantinople and then engulfed the rest of the Armenian-populated vilayets of Bitlis , Diyarbekir , Erzurum , Mamuret-ul-Aziz , Sivas , Trebizond and Van . Thousands were killed at the hands of their Muslim neighbours and government soldiers, and many more died during

15042-497: The remaining survivors who were dying of disease and hunger. At the height of the massacres, in 1896, Abdul Hamid tried to limit the flow of information coming out of Turkey ( Harper's Weekly was banned by Ottoman censors for its extensive coverage of the massacres) and counteract the negative press by enlisting the help of sympathetic Western activists and journalists. Theodor Herzl responded enthusiastically to Abdul Hamid's personal request to harness "Jewish power" to undermine

15180-581: The reservation was denied, the treaty was signed by all the delegations except that of China. Chinese outrage over that provision led to demonstrations known as the May Fourth Movement . The Pacific Islands north of the equator became a class C mandate, administered by Japan. Until Wilson's arrival in Europe in December 1918, no sitting American president had ever visited the continent. Wilson's 1918 Fourteen Points had helped win many hearts and minds as

15318-436: The resistance at Sasun, the governor of Mush responded by inciting the local Muslims against the Armenians. Historian Lord Kinross wrote that massacres of this kind were often achieved by gathering Muslims in a local mosque and claiming the Armenians had the aim of "striking at Islam". Sultan Abdul Hamid sent the Ottoman army into the area and also armed groups of Kurdish irregulars. The violence spread and affected most of

15456-648: The rights of Germany, and it then walked out of the conference. During the negotiations, the leader of the Japanese delegation, Saionji Kinmochi, proposed the inclusion of a " racial equality clause " in the Covenant of the League of Nations on 13 February as an amendment to Article 21: The equality of nations being a basic principle of the League of Nations, the High Contracting Parties agree to accord as soon as possible to all alien nationals of states, members of

15594-649: The saving of the Armenians as one of his top priorities in foreign policy. Americans in the Ottoman Empire, such as George Washburn, then-president of the Constantinople-based Robert College , pressured their government to take concrete action. In December 1900, the battleship USS Kentucky called at the port of Smyrna , where its captain, "Red Bill" Kirkland, delivered the following warning, somewhat softened by his translator, to its governor: "If these massacres continue I'll be swuzzled if I won't someday forget my order… and find some pretext to hammer

15732-543: The senior statesmen stopped working personally on the conference in June 1919, the formal peace process did not really end until July 1923, when the Treaty of Lausanne was signed." The entire process is often referred to as the "Versailles Conference", although only the signing of the first treaty took place in the historic palace; the negotiations occurred at the Quai d'Orsay in Paris. The Conference formally opened on 18 January 1919 at

15870-453: The six Representatives to visit the military and municipal hospitals to see for themselves the number of Turkish soldiers and civilians who had been wounded during the recent disturbances. I accordingly requested Surgeon Tomlinson, of Her Majesty's ship "Imogene" , to make the round of the hospitals in company with Mr. Blech, of Her Majesty's Embassy... The hospital authorities made attempts to pass off wounded Christians as Mussulmans. Thus,

16008-589: The southern region of Zangezur until July 1921. The warfare in Transcaucasia was settled in a friendship treaty between the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (GNAT) (which proclaimed the Turkish Republic in 1923), and Soviet Russia ( RSFSR ). The "Treaty on Friendship and Brotherhood", called the Treaty of Moscow , was signed on 16 March 1921. The succeeding Treaty of Kars , signed by the representatives of Azerbaijan SSR , Armenian SSR , Georgian SSR , and

16146-400: The stated interests of its dominions , notably Australia and South Africa . Though both dominions could not vote on the decision individually, they were strongly opposed to the clause and pressured Britain to do likewise. Ultimately, the British delegation succumbed to imperial pressure and abstained from voting for the clause. Meanwhile, though Wilson was indifferent to the clause, there

16284-504: The transfer of power in Armenia to a Soviet government. Drastamat Kanayan would temporarily lead the country pending the arrival of the Armenian Revolutionary Committee in Yerevan. On behalf of Soviet Russia, Legran guaranteed the restoration of Armenia's pre-war borders. The Armenian delegation led by Khatisyan signed the Treaty of Alexandropol with Kemalist Turkey on 3 December 1920, though the government it represented no longer existed, making

16422-460: The treaties. There was a general disappointment in Italy, which the nationalists and fascists used to build the idea that Italy was betrayed by the Allies and refused what had been promised. That was a cause for the general rise of Italian fascism. Orlando refused to see the war as a mutilated victory and replied to nationalists calling for a greater expansion, "Italy today is a great state... on par with

16560-518: The treaty illegal. The treaty required Armenia to disarm most of its military forces, renounce the Treaty of Sèvres , and cede the entire territory of the former Kars Oblast and the district of Surmalu to Turkey, as well as make territorial concessions to Azerbaijan in Nakhichevan. The decision to sign the illegal treaty was justified by Khatisyan as necessary to prevent Karabekir's army from advancing further and reaching Echmiadzin and Yerevan ahead of

16698-466: The unity, territories, and interests of the British Empire was an overarching concern for the British delegates to the conference. Still, they entered the conference with more specific goals with this order of priority: The Racial Equality Proposal put forth by the Japanese did not directly conflict with any core British interest, but as the conference progressed, its full implications on immigration to

16836-462: The upcoming peace treaty. Massigli spoke of the desirability of "practical, verbal discussions" between French and German officials that would lead to a "Franco-German collaboration." Massigli told the Germans that the French thought of the "Anglo-Saxon powers" (the United States and the British Empire) as the major threat to France in the post-war world. He argued that both France and Germany had

16974-496: The village of Agbulag , 1,186 were killed, Ghaltakhchi – 2,100, Karaboya – 1,100, in three villages where refugees from Kars had gathered – 7,500. Hamidian massacres The massacres began in the Ottoman interior in 1894, before they became more widespread in the following years. The majority of the murders took place between 1894 and 1896. The massacres began to taper off in 1897, following international condemnation of Abdul Hamid. The harshest measures were directed against

17112-460: The violence ended – some Armenian women who were tracked down following the violence indicated that they preferred to remain with their Muslim husbands, many of whom had captured them during the raids and violence, rather than return and face shame within their communities. News of the Armenian massacres in the empire were widely reported in Europe and the United States and drew strong responses from foreign governments, humanitarian organizations, and

17250-541: The violence. While Ottoman officials claimed that these conversions were voluntary modern scholars, including Selim Deringil, have argued that the conversions were either directly forced or acts of desperation. Deringil notes that many Armenian men shifted swiftly from Christianity to Islam, seeking out circumcision and becoming prominent attendees of their local mosques, attending prayer multiple times each day. Women converted as well, and many chose to remain within Islam even after

17388-552: The war ended, not only in America but all over Europe, including Germany, as well as its allies in and the former subjects of the Ottoman Empire . Wilson's diplomacy and his Fourteen Points had essentially established the conditions for the armistices that had brought an end to World War I. Wilson felt it to be his duty and obligation to the people of the world to be a prominent figure at the peace negotiations. High hopes and expectations were placed on him to deliver what he had promised for

17526-412: The war, did not ask for either reparations or mandates. The Australian delegation, led by Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes fought greatly for its demands: reparations, the annexation of German New Guinea , and the rejection of the Racial Equality Proposal. He said that he had no objection to the proposal if it was stated in unambiguous terms that it did not confer any right to enter Australia. He

17664-404: The whole guilt for the war on "the aggression of Germany and her allies". That provision proved very humiliating for German leaders, armies and citizens alike, and set the stage for the expensive reparations that Germany was intended to pay, only a small portion of which had been delivered when it stopped paying after 1931. The five great powers at that time, France , Britain , Italy , Japan and

17802-473: The widespread sympathy felt for Armenians in Europe. Herzl viewed the arrangement with the Abdul Hamid as temporary, and his services were in exchange for bringing about a more favorable Ottoman attitude toward Zionism . Through his contacts, he supported the publication of favorable impressions of the Ottoman Empire in European newspapers and magazines, while himself attempting (unsuccessfully) to mediate between

17940-430: The word 'reform' irritated him [Abdul Hamid], inciting his criminal instincts." Upon hearing of the Armenian delegation's visit to Berlin in 1878, he bitterly remarked, "Such great impudence ... Such great treachery toward religion and state ... May they be cursed upon by God." While he admitted that some of their complaints were well-founded, he likened the Armenians to "hired female mourners [ pleureuses ] who simulate

18078-468: Was assigned command of the newly formed Eastern Front on 9 June 1920 and was given authority over a field army and all civil and military officials in the Eastern Front on 13 or 14 June. Skirmishes between Turkish and Armenian forces in the area surrounding Kars were frequent during that summer, although full-scale hostilities did not break out until September. Convinced that the Allies would not come to

18216-468: Was because they were "guided in their general action by the prescriptions of Sheri [Sharia] Law. That law prescribes that if the 'rayah' [subject] Christian attempts, by having recourse to foreign powers, to overstep the limits of privileges allowed to them by their Mussulman masters, and free themselves from their bondage, their lives and property are to be forfeited, and are at the mercy of the Mussulmans. To

18354-526: Was concerned by the increasing power of Japan. Within months of the declaration of war in 1914, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand had seized all of Germany's possessions in the Far East and the Pacific Ocean . The British had given their blessing for Japan to occupy German possessions, but Hughes was alarmed by that policy. French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau controlled his delegation, and his chief goal

18492-528: Was fierce resistance to it from the American public, and he ruled as Conference chairman that a unanimous vote was required for the Japanese proposal to pass. Ultimately, on the day of the vote, only 11 of the 17 delegates voted in favor of the proposal. The defeat of the proposal influenced Japan's turn from co-operation with the Western world , into more nationalist and militarist policies and approaches. The Japanese claim to Shantung faced strong challenges from

18630-658: Was not happy with possible agreement between the Soviets and Armenia. Karabekir was informed by the Government of the Grand National Assembly regarding the Boris Legran agreement and ordered to resolve the Kars issue. The same day the agreement between Armenia and Soviet Russia was signed, Karabekir moved his forces toward Kars. On 24 October, Karabekir's forces launched a new, massive campaign against Kars. The Armenians abandoned

18768-401: Was supposed to pay. Germany paid only a small portion, before reparations ended in 1931. According to British historian AJP Taylor, the treaty seemed to Germans "wicked, unfair" and "dictation, a slave treaty" but one which they would repudiate at some stage if it "did not fall to pieces of its own absurdity." As the conference's decisions were enacted unilaterally and largely on the whims of

18906-672: Was to "guarantee the safety and unity of the country". The Bolsheviks sympathized with the Turkish Movement due to their mutual opposition to "Western Imperialism", as the Bolsheviks referred to it. In his message to Vladimir Lenin , the leader of the Bolsheviks , dated 26 April 1920, Kemal promised to coordinate his military operations with the Bolsheviks' "fight against imperialist governments" and requested five million lira in gold as well as armaments "as first aid" to his forces. In 1920,

19044-573: Was to weaken Germany militarily, strategically, and economically. Having personally witnessed two German attacks on French soil in the last 40 years, he was adamant for Germany not to be permitted to attack France again. Particularly, Clemenceau sought an American and British joint guarantee of French security in the event of another German attack. Clemenceau also expressed skepticism and frustration with Wilson's Fourteen Points and complained: "Mr. Wilson bores me with his fourteen points. Why, God Almighty has only ten!" Wilson gained some favour by signing

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