he Armenian people experienced a political revival after World War I, when the Czarist regime of Russia collapsed and the new Soviet government ordered its army to return home. Thus abandoned and unprotected, the Armenians were left to resist the advance of the Turkish army with their own meager forces. This advance by the Turks had two objectives: to complete the massacre of the Armenians, and to capture the oilfields of Baku. An independent Armenia was born out of this struggle.

The First World War began in 1914 and ended in 1918. Until 1917, the Russian army was fighting on the Eastern Turkish front and making advances there. Then, when the government fell into Bolshevik (communist) hands, all the Russian soldiers stopped fighting and went back home. This left only the Armenian volunteer divisions. General Nazarbegian took command of this abandoned army and, with the help of Antranik, stopped the Turkish army.

Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia came together and formed a government - but then Georgia and Azerbaijan abandoned the Armenians, who were forced to retreat before the Turkish forces. By 21 May.1918, the Turkish army had reached the fields of Sardarabad facing the Armenian people.

Only a small area of Armenian territory now remained unconquered by the Turks, and into that area hundreds of thousands of Armenian refugees had fled after the Genocide. But it seemed only a matter of time before that, too, would be overrun. The Turkish forces began a three-pronged attack in an attempt to seize all that remained of Armenia. In this encounter, known as the Battle of Sardarabad, the Armenian forces finally hurled back the Turkish army and saved the eastern heartland of Armenia from the Turks.

Two prongs of the Turkish advance were aimed directly at Yerevan. Around Yerevan itself, the Armenian forces were commanded by General Silikian. To halt the Turkish approach, General Silikian formed a thousand-strong force of riflemen - this force held the Turkish advance. Just a little way west of Etchmiadzin the third section of the Turkish advance was held - at Sardarabad.

In this time of supreme crisis, they had halted the Turkish advance and succeedE in throwing it back. As Christopher J. Walker writes: "liad they failed, it is perfectly possible that the word 'Armenia' would have henceforth denoted only an antique geographical term."

The Catholicos, Vishdagir, deeply suffering because of the suffering of his people, ordered the bells of Etchmiadzin as well as the bells of all Armenian churches to ring all day, calling his people to come to the aid of their fighting soldiers and to participate in the defense of their motherland. Yeznik Vartabed, himself a good shot, took with him a group of young churchmen and members of the congregation of Etchmiadzin and went to the front to fight the invaders. Bishop Karekin Hovsepian (later Catholicos of Cilicia) rode on horseback among the troops and eloquently encouraged and inspired the troops to fight. Even the old men and women, and the young girls and boys carried water, food, and ammunition to the front by foot, on donkeys and in ox carts.

Colonel Pirumian was commanding the battle superbly, and the Armenians fought methodically and cooly under his command. These united people fought for 48 hours until the enemey was forced to retreat.

After the Battle of Sardarabad, the Armenian representatives negotiated with the Turks in Tiflis and the independence of a little Armenia was proclaimed. Armenia declared its independence effective from 28 May, 1918. The Armenian government established its capital in Yerevan, and on 1 August the tricolour red-blue-orange Armenian flag fluttered from the top of the parliament. As Christopher J. Walker writes: "Increasing autonomy was an ideal that Armenian political thinkers had been striving towards for half a century, as they struggled to rid their people of the imperial bureaucracies that encompassed theme They wanted to put the destiny of the Armenian people into Armenian hands... Armenia independent, even amid her war-broken misery and suffering, had entered a new category."

However, as soon as Armenia began to make progress, the Turkey of Mustafa Kemal attacked - this was in 1920. The Armenians put up a spirited fight, but the Turks were getting closer, capturing towns and villages. The Armenian army suffered a disastrous reverse, and the state was reduced to a tiny size, crammec with cold, starving, ragged refugees. The Armenian leaders realised that they had to make peace with Turkey, at any price. The only nation at all able to stop the Turkish advance was Soviet Russia - the Allies made it clear that they would help Armenia in no way whatsoever: none of them considered themsleves bound by promises they had made to support Armenia which were made during the First World War and the post-war period.

Armenia was now without food, without warmth, and all but overrun by a ruthless foe.. In these somb·re, grief-stricken days, the eyes of all Armenians were fastened on the north, seeking salvation from the Russians.

On 29 November 1920, the Russian communist army entered Armenia and took over power. As the Prime Minister of Armenia at that time, Simon Vratsian, said: "Nothing remains for the Armenians to do but choose the lesser of two evils." But if the hope of an independent Armenia was dashed, at least the coming of the Bolsheviks in Yerevan meant that Armenia would no longer suffer the dreadful shortages, and the terrible uncertainty and political instability that had racked the whole region since 1917 would be over. Few Armenians had any real idea what Communism entailed - yet most were prepared, in December 1920, to give it a try.

Excerpt from a text Book
"Supplementary reading material for Armenian History"
Manoogian Armenian School, Sydney