Why Armenia Should Be Free: Armenia's Rôle in the Present WarGaro, Armen
History
Why Armenia Should Be Free: Armenia's Rôle in the Present War
Garo, Armen
World War, 1914-1918 -- Armenia
But if the Armenians were to be thrust back under the yoke of Turkey, it
would mean that injustice, massacre and atrocity are to be permanent
features of the world of the future. It would mean that the
justice-loving nations of the world will prepare for inevitable
conflicts that are to come. It would mean that the war which was fought
to end war has been lost.
National independence for Armenia will mean that the old order of secret
intrigue and orthodox diplomacy has given way to a new order of open
democratic diplomacy, based on the self-determination of nations and the
principles of international justice. It will mean that the peace which
ends this war will be a democratic peace, a peace of the peoples, a
peace that will last. It will mean that imperialistic aims, secret
treaties and selfish greedy interests have given way before the
conception of a world organized for righteousness and permanent peace.
National independence for Armenia will mean that the Balance of Power,
which has always considered the subject nations of Turkey as mere pawns
in a diplomatic game, has been replaced by a League of Free Nations
opening the way towards a world federation and the parliament of man. It
will mean that the old chaos of international anarchy is to be replaced
by a new world order in which peoples and nations shall be free to live
their own lives, to speak their own language, to worship in their own
religion and to develop their own civilization, in the fullest
friendship and democratic co-operation with the other free nations of
mankind.
National independence for Armenia is a touchstone of victory because it
will mean that mankind has come to recognize that there is a moral law
in the world, which applies to nations as well as to individuals. It
will mean the overthrow of imperialism, militarism and the philosophy of
force. It will mean an invaluable extension of the principle of
democracy in the world. It will mean that the way will be open to
develop the great highway between Europe and Asia amid political
conditions of a stable and durable peace. It will mean that mankind can
proceed to cultivate again the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates
and that once more after centuries of desolation this region will become
one of the garden spots of the earth.
What should be the boundaries of the new Armenian nation? I have before
me Stanford's Linguistic Map of Europe, a map based upon the most
careful scientific research and conscientious scholarship. This map
shows the area in which the Armenian speaking population is dominant as
extending to Adana and Alexandretta on the Mediterranean, almost to the
Black Sea near Trebizond, to Tiflis in the Caucasus Mountains and to
Lake Urmia near the western boundary of Persia on the East.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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