To mark May 28, the anniversary of the declaration of the first independent Republic of Armenia in 1918, we focus on one object from NAASR’s Mardigian Library. Not a book on this particular occasion (such as in 2020 when we looked at Simon Vratsian’s Hayastani Hanrapetutʻiwn and Richard Hovannisian’s The Republic of Armenia), but rather a photograph marking a bittersweet moment for the Republic and for the Armenian community in general.

The photograph is one of those great banquet photos of days gone by, taken on December 14, 1919, at the Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston, for a gala event in honor of members of the Armenian Mission to the United States. The photo in NAASR’s collection belonged to our late Founding Chairman Manoog S. Young. Young’s parents, Soghomon (Malyemezian) Young and Aghavni (Der Kazarian) Young, are visible in the photo; undoubtedly, they obtained a copy of the photo as a remembrance of the occasion. The copy today remains in its original frame.

Since the frame makes it impossible to do a proper scan of the photograph, we are fortunate that Project SAVE Armenian Photograph Archives also has the photo and has digitized it. A very high quality image can be viewed online as part of the Project SAVE Archives Banquet and Panoramic Photo Collection on Digital Commonwealth.

By clicking on the image one can zoom in and get an up-close look at the audience, many of whom were likely immigrants who, like the parents of Manoog Young, had arrived in America within the past 10-20 years.

Meanwhile, the dignitaries at the head table include Gen. Andranik Ozanian, Garegin Pasdermadjian (Armen Garo), and other members of Armenia’s civil and military missions, and American friends of Armenia such as Alice Stone Blackwell.

The Armenian mission had arrived in the U.S. in early October 1919. A month earlier, on September 8, 1919, Sen. John Sharp Williams of Mississippi introduced S. J. Res 106, “For the Maintenance of Peace in Armenia.” The Williams resolution expressed American sympathy “with the aspirations of the Armenian people for liberty and peace and progress,” and recommended that an independent Armenian Republic should be established, “including the six vilayets of Turkish Armenia and Cilicia, Russian Armenia, and the northern part of the Province of Azerbaijan and Trebizond.”

The resolution authorized the President “to use such military and naval forces of the United States as in his opinion may seem expedient for the maintenance of peace and tranquility in Armenia,” “to suspend the foreign enlistment act to the extent necessary to enable Armenians in the United States to raise money and arm and equip themselves as an armed force to go to the aid of their countrymen,” and allowed for the appropriation of sufficient funds for these purposes. The Williams resolution was referred to a sub-committee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee under the chairmanship of Warren G. Harding of Ohio, and hearings on the bill began on September 27. Members of the Armenian Mission would offer testimony at the hearings.

However, between the introduction of the Williams resolution and the December 14 Boston banquet, prospects for America to become the champion of independent Armenia rapidly went into eclipse.

On October 2, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke and became severely incapacitated; any impetus Wilson might have provided in support of Armenia was therefore removed. On November 2, isolationist Republican Warren G. Harding trounced James M. Cox in the presidential election. On November 19, the Senate repudiated the League of Nations. It was clear that no substantial support from the U.S government for independent Armenia would be forthcoming.

In May 1920, a toothless resolution would be passed that offered “the sincere congratulations of the Senate of the United States … to the people of Armenia on the recognition of the independence of the Republic of Armenia,” and expressed “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,” but took no action towards these ends. (See Marc A. Mamigonian, “Armenia Will Call Upon Us in Vain’: U.S. Relations with the First Republic of Armenia,” Armenian Review Vol. 56, nos. 3-4 [Fall-Winter 2019], from which this account is drawn.)

Nevertheless, the Armenian mission continued their advocacy. Richard Hovannisan describes a “mass rally at the New York Hippodrome on December 7” and “the same excitement prevailed a week later in Boston where, after requiem services in Trinity Episcopal Church, nearly 8,000 people marched from the Commons to Mechanics Hall to honor the civil and military missions. This largest gathering in the history of the Armenian-American community accepted resolutions, read by Harvard Professor Albert Bushnell Hart and addressed to President Wilson, Senator Lodge, and the Foreign Relations Committee, urging recognition of the Armenian government and enactment of the supportive measures proposed by Senator Williams” (The Republic of Armenia, vol. 2, p. 387).

We surmise that the Copley Plaza banquet must have taken place later that day. By our count, 32 men and women are standing behind the head table in the banquet photograph; we have provisionally identified 13 of them.