In a previous post, I wrote about how the new ‘nation states’ Azerbaijan and Ukraine were created by (or with lots of help of) ‘West’ in the ending years of World War I. At that time ‘West’ in this context was mostly the Central Powers, German Empire, Austria-Hungarian Empire and Osman Empire who were the primary actors in forming new ‘nation states’ on the territory of the Russian Empire (i.e. Russia). However, UK, US and to a lesser extent France, also played their part.
I start again with the map of administrative units in the Russian Empire from 1905 until 1917 (Map source: Wikipedia: Campaño del Caucaso – Spanish):
Again I note the fact, that administration in the Russian Empire of this area (and other areas of Russia as well) was not based on the (Western) concept of nationalities at all.
I also note again, that this does, of course not mean, that there was no Azeri, Armenian, Georgian, etc people(s), of course there was and is – Russia always was and defined itself as a multi-ethnic, multi-national state not as a national state in the Western sense. In this article, I am again concerned only with claims of statehood and questions of territorial claims and I am specifically not concerned with an analysis of this murky concept of what is “nation”, “nationality”, or “ethnic group” and what these actually mean in this context. As it turns out, these terms are not consistently used and often change their meaning depending on context.
At this point, it is necessary to look closer at how the Russian Empire disintegrated over 1917 and 1918 and what this meant in the Caucasus. It is a very important period, and I will treat that in a separate post and leave it out for now. I begin straight with the formation of the nation states of Armenia and Georgia in 1918.
Reminder, that the Caucasus area was occupied in 1918, mainly by the Osman Empire and the frontlines moved throughout the year of 1918 (Map source: Wikimedia: Наступление турок в 1918 году.svg):
Specifically, relevant the frontlines in May 1918 (light green broken line) and June 1918 (dark green broken line).
Democratic Republic of Georgia (May 26, 1918 – March 18, 1921)
I start with the “Democratic Republic of Georgia”, which existed from May 26 1918 to March 1921, when it became the “Georgian SSR”. As one can learn, this short-lived state was also, what today some call a “self-proclaimed republic”, with the proclamation of independence coming from the “National Council of Georgia”, which was a council of Georgian parties (without Bolsheviks) but not a democratically elected body. Of course, it did have pretensions on a certain territory (Map source: Wikimedia Democratic Republic of Georgia in 1918.svg):
I could not find the historic document used at the Paris Peace conference of 1919, but I assume the above map does represent claims well enough.
Here, again, we can see that the claimed territory did not correspond to the territory actually under control. The territorial situation at the time is better reflected in the following map (Map source: Wikimedia Democratic Republic of Georgia.svg). Note there is also an English version of this map, here:
Which corresponds nicely with todays border of Georgia. We note that almost immediately, this generated territorial conflicts with Armenia (which led to the Georgian Armenian War in December 1918), Sochi Conflict 1918, the Georgian-Ossetian conflict (1918-1920) and the Abhkazia conflict (1918-1921).
Aha, same problems as we have since 1991…
First Republic of Armenia (May 28, 1918 – December 2, 1920)
This too, was a, what today some call “self-proclaimed republic” and too did not live long. It was declared by the “Armenian National Council” which was the executive arm of the “Armenian National Congress“, which was dissolved in October 1917, while the Armenian National Council continued to exist and declared independence of Armenia on May 28. As a side-note, I observe, that in almost all articles I read, especially, the Wikipedia ones, the phrase “declared independence” is used, while the mention “from who did the entity declare independence” is almost never mentioned. The answer is, Russia, or the Russian Empire, if you prefer, of course.
Here is the map Armenian representatives presented at Paris Peace Conference in 1919 (Map source: История Армении):
Note, the map can also be found on Wikipedia, without the red borders and text, but the extent of th territory is not clearly visible, so I chose this version. The caption reads “Map of Armenia, introduced by the Minstry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia at the Paris Peace Conference (Year 1919)”.
Another map, very close to the above one is this version (Map source: Wikipedia First Republic of Armenia):
I note that this includes areas that are today’s Republic of Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh and Nakhichevan. The last two areas were split off and became part of the Azerbaijani SSR in 1921, while the rest formed the Armenian SSR. The Western part, which is in today’s Republic of Turkey, was also historically considered Armenia and populated by many Armenians, but was never claimed by the First Republic of Armenia. The reasons behind that requires a discussion about the events between 1915 and 1918, but this is beyond the scope of this article.
For comparisons to today, ı include here a map that depicts the current situation, with the territory of the Republic of Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (Maps source: Gyumri blog):
I note the similarity between the territorial claims of the First Armenian Republic and this territory, and cannot but conclude, that today’s conflicts in this area are also a result of these Western supported and created national states.
Conclusion
Here again, as in the case of Azerbaijan and Ukraine, I conclude, that West created “nation-states” based on nationality on Russian soil. To implement this concept, ethnic cleansings and genocides are obviously needed. They are needed a) to establish a suitably “homogenous” population in a specific area, but they are also needed as b) justification in support of the claim, that nation-states with borders based on nationality are necessary.
Here, Woodrow Wilsons 14 Points come to mind, specifically points VI and IX:
and here we understand, what the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 sought to achieve, in today’s words by think-tank “Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC)“:
This process of creation of “nation-states” with borders based on nationality is still ongoing today. We saw that in 1991 with Western encouraged split of USSR and Yugoslavia, and later Serbia and Kosovo, and we can see it elsewhere too. There are other possible victims of this Western concept, namely all former USSR members, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, China, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and more.
I also note, that, in history, you’ll find many entities that are “self-proclaimed” or “self-declared”. For states, this typically happens, when an existing power disappears or is no longer accepted and others take it’s place either fully or partially.
Next on the list to have a closer look at, are the Baltic States and the years 1917 and 1918 in Russia (the Russian Empire).
