The Ottoman Empire hoped for an early cessation to hostilities during the Great War. What they received instead was a brutal slog, fought for over a decade. As with most wars, the issue came down to exhaustion. Trench warfare whittled down the materiel of the Ottoman military, killed its most experienced soldiers, and forced domestic production into feeding the war machine. The Ottoman oil fields were slowly stripped from the empire as the British-backed Arabs continued their marches to independence. Resources that the Ottomans depended upon for fighting in the Middle East were no longer flowing into the factories in significant numbers. Millions of casualties reduced a generation of Turkish men to alarmingly low levels. The empire that had been built for hundreds of years was crumbling before the Sultan’s eyes. Exhaustion crept upwards as it became apparent that all the Ottomans could do now was stop their losses before they became too great.
The end of the war came as the Ottomans realized that their integrity was worth more than their empire. Long-held Turkish-ethnic policies guided the decision to pull away from the Middle East and the Caucasus and hold the line in the Anatolian homeland. The Ottoman troops were chased, practically, by the rebels of once-oppressed minorities. The war had only worsened existing ethnic tensions, infuriating minority groups. A large group of these Ottoman subjects were Armenian, and often faced the worst treatment. Labeled saboteurs, separatists, and conspirators, Armenians were many times blamed for problems at home. While the Ottoman government never had the dedicated resources available for a full-scale genocide, incidents of abuse and massacre were not uncommon. The Armenians established multiple militias, called the Fedayeen, for home defense against these abuses. While the morality of Fedayeen actions are debated, they are recognized in Armenian culture as heroes.
The Fedayeen coalesced into an organized revolutionary front after the Independence Council was established in Yerevan. The Independence Council, made up of the leaders of the largest regional Fedayeen groups, drafted their determination for a state of the Armenian people. They established the vision of an ethnic republic, created for the sustainment of Armenians. With that, they elected the leader of the newly-birthed Armenian Separatist Federation: Mikael Serovian. An experienced veteran of the Ottoman military’s ethnically divided Armenian Regiments, Serovian organized the Fedayeen into an ASF central structure and set about the task of clearing Ottoman troops from Armenian lands. From the east to the west, over the course of three years, the Armenian militias engaged in brutal combat with a rapidly-disintegrating Ottoman military. Serovian himself lived to see the end of the war, narrowly escaping death twice as his command camp was hit with artillery.
Part of the 1929 peace treaty included provisions for ethnic territories carved out of the Ottoman Empire. Armenia received its wish, and was granted its lands extending from the eastern Artsakh forests to the western reaches of Erzincan. Several other neighboring populations received ethnic states as well, forming new neighbors for the country. With the immediate victory of independence over, the Armenian Separatist Front was transitioned to the Armed Forces of Armenia and the Fedayeen were reorganized again into a regular military component. The professionalization of the Armenian military was accomplished over the next years with foreign assistance. Civilian ministries were set up for reconstruction, headed by the Provisional Governor: Serovian. Serovian, the ASF commander-turned-civil politician, was responsible for building the government structure until elections were first held in July of 1930. After Serovian’s victory, he became the first President of the Republic of Armenia.
President Serovian, a steely-eyed and dedicated leader who never married, was seen as the father of the republic. He spent two terms, a total of ten years, in office handling reconstruction measures. Foreign relations were expanded with the country’s closest ally: Persia, arguing the case for the reception of billions of dollars of foreign aid in exchange for a state to keep the Ottomans from making a return. Serovian spent the money on roads, railroads, ports, and various other facilities that were lacking from Ottoman occupation. A consistent fixture of Armenia’s statehood has been a to strong military forces despite a small population: a vanguard against reoccupation by a foreign power. Yerevan, over the next few decades, became a bustling city with ever-taller buildings in an effort to show the world Armenia’s success. Propaganda extolled the virtues of the Armenian work effort and a dedication to claw their way back from the being trapped beneath the Ottoman heel. While Serovian’s solid tenure as President provided a base for years to come, he had a fair part to play in wasteful spending and the establishment of Armenia’s foreign debt.
In the twenty years since Serovian stepped down from power in 1940, Armenia grew to become a solid state amidst a region so-often fraught with conflict. The Ottoman Empire began their own campaign of reconstruction after the war, fueling Armenia’s own militarism and nationalism that continues to penetrate its culture. In 1946, the Armenian military was put to the test again as the free state of Azerbaijan began mobilizing against the Artsakh: a dispute over territory and ethnic ownership that had boiled over after years of debate. A year of conflict ensued as the black forests of the Artsakh were turned into warzones against an invading Azeri military. The conflict produced heavy casualties on both sides and was stopped only by the intervention of the Persian imperial forces, who later occupied and annexed Azerbaijan. The war effected some degree of cynicism and concern amongst the general public, who worried that a war with the Ottomans would not go as well. Political factions amongst the Armenian parliament bickered until the next election, where a new President was elected. This President would serve until 1960.
Armenia’s second crisis came in the wake of the 1952 assassination of Russia’s tsar. The Russian state, earlier too busy to deal with Armenia, fell apart and collapsed into dozens of small states. These states, particularly in the Caucasus, were often failing to provide basic security or services to their people. Criminals, militias, drug traffickers, and pirates all based out of the former Russian states. These posed a significant border threat to Armenia: militias would attack the border, pirates would attack shipping, and methamphetamine was poised to eclipse hashish as the top-selling drug in the country. Russian refugees streamed across the border, crowding into towns and ghettoes and forming Russian communities in cities. The President, a hardliner by the name of Joseph Vadratian, had become popular after the Artsakh War. He declared that Russian refugees must earn their place, and instituted policies that encouraged the employment of Russian workers in jobs like construction, mining, agriculture, factories, and other laborious occupations. These workers were paid very little and often mistreated, causing resentment amongst the Russian communities and a divide between them and the Armenians. Criminals, most infamously in Sevan, exploited that, and the Russian Mafia became a powerful figure in Armenian crime.
The Armenia of 1960 is resurgent, proud, and building what seems to be a prosperous future. 31 years of independence has treated the Armenian people better than they could have imagined. A new generation knows only the Armenian state, and the tales of Ottoman occupation are quickly becoming bedtime stories. However, external conflict with the Ottomans or Armenia’s failing neighbors looms over the relatively young state. A demographic crisis with attached crime and societal issues is just beginning, just as the hardliners find their way out of office and the political scene of Armenia is due for a shakeup. It is May, and an election is approaching next month between an increasingly unpopular Vadratian and his more liberal opponent: Hasmik Assanian. Armenia, the leader of the post-Ottoman resurgence, faces tough times ahead.