Monday, December 06, 2010

Arnold Reisman: On an Armenian Manifesto Circa 1923

"Arnold Reisman: On an Armenian Manifesto Circa 1923

Source: Special to HNN (12-6-10)

[Arnold Reisman is an engineer and a retired professor of operations research at Case Western Reserve University. Born in Lodz in 1934, he came to the United States after World War II and is the author of numerous books about Holocaust refugees in Turkey, including Turkey's Modernization: Refugees from Nazism and Ataturk's Vision (New Academia, 2006).]

Recently a friend showed me a booklet which I found intriguing. It includes a most interesting and incisive account of what had been happening among, and to, the Armenian people up to 1923. The original, was written by a most knowledgeable Armenian activist of the time, Hovhannes Katchaznouni. He was a powerful leader in the Dashnagtzoutiun (English: Armenian Revolutionary Federation) and was the first prime minister of the Armenian state in 1918 proclaimed by the Armenian National Council in Tiflis (Tbilisi), as the ruling Armenian body was known at that time. He “was in power as the head of government … for thirteen months. He was among the founders of the Dashnagtzoutiun Party and one of its top leaders. He was the prime authority of Armenia and the Dashnagtzoutiun Party and served on the Armenian committee conducting the peace talks with the Turks in Trabzon, and Batoumi.” “He knew every Party secret before, during, and after the founding of the ill-fated Republic.” “Few were in a position to know more, nor to express themselves with greater clarity, logic, and foresight than Hovhannes Katchaznouni.”"

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