| Abstract |
The Armenian Legion (Légion Arménienne) was formed according to an agreement reached on October 27, 1916, in London between the Armenian statesman and leader, Boghos Nubar Pasha, and the governments of France and Great Britain, who were then locked in the bitter fighting of World War I against German and Turkey.
Stunned by the losses of the 1915 genocide unleashed against them by the Ottoman Turkish government, the Armenians were eager to participate in the struggle on the side of the Allies, in order to win their basic human and political rights.
As part of the agreement, France and Great Britain promised autonomy for the Armenians living in Cilicia, a part of southern Turkey that had been allocated to France according to the terms of the 1916 secret agreement (Sykes-Picot) concluded among the Allies to partition Ottoman Turkey after the war. During the Genocide, Armenians had been massacred and driven from their homes in Turkey, including Cilicia, site of a medieval Armenian kingdom and for centuries the home of a large Armenian population. It was understood that the Armenian Legion would form the nucleus of a peacekeeping force in the area after the war.
Pictured: Aram Hovsepian and Vahan Hovsepian, brothers. |
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