A state in Transcaucasia formed after the collapse of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic.

 

The key role in the politics of the Republic of Armenia was played by the Dashnaktsutyun Party. In May 1918 – November 1920, the leaders of the Dashnaks (Hovhannes Kajaznuni, Aleksander Khatisian, Hamazasp Ohanjanyan, Simon Vratsian) were at various times the chairmen of the government. The Dashnak faction had an absolute majority (90%) in the country’s parliament, which since June 1919 became the republic’s supreme legislative body.

 

Throughout its existence, the Republic of Armenia fought against neighboring states over control over the territories. On June 4, 1918, the representatives of Armenia concluded in Batumi a Treaty of Peace and Friendship with the Ottoman Empire. The latter recognized the independence of Armenia within the two districts of the Erivan governorate but after a month, having violated the Treaty resumed hostilities and occupied Armenia. On October 30, 1918, after being defeated in the World War I, the Ottoman Empire signed the Armistice of Mudros with Great Britain, which provided for the withdrawal of Turkish forces from Transcaucasia. British intervention began in Transcaucasia. Great Britain, which declared itself a patron of the Republic of Armenia, handed over to it the Kars region and the earlier expropriated districts of the Erivan governorate.

 

Armenia had reciprocal claims with two other Transcaucasian republics. At the end of 1918, the relations with the Democratic Republic of Georgia strained due to disputed territories with a mixed Armenian and Georgian population. As a result of the Georgian–Armenian War (December), the northern part of Borchali district was given to Georgia and the southern part to Armenia. Reciprocal claims of Armenia and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in the territory with a mixed population (Nakhichevan, Zangezur, Karabakh, etc.) led to the Armenian–Azerbaijan War of 1918–1920. At the end of April 1920, the Soviet power was established in the territory of Azerbaijan, and the forces of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army took control over Nakhichevan. On July 28, 1920, the Nakhichevan Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed. On August 10, a ceasefire was signed between Armenia and the Russian SFSR.

 

On the same day, in Sèvres (France), the Ottoman Empire concluded an agreement with the Entente and the states that joined it (including Armenia), according to which it recognized Armenia as an independent state and handed over to it territories of more than 100 thousand square kilometers. However, in September 1920, the head of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal, started a new war, during which the Turkish army occupied a significant part of the Armenian territories. Under these conditions, on December 2, 1920, in Alexandropol, the Armenian government signed a dictated peace treaty: the territory of the country was reduced to the Erivan and Gokchin regions.

 

By this time, the Dashnaks had lost control over the country where the Bolshevik uprising began. On November 29, 1920, the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed. The Republic of Armenia ceased to exist. Therefore, the Treaty of Alexandropol did not come into force, and the borders between the Soviet republics of Transcaucasia and the Ottoman Empire were formed in 1921. From the end of 1920 to the summer of 1921, the Autonomous Syunik Republic (the old name of Zangezur is Syunik) existed in Zangezur under the leadership of the Dashnaks, and from April 26 it was the Republic of Nagorno-Armenia. It was also liquidated by the Bolsheviks.