US Intelligence Report:
All Armenians
Demand Return of Lands
from Turkey
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The
California Courier
The recently announced
demand for lands from Turkey by the Prosecutor General of Armenia attracted
much attention from Armenians worldwide and harsh criticism from the Turkish
government. While this was the first time that an Armenian official had raised
this issue since the country’s independence in 1991, the demand itself is not
new. Armenians have been seeking the return of their historic territories from
Turkey for decades.
A confidential 1943
document, declassified by the Central Intelligence Agency, reveals that the US
government was well aware of the Armenian demands for recognition of the
“atrocities” and return of Turkish occupied “provinces.”
The document dated
December 13, 1943, authored by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the
predecessor of the CIA, stated: “All the Armenian press in the United States is
active in keeping the Turkish Armenian massacres fresh in the minds of its
readers. Fearful that the Axis atrocities of the present war [World War II]
will eclipse the atrocities of the last when the final reckoning comes, they
are anxious to keep alive the Armenian case against Turkey. Armenians have present
as well as past grievances against Turkey, whose capital levy tax ‘Varlik’
falls harder on Armenians than on any other minority group in Turkey. Even more
unforgivable in the eyes of Armenians is the fact that Turkey holds provinces
which, they are firmly convinced, belong rightfully to Armenia. Restitution of
these provinces to Armenia is the goal of all Armenians.” Elsewhere in the document,
OSS accurately reported that “Armenians, almost without exception, entertain
feelings of deepest suspicion, hostility, and fear” toward Turkey.
A second declassified
confidential document dated July 31, 1944, carries a surprising title:
“Tashnags Turn to Soviet Russia.” The OSS indicated that “the once
uncompromisingly anti-Soviet Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Tashnags)
officially changed its spots, and the swing toward support of the Soviet Union,
which has been growing gradually more perceptible during the last few months,
has culminated in the adoption of a pro-Soviet policy at the Federation’s
annual convention held in Boston the first week of July." This OSS
report was prepared as the Soviet Union had announced its intention to claim the
Eastern provinces of Turkey (Kars, Ardahan, and Surmalou) in a post-World War
II settlement. The Soviet claim was backed by the Armenian Church, the Soviet
Armenian government and the Diaspora, including the anti-Soviet Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (ARF).
The OSS astutely
reported: “The Tashnags have never actually renounced their dream of a free and
independent Armenia, including the Turkish irredenta, which has kept them at
loggerheads with the USSR, ever since Armenia was established as a Soviet
[illegible] in 1920. … With the vision of independence fading, the now
Soviet-friendly Tashnags are turning their attention to the acquisition of the
Turkish provinces of Armenia by the Soviet Armenian Republic.”
In explaining ARF’s
post-war expectations, OSS stated: “If, as the Tashnags believe and hope,
Turkey remains neutral [in World War II], she will be in a highly vulnerable
position, and one item of payment for her neutrality, according to Mr. [James]
Mandalian [editor of the Boston-based ARF newspaper Hairenik], would be the
cession of Turkish Armenia to Soviet Armenia.”
The 1943 OSS document
also contained a lengthy report on the Armenian-American press, focusing its
attention on six of the 17 Armenian newspapers in the United States: “Hairenik
and Asbarez (Tashnag)” classified as “rightist-nationalist;” “Baikar, Nor Or
(Ramgavar)” and “Eritassard Hayastan (Hunchag)” classified as “liberal;” and
Lraper (Armenian Progressive League of America)” classified as
“leftist-Communist.” The last two newspapers are no longer in publication.
According to OSS,
Hairenik and Asbarez are “strongly nationalist, anti-Soviet, and anti-Communist,”
while Baikar is “resolutely opposed to the Tashnags and their principles. The
Ramgavars have accepted the incorporation of Armenia into the Soviet Union as
the most satisfactory way out of Armenian problems, and many articles are
printed in Baikar extolling the Soviet regime in Armenia, particularly in its
relations to the Armenian Apostolic Church.”
OSS estimated that the
95,000 Armenians in the United States in 1943, mostly settled in Massachusetts,
New York, and California, “retain a keen interest in the affairs of their
homeland [Soviet Armenia], though few, if any, would go back there.”
