Armenia's Iron Curtain: The First Republic's Struggle for Survival

Fresh off the collapse of the tsarist empire, the First Armenian Republic faced a desperate fight for existence from 1918 to 1920. This episode zooms in on the republic's founding moment at the Battle of Sardarabad, where an improvised civilian army halted the Ottoman advance and secured a fragile independence. We explore the republic's internal challenges: a starving population, a shattered economy, and the impossible task of building a state in the chaos of the Russian Civil War. Lucas and Luna discuss the controversial Treaty of Batum, which reduced Armenia to a sliver of its historical territory, and the doomed diplomacy with the Allied powers in Paris. Key figures like Aram Manukian and Hovhannes Kachaznuni come to life as they navigate betrayal by former allies and the relentless pressure of Kemalist Turkey and Bolshevik Russia. The episode concludes with the republic's final days, the Sovietization orchestrated by the Red Army, and the question of whether those two years of independence—so brief and brutal—meant anything at all. A story of defiance against overwhelming odds, and the bitter cost of sovereignty. #FirstRepublicOfArmenia #BattleOfSardarabad #AramManukian #TreatyOfBatum #HovhannesKachaznuni #ArmenianGenocideAftermath #Dashnaksutyun #RussianCivilWar #KemalistTurkey #Sovietization #ParisPeaceConference #CaucasusHistory #OttomanEmpire #ArmenianIndependence #SardarabadMemorial #20thCenturyHistory #History #FexingoHistory #ArmenianHistory #MountArarat Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo