Armenian refugees: accidents of diplomacy or victims of ideology?

Abstract

The situation of Armenian refugees during and after the First World War was complex. Already by March 1915 120,000 Armenian refugees from the Ottoman Empire were reported in the Caucasus. International charity meant that more than a quarter of a million Armenians lived who would otherwise have starved to death; but the actions of statesmen and diplomats ensured that many would survive only in exile, and left them with the prospect of having their identity diluted and ceasing to be Armenians in a generation or two. To understand why the Armenians had been brought to such a dire plight by 1918, a brief historical resumé is required. The Armenians have existed in their highlands - the lands divided today by the southern part of the Soviet-Turkish border, and at the beginning of this century between the Ottoman and Romanov empires -since about 800 BC; they are mentioned in an inscription of King Darius, and in Xenophon’s Anabasis.