Lord Curzon’s exasperation towards the ethnic cleansing policy carried out by Armenia (1920)

Salâhi Sonyel, Turkey’s Struggle for Liberation and the Armenians, Ankara: SAM, 2001, p. 107:

“On 12 February [1920], Lord Curzon [Foreign Secretary] sent the following telegram to Wardrop: ‘I am addressing a letter to [Avetis] Aharonian [chair of the Delegation of the Armenian Republic], impressing upon him the injury done to the cause of his people by the outrages which we hear they [the men of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation – Dashnaktsoutioun] committing on the Moslems, and the urgent necessity of following a policy of reconciliation rather than revenge.’ R. McDowell of the Foreign Office, minuting this document, observed: ‘No real peace will be obtained until some energetic steps are taken by the Armenians themselves to destroy the activities of the Dachnacs. People like Dro, Hamazar, Gulhandian, etc., are mostly to blame.’ On 1 March, Aharonian replied to Curzon, denying that the Armenians had encroached in the province of Karabağ, killing a number of Tatars and destroying several villages. He enclosed a telegram from Toumanoff, in Tiflis, dated 7 February [1920], denying the same and putting the blame on the Tatars, ‘making efforts to exterminate the Armenian population of the District of Nakhichevan.’ The British Foreign Office replied, accusing the [nationalist] Armenians of massacres.”

Avetis Aharonian, “From Sardarapat to Sèvres and Lausanne. A political Diary — Part IV,” Armenian Review, XVI-3, Autumn 1963, pp. 52-53, entry 8 April 1920 (quoting Lord Curzon):

“I am compelled, however, to observe that your people, especially the Dashnak Party [Armenian Revolutionary Federation], of which I think you, Mr. Aharonian, are a member—it is they who have given frequent cause for the break of the peace. Your three chiefs, Dro [Drastamat Kanyan], Harnazasp and Kulkhandanian are the ringleaders of the bands which have destroyed Tartar [namely Azeri] villages and have staged massacres in Zangezour, Surrnalu, Etchmiadzin, and Zangibasar. This is intolerable. Look—and here he pointed to a file of official documents on the table—look at this, here in December [1919] are the reports of the last few months concerning ruined Tartar villages which my representative Wardrop has sent me. […]

 Your interests demand that you be peaceful otherwise we cannot help you, we cannot supply you arms and ammunition because you will be using them against the Tartars [Azeris].”