I. Ermeni Sorunun Tarihsel Boyutu
6. ABD Başkanlarının
Demeçleri
Woodrow WILSON - Mayıs 24,
1920
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"Whereas the people of the United States are deeply impressed by the
deplorable conditions of insecurity, starvation, and misery now prevalent in
Armenia."
66th Congress 2nd Session House of Representatives Document No. 791
Mandate For Armenia
Message from the President of the United States, requesting that the
Congress grant the executive power to accept for the United States a mandate
for Armenia
May 24, 1920. — Read; referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and
ordered to be printed.
Gentlemen of the Congress:
On the fourteenth of May an official communication was received at the
Executive Office from the Secretary of the Senate of the United States
conveying the following preambles and resolutions:
Whereas the testimony adduced at the hearings conducted by the subcommittee
of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations have clearly established the
truth of the reported massacres and other atrocities from which the Armenian
people have suffered; and
Whereas the people of the United States are deeply impressed by the
deplorable conditions of insecurity, starvation, and misery now prevalent in
Armenia; and
Whereas the independence of the Republic of Armenia has been duly recognized
by the Supreme Council of the Peace Conference and by the Government of the
United States of America: Therefore be it
Resolved, That the sincere congratulations of the Senate of the United
States are hereby extended to the people of Armenia on the recognition of
the independence of the Republic of Armenia, without prejudice respecting
the territorial boundaries involved: And be it further
Resolved, That the Senate of the United States hereby expresses the hope
that stable government, proper protection of individual liberties and
rights, and the full realization of nationalistic aspirations may soon be
attained by the Armenian people: And be it further
Resolved, That in order to afford necessary protection for the lives and
property of citizens of the United States at the port of Batum and along the
line of the railroad leading to Baku, the President is hereby requested, if
not incompatible with the public interest, to cause a United States warship
and a force of marines to be dispatched to such port with instructions to
such marines to disembark and to protect American lives and property.
I received and read this document with great interest and with genuine
gratification, not only because it embodied my own convictions and feelings
with regard to Armenia and its people, but also, and more particularly,
because it seemed to me the voice of the American people expressing their
genuine convictions and deep Christian sympathies, and intimating the line
of duty which seemed to them to lie clearly before us.
I cannot but regard it as providential, and not as a mere casual coincidence
that almost at the same time I received information that the conference of
statesmen now sitting at San Remo for the purpose of working out the details
of peace with the Central Powers which it was not feasible to work out in
the conference at Paris, had formally resolved to address a definite appeal
to this Government to accept the mandate for Armenia. They were at pains to
add that they did this, "not from the smallest desire to evade any
obligations which they might be expected to undertake, but because the
responsibilities which they are already obliged to bear in connection with
the disposition of the former Ottoman Empire will strain their capacities to
the uttermost, and because they believe that the appearance on the scene of
a power emancipated from the prepossessions of the old world will inspire a
wider confidence and afford a firmer guarantee for stability in the future
then would the selection of any European power."
Early in the conferences at Paris it was agreed that to those colonies and
territories which as a consequence of the late war have ceased to be under
the sovereignty of the States which formerly governed them and which are
inhabited by peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous
conditions of the modern world there should be applied the principle that
the well being and development of such peoples form a sacred trust of
civilization, and that securities for the performance of this trust should
be afforded.
It was recognized that certain communities formerly belonging to the Turkish
Empire have reached a stage of development where their existence as
independent nations can be provisionally recognized, subject to the
rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a mandatory until such
time as they are able to stand alone.
It is in pursuance of this principle and with a desire of affording Armenia
such advice and assistance that the statesmen conferring at San Remo have
formally requested this Government to assume the duties of mandatory in
Armenia. I may add, for the information of the Congress, that at the same
sitting it was resolved to request the President of the United States to
undertake to arbitrate the difficult question of the boundary between Turkey
and Armenia in the Vilayets of Erzerum, Trebizond, Van and Bitlis, and it
was agreed to accept his decision thereupon, as well as any stipulation he
may prescribe as to access to the sea for the independent State of Armenia.
In pursuance of this action, it was resolved to embody in the Treaty with
Turkey, now under final consideration, a provision that "Turkey and Armenia
and the other High Contracting Parties agree to refer to the arbitration of
the President of the United States of America the question of the boundary
between Turkey and Armenia in the Vilayets of Erzerum, Trebizond, Van and
Bitlis, and to accept his decision thereupon as well as any stipulation he
may prescribe as to access to the sea for the independent State of Armenia:"
pending that decision the boundaries of Turkey and Armenia to remain as at
present. I have thought it my duty to accept this difficult and delicate
task.
In response to the invitation of the Council at San Remo, I urgently advise
and request that the Congress grant the Executive power to accept for the
United States a mandate over Armenia. I make this suggestion in the earnest
belief that it will be the wish of the people of the United States that this
should be done. The sympathy with Armenia has proceeded from no single
portion of our people, but has come with extraordinary spontaneity and
sincerity from the whole of the great body of Christian men and women in
this country by whose free-will offerings Armenia has practically been saved
at the most critical juncture of its existence. At their hearts this great
and generous people have made the cause of Armenia their own. It is to this
people and to their Government that the hopes and earnest expectations of
the struggling people of Armenia turn as they now emerge from a period of
indescribable suffering and peril, and I hope that the Congress will think
it wise to meet this hope and expectation with the utmost liberality. I know
from unmistakable evidences given by responsible representatives of many
peoples struggling towards independence and peaceful life again that the
Government of the United States is looked to with extraordinary trust and
confidence, and I believe that it would do nothing less than arrest the
hopeful processes of civilization if we were to refuse the request to become
the helpful friends and advisers of such of these people as we may be
authoritatively and formally requested to guide and assist.
I am conscious that I am urging upon the Congress a very critical choice,
but I make the suggestion in the confidence that I am speaking in the spirit
and in accordance with the wishes of the greatest of the Christian peoples.
The sympathy for Armenia among our people has sprung from untainted
consciences, pure Christian faith, and an earnest desire to see Christian
people everywhere succored in their time of suffering, and lifted from their
abject subjection and distress and enabled to stand upon their feet and take
their place among the free nations of the world. Our recognition of the
independence of Armenia will mean genuine liberty and assured happiness for
her people, if we fearlessly undertake the duties of guidance and assistance
involved in the functions of a mandatory. It is, therefore, with the most
earnest hopefulness and with the feeling that I am giving advice from which
the Congress will not willingly turn away that I urge the acceptance of the
invitation now formally and solemnly extended to us by the Council at San
Remo, into whose hands has passed the difficult task of composing the many
complexities and difficulties of government in the one-time Ottoman Empire
and the maintenance of order and tolerable conditions of life in those
portions of that Empire which it is no longer possible in the interest of
civilization to leave under the government of the Turkish authorities
themselves.
Woodrow Wilson, The White House, May 24, 1920.
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