Armenia & The Armenians

Armenia & The Armenians

THE ADHERENCE OF THE ARMENIANS TO THE ALLIED CAUSE IN WWII

Armenians throughout the world, from Soviet Armenia to France, from Egypt to North and South Americas stood with the democratic powers in their war effort against the Axis powers, to the full extent of their material and physical resources. Soviet Armenia alone gave the Soviet Army 300,000 fighters and 62 Generals, foremost among whom was the hero of the Baltic Front, General Ivan Bagramian.

Armenian divisions bore the brunt of Nazi onslaughts at Sevastopol and Stalingrad, where they sustained fearful losses in stemming the Nazi tide. Armenian decorations of heroism and distinguished service in action achieved a high ranking as compared with other ethnic groups of the Soviet Union.

Moreover, out of the several nationality groups that the Red Army consisted of, besides the Russians, it is on record, that somehow detachments and units of the Armenian divisions were the first to penetrate the defenses and enter Berlin, the capital of the Hitlerite Germany and the den of the hated, murderous Nazi gangs, who in their turn were the sons and grandsons of Kaiser's Germany, which as Turkey's staunch ally in WWI, contributed significantly towards masterminding the Armenian Massacres and it was for this very pertinent and valid reason that the infamous Adolf Hitler blurted out "who now remembers the extermination of the Armenians...?"

Active service was not confined only to Soviet Armenia. In France 10,000 Armenians fought in the French Army valiantly against the Nazi enemy until the unexpected, tragic capitulation of France.

Approximately 20,000 American Armenians served in the U.S.Army with honors and distinction. Hundreds of them were rewarded with decorations and presidential citations. Whilst the girls on the home front launched bond drives and secured sufficient purchases to buy two Flying Fortresses which flew in their name.

The first American casualty in the landing on German-occupied North Africa was an Armenian army officer by the name of Lt. George S. Koushnarian. The only American who was called a "one many army", the terror of the Japanese, the man who was credited with having killed more Japanese single handed than any other fighter, was an Armenian soldier, Sgt. Victor Maghakian of Fresno. And finally, prior to the dropping of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, the one and only American casually to the research of the atomic bomb was an Armenian man from Hartford, Connecticut, scientist Harry K. Daghlian.

Shortly after the conclusion of WWII on June 22, 1946, the Armenian and Georgian Soviet Republics laid claim to the Turkish-occupied districts of Kars, Ardahan and Artvin, but on May 30, 1953 the Soviet government stated that the Republics had "renounced" these claims and that the U.S.S.R. had no territorial claims on Turkey.