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ARMENIA IN MODERN TIMES 313
and Ardanuch. But in order to secure to them the independent
country and freedom from the Turkish yoke that the Allies
had so often promised, the Allied forces would have had to
occupy Turkish Armenia. This, however, was too much
trouble for the Governments ; there were no oil-wells in
Anatolia. Accordingly the Turks got the upper hand in
the country, which meant that the cause of the Armenians was
lost. Soon a new and serious peril arose owing to the Turkish
national revival under Mustapha KemaPs leadership, with its
point of departure in Turkish Armenia itself. But this is
not the place to explain how " rotten " Turkey, which the
Allies in the flush of victory regarded as utterly paralysed,
was able to regain sufficient strength to defy the victors, and
once more to become a belligerent Power with which they
had to negotiate.
Meanwhile the Armenians in Erivan, with their usual
indefatigable energy, began restoring their sorely devastated
country, crowded with homeless refugees. Under an enter
prising Government, presided over by the Armenian doctor
Khatissian, formerly mayor of Tiflis, they worked with great
vigour, reintroducing order, cultivating the land, settling
refugees, and restarting various industries. The Government
obtained a loan of 20 million dollars, and received other help
from abroad, especially from the American Near East Relief
organization, which, under the direction of Mr. Vickrey, has
saved the lives of thousands of Armenian children.
On the 28th of May 191 9 the Government of Erivan
proclaimed the independence and unity of the Armenian lands
in what had been Russian Transcaucasia and in the Ottoman
empire, declaring itself to be the Government of this united
Armenian republic. But in July and August of the same year
Turkish nationalist conferences called by Mustapha Kemal
at Erzerum and Sivas declared that " not an inch of the land
in our vilayets " should be given to " Armenia or any other
State."
During this time the peace negotiations in Paris were
slowly dragging on. A pan-Armenian conference of Arme
nians from all countries met in Paris under the joint presidency
of Avetis Aharonian, the poet and popular leader, and of
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