Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/1296

 1244 ARMEXrA

ARMENIA.

(Hyastan.)

Constitution and Government. — The Armenian Republic of Erivan was constituted in May, 1918, having, in common with the Georgians and the Tartars, persuaded the Turks and the Germans to recognise their inde- pendence. The territory of the Russian Armenian Republic consists of the south-eastern frontier districts* of Transcaucasia, which formerly belonged to the Russian Empire.

In November, 1917, Transcaucasia refused to recognise the Bolsheviks and constituted a Transcaucasian Commission as the Supreme Authority in the country. In February, 1918, the ' Seim,' or Diet, of Transcaucasia, convoked in the city of Tinis, formed a Provisional Government. On April 22, 1918, the Transcaucasian Diet declared its de jure independence of Russia and called itself the Federal Democratic Republic of Transcaucasia. The three main peoples in Transcaucasia — the Armenians, the Georgians, and the Tartars — were parties to this Federation, each holding their own respective territories. This Federal Republic lasted only five weeks owing, mainly, to the divergent political tendencies of these three nationalities. On May 26, 1918, the Transcaucasian Republic was dissolved and Georgia declared, its independence, as also did Armenia. Its de facto independence was recognised by the Allies in January, 1920, and its de jure recognition was embodied in the Treaty of Sevres signed in August, 1920, between the Allied Powers and Turkey. Armenia is one of the signatories of this Treaty.

The Armenian Republic has as yet no written Constitution, the task of drafting one being postponed till a Constituent Assembly shall meet to organise, not only the present Republic, but also those provinces of Turkish Armenia which are to be added in order to set up a United Armenia.

The Government of Russian Armenia consists of a Chamber of Deputies and a Cabinet of Ministers acting as its Executive. There is no President, the presidential functions being discharged partly by the Chamber, and partly by the Cabinet. The Chamber consists of 80 Deputies who were elected in June, 1919.

Area. — The territory of the Armenian Republic as constituted by the Treaty of Sevres and as delimited by ex-President Wilson of the United States, has an area of 80,000 square miles. It contains the territory of the Armenian Republic of Erivan, to which ex-president Wilson, in conformity to the request addressed to him by the Supreme Council at San Remo, added the ethnically Armenian regions of the vilajets of Van, Erzerum, Bitlis, and Trebi/.ond in Asiatic Turkey. The frontier thus denned begins at Treboli, 50 miles west of Trebizond on the Black Sea, crosses w< Erzinjau, and then, curving eastwards, skirts the northern slopes of Armenian Taurus south of Musi), Bitlis, and the Lake Van, aud ends on the Persian frontier.

As neither the League of Nations nor any of the Entente Governments can undertake a mandate for Turkish Armenia, the country is left to its own resources. As a result, the Turksaud the Russian Bolsheviks have attacked the country, and on April 2, 1921, Erivan was taken by them for the fifth time. Tho Armenian Republic is practically divided between the Turks and Russians (May, 1921), excepting only the Zangezur district, which has not been occupied.

Population.— According to the Russian official statistics published at