Envisioning Post-Imperial Futures: Armenia between Anatolia and the Caucasus, 1918-1925

• In Event: War, Peace, and Diplomacy on the Russo-Ottoman Borderlands, 1860–1920

Abstract

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation, of which Hovhannes Kajaznuni, Ruben Ter-Minasian, Simon Vratsian and Aleksandr Khatisian were all members, operated in the Russian, Ottoman, and Persian empires, built diaspora communities, collaborated with dissidents and activists the world over, and ultimately found itself in charge of the short-lived Armenian republic (1918-1920). While much of the diplomatic history has focused on colonial visions of a post-Ottoman and post-Russian future, by looking at the memoirs, diaries, letters of the leading Armenian political figures of the First Republic of Armenia, I will analyze their vision for the future of Armenia and its relationship with Russian/USSR, Ottoman Empire/Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia between 1918 and mid-1920s. By closely examining the writings of Kajaznuni, Ter-Minasian, Vratsian and Khatisian, I will focus in particular on the discourses on autochthony, nation, nation-building, borderland and territoriality, situating them in the imperial contexts of the rapidly changing geopolitical context of Anatolia and the Caucasus.

Author

• Diana Yayloyan, Georgetown U