Hovhannes Kajaznuni | |
|---|---|
Հովհաննես Քաջազնունի | |
 Kajaznuni in 1920 | |
| 1stPrime Minister of Armenia | |
| In office 6 June 1918 – 7 August 1919 | |
| Preceded by | position established |
| Succeeded by | Alexander Khatisian |
| Chairman of the Parliament of Armenia | |
| In office 4 November 1920 – 2 December 1920 | |
| Preceded by | Avetik Sahakyan |
| Succeeded by | position abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1868-02-14)14 February 1868 |
| Died | 15 January 1938(1938-01-15) (aged 69) |
| Nationality | Armenian |
| Political party | Armenian Revolutionary Federation |
| Spouse | Satenik Mirimanian (m. 1889) |
Hovhannes Kajaznuni orKatchaznouni (Armenian:Հովհաննես Քաջազնունի;[n 1] 14 February 1868 – 15 January 1938) was an Armenian architect and politician who served as the firstprime minister of theFirst Republic of Armenia from 6 June 1918 to 7 August 1919. He was a member of theArmenian Revolutionary Federation.
Kajaznuni was born Hovhannes Ter-Hovhannisian in 1868 in the town of Akhaltsikh (present-dayAkhaltsikhe), then part of theAkhaltsikhe uezd of theTiflis Governorate of theRussian Empire, now part ofGeorgia. He attended secondary school in Tiflis from 1877 to 1886. In 1887, he moved toSaint Petersburg and entered the Citizens' Architectural Institute, graduating with honours in 1893. While in Saint Petersburg, Kajaznuni joined theArmenian Revolutionary Federation, eventually becoming one of its most important figures. After graduation, he worked at the construction department of the Baku provincial administration (1893–95), as an architect inBatum (1895–1897), and as regional architect at theTiflis provincial administration (1897–99). Between 1899 and 1906, he worked as a senior architect in Baku, designing hospitals and apartment buildings, his most notable work being theSaint Thaddeus and Bartholomew Cathedral completed in 1911. After 1906 he devoted himself to political and social activities.[1]
Kajaznuni was forced to leave the Caucasus in 1911 to avoid being called to testify at thetrial of Armenian Revolutionary Federation members mounted by the Russian government in Saint Petersburg in January 1912. He lived inConstantinople and then inVan until 1914, when he returned to the Caucasus. He became a member of theArmenian National Council in 1917 and was anARF representative in theSeym (the Transcaucasian Parliament) until 1918.
He was part of the Armenian delegation that conducted peace talks with the Ottoman Empire at theTrebizond Peace Conference, beginning on 14 March 1918.[2] The three groups of Transcaucasian delegates—Muslim, Georgian and Armenian—had divergent aims, and were in a weak position to negotiate with the Ottomans.[3] While the talks progressed, theOttoman Third Army retookErzurum after the Imperial Russian army abandoned it and advanced to the previous frontier with Russia.[3] These setbacks spurredAkaki Chkhenkeli, the GeorgianMenshevik leader of the Transcaucasian delegation, to unilaterally inform the Ottomans that he would accept theTreaty of Brest-Litovsk as the basis for negotiation, and thereby abandon Armenian claims to portions of Ottoman territory.[4] This concession was repudiated by the Seym, which ordered Chkhenkeli and the delegation to return to Tiflis.[5]
The capture ofBatum by Ottoman troops on 14 April 1918 sapped the will of the Georgian Mensheviks to continue fighting the Ottomans, and they pushed their Transcaucasian allies to accept the two Ottoman prerequisites for resuming negotiations: a recognition of Turkey's territorial rights and a full break with Russia.[5] This resulted in the Mensheviks and Muslims in the Seym proposing on 22 April 1918 to establish aTranscaucasian Democratic Federative Republic with reluctant endorsement from the increasingly isolated Armenian representatives.[6] The new republic's cabinet was selected by Chkhenkeli as premier-designate, and included Kajaznuni as one of four Armenians.[7] One of Chkhenkeli's first acts, without consulting the Seym or the Armenian cabinet members, was to order the Armenian army to surrenderKars to the Ottomans.[8] The furious Armenian leaders tendered their resignations from the cabinet and demanded Chkhenkeli be replaced. The Mensheviks would only agree to replace him with Kajaznuni or another Armenian. The Armenians realized that nominating an Armenian premier would cause the Ottomans to attack Russian Armenia, which was on the front-line since the loss of Kars. Accordingly, Kajaznuni and his fellow Dashnaks allowed the Seym to confirm their cabinet positions on 26 April 1918.[9]
Kajaznuni also accompanied Chkhenkeli as a delegate to theBatum Peace Conference that began on 11 May 1918.[10] At the conference, the Ottomans extended their demands to includeAkhaltsikh andAkhalkalaki inTiflis Governorate and the western half ofErivan Governorate.[10] Before the Transcaucasus delegation had delivered a response, Ottoman forces invaded the Erivan Governorate, and on May 15 capturedAlexandropol.[10] A week later, they had approached bothErivan andKarakilisa.[10] Unable to negotiate anything more favorable than capitulation with the Ottomans, the Georgian leaders at the Batum talks arranged a side-deal with Germany to exchange German protection for access to Georgia's economic resources. The result was that the Seym dissolved the federative republic on 26 May 1918, with theDemocratic Republic of Georgia declared the same day and the republics ofAzerbaijan andArmenia declared on May 28.[11]
The Armenian National Council elected Kajaznuni as the first prime minister of the independent Armenian state on 6 June 1918 and his cabinet was formed on June 30. Kajaznuni held this position until 7 August 1919; with the nomination as a prime minister abroad from 5 June 1919. He was in diplomatic missions in Europe (beginning in August 1919) and the United States (from 9 October 1919 until August 1920). During the battle for Zangibasar (modern-dayMasis) on 19–21 June 1920, Kajaznuni's son Aram (a lieutenant in theArmenian army) was killed by Tatar rebels—this was the second son he had lost in battle since 1918.[12] Kajaznuni later returned to Armenia to become chairman of the parliament on 4 November 1920. Kajaznuni was arrested after theBolsheviks came to power in December 1920 but was freed during theFebruary 1921 revolt against the Soviet regime.
After the end of the revolt in early April 1921, he left the country and lived inBucharest from 1921 to 1924. In August 1923, he left the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. In 1925 he returned toSoviet Armenia and worked as an architect inLeninakan. He also taught at the technical department ofYerevan State University, lecturing on construction and architecture. In 1930 he joined the newly establishedConstruction Institute and attained the title of professor there. Kajaznuni became a member of theArmenian Union of Architects. Kajaznuni was a victim of Stalin'sGreat Terror—arrested in 1937 and imprisoned, he died in prison in 1938. The exact date of his death is unknown.[13]
Kajaznuni prepared a critical report for the Armenian Revolutionary Federation party convention held in Bucharest during April 1923 (the 10th Congress of the Party was held in 1924-1925)[14][n 2][15][n 3] titledDashnaktsutyun Has Nothing More to Do, which called for the party's support of Soviet Armenia.[16][17][18][19] Before this event, every single Armenian political party in exile was opposed to Soviet Armenia's stance.[citation needed]
Kajaznuni first published his report in Bucharest in July 1923 under the titleDashnaktsutyun Has Nothing to Do. Then, adding one of his letters to ARF leaderSimon Vratsian (who tried to dissuade Kazajnuni from publishing the report)[20] as an appendix and the wordanymore (aylevs) to the title, he published the report again in Vienna and Alexandria. In 1923, it was published in Tiflis in the Soviet Union with an introduction by Sargis Khanoyan; a Russian translation was published in Tiflis in 1927.[21] Its claims immediately drew rebuke from the party.[22][n 4][23][n 5][24][n 6]
A condensed version of the report was translated into English in 1955 by Matthew Aram Callender, and edited byArthur Derounian.[25] In the introduction written by Derounian, an anti-Dashnak journalist,[26] Kajaznuni is described as a "patriot" whose report was a "deep and incisive self-study" that is a "refutation" of the "grandiose, exaggerated and even outrageously false claims of the Dashnag leadership today".[27] In 1990, the 1927 Russian translation with the introduction by S. Khanoyan was republished in Baku. The Armenian original was reprinted in Yerevan in 1994 and 1995 and most recently in 2016.[28]
In 2006 Turkish historianMehmet Perinçek, whodenies the Armenian genocide, published translations of Kajaznuni's 1923 report into Turkish, English, French and German on the basis of the 1927 Russian version published in Tiflis.[29] Perinçek presents Kajaznuni's report as evidence against the fact of the Armenian genocide.[30] These translations were published in a book series titledErmeni Belgeleriyle Ermeni Soykırımı Yalanı (in English:The Lie of the 'Armenian Genocide' in Armenian Documents).[31] Perinçek said that the Russian State Library copy was unabridged and that translations for these copies were unavailable before. Callender's translation did abridge the main body of the book but translated Kajaznuni's introduction verbatim—this is the key section which contains the description of the Armenian genocide.[32][33] A note on page 4 explains that Callender has translated most of Kajaznuni's remarks directly: "Except for abridgements, made for the sake of brevity by the translator and the editor, Katchaznouni's utterances appear verbatim."[34] On page 8, after the description of the genocide, Callender indicates that he is switching from verbatim to selective translation: "Translator's Note: Up to this point the words of the author have been translated verbatim in order to give an idea of Mr. Katchaznouni's logical mind and the exposition of the facts that drove him to present his 'Manifesto' to his colleagues at the 1923 Convention. From here on, and solely for the sake of brevity, we shall quote excerpts of his arguments which led to his decision as to why the Dashnagtzoutiun, in his opinion, should 'decisively end its existence' because 'there is no work for the Party'.[35]
Viken L. Attarian claims Perinçek's "discovery" is actually a forgery made by partisan Turkish historians to deny the fact of the Armenian genocide.[36] Attarian said: "The Turkish denialists are the ones who talk most about Katchaznouni and ... use texts and falsified translations that have nothing in common with the originals... Whatever the Turk denialists present about K[atchaznouni] is wrong and a lie... Katchaznouni never denied the Genocide and ... never betrayed his homeland".[36] In his report, Kajaznuni refers directly to the massacres of Armenians by the Ottoman authorities and the "deportation or extermination of the Ottoman Armenians [t’urk’ahay zhoghovrdi taragrut’ean kam bnajnjman]".[37]
Other historians who deny the Armenian genocide, such asJustin McCarthy andMichael Gunter, have also referred to Kajaznuni's report. McCarthy presents Kajaznuni's reference of the organization of Armenian volunteer regiments by the ARF in the Russian Empire during World War I as evidence of an ARF plot to organize a revolt among Ottoman Armenians and have Ottoman Armenian soldiers desert to the Russian side. In fact, the volunteer regiments were formed in Russia, not the Ottoman Empire, and were composed mainly of Russian Armenians.[38]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by None | Prime Minister of the First Republic of Armenia 1918-1919 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
