Republic of Mountainous Armenia Լեռնահայաստանի Հանրապետութիւն (Armenian) | |||||||||||
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| 1921–1921 | |||||||||||
 Map from 1921 | |||||||||||
| Status | Unrecognized state | ||||||||||
| Capital | Goris(de facto)[1] | ||||||||||
| Common languages | Armenian(de facto) | ||||||||||
| Demonym | Armenian | ||||||||||
| Government | Republic | ||||||||||
| Prime Minister | |||||||||||
• 1921 | Garegin Nzhdeh | ||||||||||
• 1921 | Simon Vratsian | ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
| 18 Feb – 2 Apr 1921 | |||||||||||
• Declared | 26 April 1921 | ||||||||||
• Disestablished | 13 July 1921 | ||||||||||
| ISO 3166 code | AM | ||||||||||
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| Today part of | Armenia Azerbaijan | ||||||||||
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TheRepublic of Mountainous Armenia (Armenian:Լեռնահայաստանի Հանրապետութիւն,romanized: Leṙnahayastani Hanrapetut’yun), also known as simplyMountainous Armenia (Լեռնահայաստան,Leṙnahayastan), was an anti-Bolshevik Armenian state roughly corresponding with the territory that is now the present-dayArmenian provinces ofVayots Dzor andSyunik, and some parts of the present-dayRepublic of Azerbaijan (in particular,Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic) in the west.[2] It was established by military commander and Armenian political thinkerGaregin Nzhdeh and his allies with the support of local guerrilla forces, following the suppression of theFebruary Uprising in April 1921. It was not recognized by any country but existed until mid-July of the same year.
In 1920–1921, with an Armenian Citizen Army of around 15,000, General Nzhdeh and his highly motivated soldiers inflicted heavy casualties upon the Kemalist Turkish army of over 100,000 coming from the West (Ankara) and the Soviet Red Army with over 150,000 forces coming from the East (Baku).
FollowingWorld War I, the signing of theTreaty of Sèvres, and in the ensuingpeace negotiations in Paris, the Allies had vowed to punish theYoung Turks and reward some, if not all, of theeastern provinces of the empire to the nascent Armenian Republic.[3] However, 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 western powers,Great Britain,France,Italy and theUnited States, had conflicting interests over the spheres of influence they were to assume. While there were crippling internal disputes between the Allies, the United States was reluctant to accept amandate over Armenia. Meanwhile, the recently formedRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic andTurkish National Movement had both set their sights on taking over theCaucasus, including Armenia.[4]: 20 TheBolsheviks sympathized with the Turkish Movement due to their mutual opposition to the western powers, or "Western Imperialism", as the Bolsheviks referred to it. The Soviet government allied with the Turkish nationalists and sent them gold and weapons. This proved disastrous for the Armenians, and eventuallyWestern Armenia fell to the invading forces.[5]
Armenia gave way to communist power in late 1920. The Soviet 11th Red Army's invasion of the First Republic of Armenia started on the 29 November 1920. The actual transfer of power took place on 2 December in Yerevan, when the Armenian leadership approved an ultimatum presented to it by the Soviet plenipotentiaryBoris Legran. Armenia agreed to join the Soviet sphere, while Soviet Russia agreed to protect its remaining territory from the advancing Turkish army. The Soviets also pledged to take steps to rebuild the army, to protect the Armenians and not to persecute non-communists, although the final condition of this pledge was reneged when theDashnaks were forced out of the country. The Soviet Government proposed the annexation of theNagorno-Karabakh andSyunik regions of Armenia toSoviet Azerbaijan. This step was strongly rejected byGaregin Nzhdeh, who declared Syunik as a self-governing region on 25 December 1920. In January 1921,Drastamat Kanayan sent a telegram to Nzhdeh, suggesting allowing the sovietisation of Syunik, through which they could gain the support of the Bolshevik government in solving the problems of the Armenian lands. Nzhdeh did not depart from Syunik and continued his struggle against the Red Army and Soviet Azerbaijan.[6][unreliable source?]
On 18 February 1921, the ARF led an anti-Soviet rebellion in Yerevan and seized power. The ARF controlled Yerevan and the surrounding regions for almost 42 days before being defeated by the numerically superior Red Army troops later in April 1921. The leaders of the rebellion then retreated into the Syunik region.
On 26 April 1921, the 2nd Pan-Zangezurian congress, held inTatev monastery, announced the independence of the self-governing regions of Daralakyaz (Vayots Dzor), Zangezur, and Mountainous Artsakh, under the name of theRepublic of Mountainous Armenia and later on 1 June 1921, it was renamed theRepublic of Armenia.[7]
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